Loading...
LGBTQ Advisory Board Minutes - 4-13-2021 LGBTQ Advisory Committee Committee Chair, Paul Thomas Meeting Minutes Tuesday, April 13, 2021 Attendees: Michael Bath, Cindy Brown, Danny Diaz, Gayle Durham, Craig Garmendia, Edward Kring, Michele Lucisano, Nikolas Montolio, Robin Schwartz, Herb Sosa, Paul Thomas, Sunny Weber, Riki Wilchins, Mark Wylie, Dan Rios (GMCVB), Manny Valdez (MBPD Liaison) Morgan Goldberg (City Liaison), and guest Greg Branch (Black Affairs Advisory Committee). Meeting called to order at 1:05 pm 1. Ongoing Business a) Approval of Minutes from February 9, 2021 and March 9, 2021 • Craig motioned to approve both sets of minutes. Herb seconded. Minutes approved unanimously. b) Two new members of the committee introduced themselves: Michele Lucisano and Nikolas Montolio. c) MBPD updates • There were no incidents during Spring Break that were LGBTQ-related. • Paul shared an incident about a security guard threating to shoot his dog and Manny advised him to fill out a police report. • Michael asked if Manny thought a curfew would be imposed during Spring Break next year. Manny said the curfew was necessary this year because things were too out-of-hand. He can’t predict for next year. The after-report hasn’t come out. Once talks about next year begin, Manny will try to be involved. MBPD is already planning for Memorial Day. They are implementing traffic loop and hope to do it for Spring Break next year. Spring Break is preventing other events from coming into town. • There is a hotline for LGBTQ or minority crimes. Manny doesn’t know where it goes because the transition process from Juan Sanchez to him is still ongoing. Manny will report back next meeting. • The goodwill ambassadors will likely by monitoring the streets again during Memorial Day. • The question was asked about what training tools around stopping LGBTQ violence are available to police officers, such as do they undergo sensitivity training and with what frequency. Training hasn’t happened in a while, but the Hate Summit is coming up in July. The last training was at the Performing Arts Center five years ago. Each new class gets sensitivity training post-academy. There hasn’t been regular training because of COVID, and there is no recurring training. Committee Members Cindy Brown Craig Garmendia Daniel Diaz Edward Kring Gayle Durham Herb Sosa Mark Wylie Michael Bath Michele Lucisano Nikolas Montolio Riki Wilchins Robin Schwartz Sunny Weber d) GMCVB updates/Marketing updates • The GMCVB conducted “Miami Begins with Me” diversity training before the pandemic. 150 people from hospitality industry participated. The training went online last April. It may be rolled out to city employees soon. • The GMCVB Completed the first “Greater Miami through an LGBTQ Lens” webinar: “Miami Escape Outdoors. In June the webinar will be “Queer Art and Culture in Miami.” • GMCVB is working with Q Digital and Towleroad. • A priority for March 2021 social media was to engage audiences and promote partners. The Betsy was highlighted and stories on pride of gay black men were featured. They also highlighted the Palace in their 33rd year. Impressions were up 80+%. • They are promoting Outshine in April and are happy to welcome back Sweet Heat Miami May 12-17. • They are doing a giveaway to the South Beach Wine and Food Festival drag bunch on May 23rd at the North Beach Bandshell. • GMCVB’s calendar of events is at visitmiamilgbtq.com. 2. New Business a) Gregory Branch, Vice Chair of the City’s new Black Affairs Advisory Committee was the Committee’s special guest at the meeting to discuss ways our two committees can work together. The following was discussed: • Tensions have risen since pre-COVID. Residents are resorting to extreme methods. Important that we give our fellow residents perspective and encourage them to speak with their better angels on their shoulders. We should collectively mitigate against behaviors that we all feel are unacceptable. • Paul pointed out that many leaders of the LGBTQ community and of LGBTQ organizations are a part of this committee. Greg can call on them for support and perspective. • Greg’s number is 347.738.2089 • The unique thing we’re battling now: we have Facebook and social media. By the time they get to Greg they’ve heard the same thing so many times and now accept it as fact. • Greg is running for commissioner. • How do we start working together? We will do some mutual listening. The Black Affairs committee was just recently formed and are in the process of getting their priorities together. As they do so, we will find mutual interests that we should work on together. • The Black Affairs Committee meetings are held the third Tuesday of every month at 10 am. Time is reserved for public comment at the end. • Committees need to put themselves forward to inform our fellow residents to overcome the dissemination of incorrect information. b) Discuss Public Committee Notice and ideas of how to increase community awareness. • Paul was contacted by someone who was attacked on the street. He just got approved for the City’s Planning Board but was unaware there is an LGBTQ Advisory Committee. • Morgan called the Communications Department to find out how committees get put on the list for the big public notice – not all committees are listed. If we create a flyer for our committee, they are willing to add it to their website and Facebook page. The Communications Department would create the flyer, but they need direction on text and graphic imagery. • The Marketing subcommittee wants to find a way to make it easy for the Communications Department to make the public notices. Right now, if you don’t hunt for it, you’ll never see it. The only notices posted on Facebook are for committee meetings that are aired on MBTV and on Facebook Live. The big four are listed. The City has so many committees that they can’t post everything. • Paul said the reason for getting the meetings posted is to make the public aware that our committee exists. • Morgan can add more info to the committee web page. • Michele said he sees a lot of activities on Next Door platform but doesn’t know if there are restrictions on who can use it. • Morgan will send everyone the link to Resident Connect so that we can sign up and select only the things that we want to know about. • There has been no discussion yet about City committees meeting in person, but when we do it may be a great opportunity to reboot. c) Discuss Resident Connect and notification of City meetings/items: See above. 3. Subcommittees Reports and Next Actions 1) HRC Rating (Cindy, Paul, Eddie) a. Cindy asked Morgan to distribute the 2021 requirements. Cindy, Eddie and Paul need to meet. They need to give two weeks notice. 2) LGBTQ Visibility/Marketing/ Tourism (Eddie, Gayle, Mark, Sunny, Danny, Herb, Michael, Michele) a. The commission voted to make Marriage Equality Day June 26. We want to build on this. b. The Neighborhood and Quality of Life Committee on April 28 will discuss the outdoor photo backdrop. It would be harmful to the wedding industry for the City to create or designate a specific place for weddings. c. The subcommittee discussed how to bring more gay events, such as Wigstock, to Miami Beach. d. The subcommittee discussed holding an event for the black community. It was suggested that we not hold an event that is exclusive but instead use programming to draw a specific segment, such as a highlighted speaker or performer. Mark pointed out that there is much racism in the gay community. 3) Health and Wellness (Craig, Riki, Paul): No report. 4) Advocacy (Paul, Robin, Sunny, Eddie, Cindy): No report. Meeting adjourned at approximately 2:30 p.m.