The Day It Snowed In Miami

This is the title of a documentary and is a definitive chronology of the struggle for LBGT rights in Miami Dade County, Florida. I remember the day it snowed in Florida and only slightly remember the ordinance passed that the night before that was to protect the gay community in housing and employment discrimination.  My mind was on going to Atlanta to deliver some a grant application that would continue funding for a public service employment program that we hoped would be expanded under the new Carter Administration.  The reaction to the ordinance was swift.  A petition drive and referendum repealed the law.

Anita Bryant and orange juice were Florida at the time and the Manpower Planning Council where I worked funded a couple of jobs programs that seemed harmless at the time but in retrospect were "projects" that should have been rejected as wtf were they thinking when they submitted this turkey. Promoting gay rights and a pet census in Coral Gables were a little bit ahead of their time.

The documentary is a cooperative effort of the Miami Herald and WPBT, the local public broadcasting outlet and it's a pretty good effort at documenting local history as it fits into the larger picture these days.

Forty three years in Miami is a long time.  There have been lots of important things happen in South Florida and as things go sometimes a little historical perspective helps.

I hope these partnerships continue.