Take a Sneak Peak at Our Pride Guide 2012 and discover the fun that is waiting for your in Gay Key West! We’ve got events, shops, restaurants, bars, water excursions, sponsors, and more. Check us out. Then make your reservations, today! KW Pride 2012 Guide FINAL
PRIDE STREET FAIR VENDORS. If you’d like to participate in the Pride Fair as a vendor, download the application for the KW Pride Street Fair 2012. We’re looking for vendors who want to show their Pride as well as their art, jewelry, merchandise, and delicious treats! Our Street Fair will be held in the 700 and 800 blocks of the world-famous Duval Street from 10am to 8pm on Saturday, June 9th 2012. We’ll liven up the day with great music from DJ Nick Hatziantonio, Bradford Lane, Jay Ferguson, Edward Lucas. Special Guest DJs include DJ.Richie Rich Torrez (Ft Lauderdale’s Boom), and DJ Tom Bertorelli (NYC). The 700 and 800 blocks of Duval are also home to some of our favorite bars, shops, and restaurants so the day promises to be filled with fun and festivities. For more information about becoming a vendor, contact events@gaykeywestfl.com.
LESLIE JORDAN FEATURED AT KEY WEST PRIDE 2012. Emmy Award Winning Leslie Jordan won our gay hearts years ago on TV’s popular “Will & Grace” now he invites you to find out why his momma has his heart in his new one-man show Fruit Fly, presented by The Waterfront Playhouse on Friday, June 8th and Saturday June 9th.
The LA Times had this to say: Leslie Jordan clearly adores his mama. In a new one-man gab-fest he calls “Fruit Fly,” the saucy actor-raconteur recalls accompanying her to the beauty shop, where he would absorb the banter and, back home, make her laugh with impersonations of the ladies — a boyhood activity he much preferred to ball-playing.
His mother, he surmises, sensed right away that he would face some extra challenges while growing up in Chattanooga, Tenn. Quite young, he developed a flair for accessorizing with red cowboy boots, and his reading tastes ran to Trixie Belden and Nancy Drew, not “those rambunctious Hardy Boys.” Mom began circling the wagons so that he’d have a safe place to become the person he was meant to be.
The world now knows that person as the actor who portrayed the Tammy Wynette-channeling Brother Boy in Del Shores’ “Sordid Lives,” the sexually ambiguous Beverley Leslie on “Will & Grace” and the harried, muttering newspaper boss in “The Help.” He’s a stitch, forever innocent and boy-like at just shy of 5 feet, yet with a penchant for blue-flamed chatter that scandalizes polite society even as it triggers shrieks of laughter.
Tickets are available for Fruit Fly with Leslie Jordan at www.waterfrontplayhouse.org. The Waterfront Playhouse is located at 310 Wall Street, near Mallory Square. Limited Parking available through the Mallory Square Pay Lot or City Meters.
KWHS GAY STRAIGHT ALLIANCE SPONSORS FAG BUG. The Key West High School Gay Straight Alliance is bringing Erin Davies and her Fag Bug to Key West. Not only will Ms. Davies be the Grand Marshall of the Key West Pride Parade on Sunday, June 10th, but she will be the keynote speaker at the Key West Business Guild Luncheon held in conjunction with the beginning of Key West Pride on Wednesday, June 6th.
Her story, which can be found at www.fagbug.com, reminds us all that it is not our circumstances but our choices that define us.
Erin Davies was victim to a hate crime. Because of sporting a rainbow sticker on her VW Beetle, Erin’s car was vandalized, left with the words “fag” and “u r gay” placed on the driver’s side window and hood of her car. Despite initial shock and embarrassment, Erin decided to embrace what happened by leaving the graffiti on her car. She took her car, now known worldwide as the “fagbug,” on a 58-day trip around the United States and Canada. Along the way, Erin discovered other, more serious hate crimes, had people attempt to remove the graffiti, and experimented with having a male drive her car. After driving the fagbug for one year, Erin decided to give her car a makeover.
Look for Ms. Davies and her Fag Bug throughout the events of Key West Pride 2012. Tickets to the luncheon are available at www.kwbgonline.org. See the Fag Bug documentary on Wednesday, June 6th at 8pm. Q&A with Erin to follow. To see a short trailer, CLICK HERE.
