A guide to gay Pride in Fort Lauderdale (and other LGBT events in South Florida)

There will be a few firsts this year for Pride Fort Lauderdale.

• The festival celebrating the LGBTQ+ communities in South Florida will be the first organization to have a beach-side parade on State Road A1A.

• And one of the new events on the Feb. 21-24 schedule will be a drag brunch produced in partnership with the South Beach Wine and Food Festival (SoBeWFF), hosted by syndicated radio personality Elvis Duran and his fiance, Alex Carr.

• There will also be a runway fashion show featuring looks from Lifetime TV’s “Project Runway” designers and emceed by Carson Kressley and Naomi Smalls, both currently appearing on VH1’s “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”

“I mean, what can be better than a big drag show?” asks Lee Schrager, the founder of SoBeWFF, which takes place Feb. 20-24. “We have 15 restaurants serving brunch and I think 12 to 15 drag queens will be paired with the restaurants and performing during the brunch. As Gianni Versace said, ‘The only thing better than good drag is bad drag.’ But this drag brunch will be the best of them all.”

As for the parade, Pride South Florida’s president Miik Martorell says he was surprised to learn this will be the first parade sanctioned by the city to take place on Fort Lauderdale beach.

“There’s never been a parade of any kind that we can find in the history of Fort Lauderdale beach,” he says. “And it’s going to be a gay parade. How do you like that? It’s beautiful, I think, that it coincides with the 50 year anniversary of Stonewall [the June 28, 1969, riots in New York City that sparked the modern gay rights movement]. It’s history making. And one of our grand marshals is our history-making mayor, Dean Trantalis, the first out gay mayor. And Major Griffin-Gracy will also serve as one of grand marshals. If you don’t know her story, she was at Stonewall. She was beaten. Her jaw was broken while she was in jail. She was in Attica [Correctional Facility]. She is a transgender woman of color and there’s a documentary about her [“Major!”]. It is such an honor and blessing to have her with us 50 years after Stonewall.”

Kressley — who rose to reality TV fame on the original men-makeover show “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” and now appears on “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and “Get A Room with Carson and Thom” — says he is most excited to see the catwalk looks from another reality TV show.

Admission prices and how to get tickets

— Events such as the Pride Parade on Fort Lauderdale beach and the Pride on the Drive event in Wilton Manors are free and open to the public.

— Free though there is a request for a $5 donation at the gate for B3: Bear Beach Bash, the Pride Block Party and the Pride Festival.

— Tickets for the Pride Runway Fashion Show are $25, $45 and $65, purchased through Ticketmaster.

— Tickets for the Drag Brunch are $125, purchased at SoBeWFF.org/drag.

Related events

South Florida LGBT Philanthropy Awards at Fort Lauderdale’s Tower Club on Feb. 9 at 6 p.m. Tickets are $60. Call 954-565-1090 or go to Our-Fund.org/awards.

“Jess T. Dugan and Vanessa Fabbre: To Survive on This Shore” photo exhibit of transgender and gender nonconforming older adults will have a free lecture and opening reception Feb. 9 starting at 3 p.m. at Miami’s Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum. The exhibit is up through April. To reserve a spot and for more information, go to Frost.FIU.edu.

The Hotel Gaythering will celebrate its fifth anniversary on Feb. 15 with what they are calling a “MET Gayla Costume Party” starting at 9 p.m. The theme for the red carpet event is “Savage Love.” The event is free and open to the public. Portraits packages will be available for $50 for two and $75 for four. For more information on the hotel, go to Gaythering.com.

The Gay8 festival in Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood on Calle Ocho (between 14th and 17th avenues) is Feb. 17 from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. The festival is free although there are VIP passes for $100. For more information, go to Gay8Festival.com.

The “Prism” is a exhibit of art with LGBTQ+ themes at the Frank C. Ortis Art Gallery and Exhibit Hall (a.k.a the Frank) in Pembroke Pines. There will be a free reception Feb. 22 at 6 p.m. The exhibit is up through May. For more information, call 954-392-2120 or go to TheFrankGallery.org/events.

Actor and activist Kathy Najimy (“Sister Act,” “Hocus Pocus”) will be the guest speaker at the Stonewall National Museum and Archives Gala on Feb. 22 starting at 7 p.m. at the Ritz Carlton Fort Lauderdale. Tickets are $300. To order, go to Stonewall-Museum.org.

“OUTshine’s Big Night Out” Oscar watch party, Feb. 24 starting at 7 p.m. at the Manor in Wilton Manors. Tickets are $150 and includes passed appetizers, open bar and a sit-down dinner. To order, go to OutShineFilm.com. OUTshine is the organization behind an annual LGBT film festival in Fort Lauderdale and Miami.

“Queer Miami: A History of LGBTQ Communities” opens March 16 at HistoryMiami Museum, with a reception March 15 at 6 p.m. Tickets are $10. Admission to the museum is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and students with ID, $5 for children 6-12 years-old. and free for museum members and children under the age of 6. The exhibit is up through Sept. 1. For more information, call 305-375-1492 or go to HistoryMiami.org.

The Mr. and Miss Pride South Florida 2019 pageant will be March 18 at the Aventura Arts and Cultural Center. The event is produced by Latrice Royale of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” fame. The pageant starts at 8 p.m. and tickets cost $20-$30 (use ticket code PRIDE to save $5). To order, call 877-311-7469 or go to AventuraCenter.org.

rhagwood@sunsentinel.com