Routing Request
Come Out With Pride is one of Florida’s biggest and best LGBT Pride events. Held in temperate October around downtown Orlando’s beautiful Lake Eola, it is expected to draw more than 50,000 this year. But this year the city presented organizers with an unexpected challenge. The mammoth new Amway Center will open the same day—Sunday, October 10—with an Orlando Magic exhibition game. City officials fear embarrassing traffic problems, and they’ve asked COWP to clear major arteries by early afternoon. So this year the parade will step off on Rosalind Avenue instead of ending there, winding around the south side of Lake Eola and up Summerlin Avenue to Howard Middle School. And it will begin an hour earlier, at 2 p.m. Parade participants will then walk the scenic half-mile or so back to the band shell for speeches and entertainment.
“Who knows,” said resilient COWP chair David Baker-Hargrove. “We may find that we like it better this way.”
Rotating Randolphs?
Gov. Charlie Crist has narrowed his options for replacing suspended Orange County Commissioner Mildred Fernandez, and in the process added even more local intrigue to the upcoming primary election Aug. 24. One of the seven names still in the running is State Rep. Scott Randolph, who represents the uber-gay district that embraces downtown Orlando. If Randolph is selected, his seat would be wide open with just months remaining before the general election. One gay candidate has already thrown his hat in the ring: Republican Greg Reynolds. The most likely Democrat? Many have suggested that Randolph’s saavy wife Susannah would be formidable.
Comfort Cuisine at 4 a.m.
Meanwhile, Scott Randolph is running for re-election to the State House District 36 seat he has held for two terms. At a July 29 fundraiser, supporters got a sneak preview of the much-anticipated Bananas Diner in the heart of Orlando’s gayborhood at 924 N. Mills Ave. The well-attended grand opening was Monday night, Aug. 2. The restaurant, offering comfort food in a chic diner setting, was conceived by Funky Monkey Wine Company visionaries Eddie Nickell and Nicholas Olivieri. It’s open until midnight on weekdays, and from Thursday at 6 a.m. straight through to Sunday at 11 p.m. Make your late night reservations for this weekend now at BananasDiner.com.
