JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – For the first time in Jacksonville’s history, the city is officially recognizing Pride Month.
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Mayor Donna Deegan made the proclamation Friday morning at a packed city hall event.
The mayor also announced the formation of a new LGBTQ-plus advisory board for city government.
“We can’t be the city that we want to be unless everybody feels like they belong unless everybody feels seen,” Deegan said. “This is so important to me. We have a vibrant community here made up of so much diversity. And the LGBTQ-plus community is a part of that and we want to embrace them we want them to know they’re loved and seen, and that they don’t need to live in fear. And I think that’s the legacy that we want to have here in the City of Jacksonville. We want to be that welcoming city that says to everybody, you belong here.”
During the event, a wide range of people spoke about their roles in Jacksonville’s history, from the early Pride events in the ’70s, the onset of AIDS in the ’80s. the end of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell in the military and gay marriage, to programs today for the entire LGBTQ+ plus community.