We sprinkle hope like pixie dust on a unicorn. Scatter a few grains of hope across a big pile of worries and just like that — or so we think — magical things happen. Nah. Doesn’t work that way.
Hope isn’t a wish. It’s an aspirational verb that requires action. As my Grandma Pansy was wont to say: “If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.” If I hope to ride, I’m going to have to rustle up a horse and get aboard.
Hope means we work tirelessly to make things better in everyday lives, to question injustices and to right wrongs, all with a perseverance that grows not weary when success is elusive. There is no hope without action. Heavy load, huh? Tempting to toss it all out and stick to wishing the world weren’t such a mess.
Which leads me to the top of my Key West Hope list. I hope our One Human Family relearns the power of being a community that welcomes all. Because if we don’t we risk becoming little more than a grittier version of Disney World for entitled visitors and disconnected sometime residents.
For almost 10 years we’ve paid little more than lip service to the wildly wonderful Key West Mystique that was grounded in the One Human Family philosophy and woven together by collaborations among straight and gay communities, businesses, politicians and nonprofits. We were legendary for our inclusiveness and our willingness to accept and enjoy all those who came to us — assuming one was not a jerk, of course.
We flew our rainbow flags proudly and we slapped “Everyone Welcome Here” stickers on our windows. Not so much these days. But I have hope that Key West can rebuild our One Human Family.
On Oct. 17, 2000, the Key West City Commission adopted “One Human Family” as its philosophy. In the 1990s Key West activist JT Thompson created the motto and began distributing the now-ubiquitous black-and-white stickers. He persuaded the city to adopt OHF, and in its resolution commissioners unanimously urged Key West to put aside “the artificial limitations of racism, nationalism, sexism, classism, monotheism, prejudice, homophobia and every other illusion used to separate us from all being equal.”
Three years later, on June 15, 2003, tens of thousands gathered for the unfurling of the Rainbow25 Sea-to-Sea Flag, which stretched 1.25 miles from Lower Duval to the Atlantic Ocean. Thanks to Gregg McGrady, Heather Carruthers and a host of like-minded friends who pulled together the iconic event. For almost two decades the One Human Family philosophy and the symbolism of the Sea-to-Sea Flag were part of Key West’s mystique.
We proudly claimed that welcoming inclusiveness. Come as you are — and don’t be a jerk.
Key West Hope | Losing our One Human Family
Somewhere around 2016 we could feel a shift. There were more visiting, entitled jerks. There was less tolerance, more polarizing discourse. The rainbow flags and One Human Family stickers were tattered and defaced. Businesses stopped promoting their solidarity and turned, instead, toward a conventional messaging designed, perhaps, to avoid riling the folks who hated the OHF-LGBTQ communities and who preferred a blander, sanitized version of Key West.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took his own swipe when he ordered VisitFlorida, the state’s marketing arm, to erase all mention of LGBTQ from its websites and advertising. Just like that, decades of inclusive marketing wiped away.
During a slow point in the 2016 Key West Veterans Day parade, an Alabama-born friend recounted this: “First time something like this happened to me here in Key West,” he said. “Biking down Duval yesterday when this bunch of 60-ish guys — big, fat, good ol’ boys, tourists — started hollering ‘well, finally we can start to get rid of all these faggots like that guy’.”
My friend kept on pedaling, refraining — this time, he said — from his customary retort: “Yeah, well, it’s an armed faggot.”
“Hell,” he said. “It’s not like it’s the first time I’ve heard that. And, that ‘armed faggot’ thing usually settles ’em down. But this isn’t good.”
It wasn’t. It’s gotten worse. So what does hope do?
Dust off the rainbow flags. At home and at work. Put those One Human Family stickers in the windows. Be the person who says “That’s not how we do it here” when the jerks are feeling empowered. Donate to Queer Keys. Tell Karen Franker at the Tourist Development Council that One Human Family needs their marketing prowess. Encourage the new Key West City Commission to re-up on the One Human Family resolution.
Support the Key West Business Guild, which says on its website: “Back when gay life existed in a parallel universe separate from jobs, birth families and a harshly intolerant mainstream the LGBT community opted to vacation in out-of-the-way destinations. And Key West was one of the few truly accepting, come-as-you-are places where LGBT visitors could express their creativity, their freedom, their love. Key West has ignored stereotypes and refused to see boundaries for centuries.”
Thank Big Cheezees Pub and Grub on Southard Street for its social media post, which starts with “Bigotry is not welcome here. You are seen. You are valued. You are wanted. You are supported. You are loved. There is no room for hate! One Human Family all the way!”
Anyone who has known me more than a week knows I am a high-hope kinda girl, so let me be clear about this: Hope is not tilting at windmills. Hope is not denial or unfounded optimism. It certainly is not “false hope” because hope doesn’t require certainty or assurance of success. Hope can be refocused as circumstances warrant.
We can do this. Hope. Not wish.
Learn more
Key West Sea-to-Sea Rainbow Flag
Watch Gov. Ron DeSantis dodge and weave when asked about removing LGBTQ from VisitFlorida website
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