Mayor Joe Boles Greets Gay Pride Day at St. Augustine Ampitheatre
CHAD SMITH
chad.smith@staugustine.com
Publication Date: 09/27/09
Wearing T-shirts each with a letter to spell out HEROES, six people at the front of the St. Augustine Amphitheater stage held black-and-white photographs of six gays or lesbians killed because they were just that.
Scott Hall, the president and founder of the Fort Lauderdale-based Gay American Heroes Foundation and a guest speaker at Saturday's Ancient City Pride Festival, held a picture of Harvey Milk.
Milk, a San Francisco city councilman and the first openly gay politician in the country, was assassinated in 1978 by a fellow councilman.
Hall, who is straight, said he started the organization in 2007 after Ryan Skipper, a 25-year-old Polk County man, was killed by two men he had picked up.
Skipper was stabbed repeatedly and his throat had been slit.
"That inspired me," said Hall, who has put together a traveling memorial to members of the gay community who have been killed because of who they are.
While hatred toward racial minorities has greatly subsided in the past several decades, Hall said, the hatred toward sexual minorities has not.
Lanny Ballard, the president of Ancient City Pride, said the festival, which was held for the second consecutive year at the St. Augustine Amphitheater, serves not only as a source of pride but also of education.
Last year, many of the speakers spoke out against the proposed amendment that would ban gay marriage or civil unions in Florida. It ultimately passed.
While violence was a theme at this year's event, which was attended by a few hundred people, Ballard said gay adoption in Florida, which isn't allowed, will be the "big issue" in years to come.
"We're certainly trying to educate our community to the issues that affect our specific community," Ballard said.
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