AWARD WINNERS OF KEY WEST PRIDE PARADE 2011. The Key West Pride Parade 2011 was an exuberant collection of service organizations, bars, political leaders, and community members. And the Key West Pride parade winners are … MOST CREATIVE Island Gym, BEST FLOAT Bourbon St Pub, BEST PRIDE Fast Buck Freddie’s, BEST WALKING Island Gym, BEST THEME Metropolitan Community Church, and BECAUSE WE LIKED THEIR GOODIES Doubletree (Cookies). Congrats! To see more pictures from 2011, go to Facebook. http://www.facebook.com/keywestpride
A must see at Key West Pride are the annual Mr. Ms. and Miss Pride Pageants. These very adult competitions can leave little to the imagination as contestants heat-up the runway in an effort to earn the Pride titles. Miss Pride (men dressed as women) is held at 801 on Wednesday June 6th, Ms Pride (don’t tell the lesbians it’s a pageant) is held at Aqua on Thursday June 7th, and Mr Pride (men barely dressed) is held at Bourbon on Friday night, June 8th.
Pictured here are the winners of the 2011 pageants. Thank you to the venues who hosted our pageants and the participants who made the pageants so much fun! 801 crowned DeJa Key West as Miss Key West Pride 2011. Aqua crowned Dina DiTomasso as Ms Key West Pride 2011, and Bourbon crowned Mr. Wesley Dwyer as Mr Key West Pride 2011.
To see pictures of these events and more, go to our facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/keywestpride
Be sure to drop by the Gay Key West Visitor Center, located at 513 Truman, to pick up your Pride Scavenger Hunt questionnaire. This ”hunt” will take you into the shops of our Pride Guide advertisers and sponsors, so you can learn more about the businesses that support Key West Pride. Complete the questionnaire and return it to the visitor center and you will be entered into a drawing for great prizes! Drawings daily with grand drawing on Sunday, June 12th, at the Southernmost Beach Party. Winners will be notified by Email. You do not have to be present to win. The contest begins at noon on Wednesday, June 6th and ends at 3pm on Sunday June 10th.
PRIDE REMEMBRANCES: “OK… here’s how I remember it… In 1982, the Guild had planned a Pride march on Duval (not a parade technically, no permit), but the day before the scheduled event, the Guild decided to cancel it feeling that we didn’t have many anti-gay problems here and that maybe a Pride event would stir up more negatives than positives. A number of us in town felt that even if we didn’t need the Pride event here, we should have one if only to be an example to other communities that are not as inclusive as KW. So we made phone calls to friends and showed up the next day anyway. There were maybe only 25-30 or so of us the first year, including me, my Doberman Doe, my business partner Bob Beckwith, his lover John McArthur and their dog Pup… along with some other progressive locals – and we marched with colorful balloons on the sidewalk up Duval Street – to a cheering crowd! The marches in the 80′s were pretty loose and spontaneous until the Key West Pride Alliance took over the event (approx 1990 ? ) and started making it an actual parade. Pridefest was later handed to the Key West Gay & Lesbian Community Center, which operated it for a decade before transferring it to the Key West Business Guild in 2010.
I am so proud of our community for consistently being a leader on LGBT rights & issues for decades now. As America’s most inclusive island with our official “One Human Family” philosophy, we continue to be an inspiration for those who come here and take with them a message of pride, unity, equality and diversity to instill in their home towns.” –JT Thompson, Originator of “One Human Family”
You can get free OHF stickers by visiting OneHumanFamily.info or the Gay Key West Visitor Center during Key West Pride at 513 Truman Ave.
KEY WEST PRIDE VISITOR CENTER. Make this your first stop when you hit the island. Pride Guides, T-Shirts, One Human Family bracelets and stickers, sponsor information, and more! We’d love to help you find your way around the island with our Gay Key West Map & Brochure. Buy your tickets for the comedy show, trolley, and more. You can also enjoy the Tennessee Williams in Key West exhibit, which honors the Pulitzer Prize winning playwright who called Key West his home for 40 years. Drop by the Key West Pride Visitor Center, located at the Key West Business Guild’s Gay Key West Visitor’s Center, 513 Truman Avenue. Open Daily from 9-5am.
PRIDE PARADE. Show your Key West Pride at our Pride Parade on Sunday, June 12th. It’s the perfect ending to a week filled with fun and festivities. Line Duval Street with your flags or grab friends and enter the parade! Our Grand Marshalls, bars, churches, civic organizations, and local businesses join with visitors and locals to strut their Key West Pride. Key West Pride Parade proudly sponsored by Stoli Vodka.
Want to enter the parade? You can join Dykes on Bikes, help carry the Pride flag, create a float, grab some friends and show your colors! For more information, just email us at info@gaykeywestfl.com. OR DOWNLOAD APPLICATION: Pride Parade Application 2011
Check out this video from our friends at Conch TV of the 2010 Pride Parade http://www.conchtv.com/key-west/pridefest-key-west
