North Miami seeks to build park sculpture dedicated to LGBTQ community
North Miami on Thursday announced it plans to build Miami-Dade County’s first public sculpture dedicated to the LGBTQ community and its accomplishments, according to city Commissioner Scott Galvin.
“The project was inspired by the tragedy at Orlando's PULSE nightclub in June 2016,” Galvin wrote in an email to constituents. “Rather than be a somber memorial to those victims, North Miami's sculpture will be a celebration of LGBTQ lives and an acknowledgment of LGBTQ contributions in Miami-Dade County.”
The sculpture would be placed inside 22-acre Enchanted Forest Elaine Gordon Park at 1725 NE 135 St.
State Rep. Elaine Gordon, a North Miami Democrat, was Florida’s best-known feminist lawmaker of the 1970s and ’80s. Gordon, who died of cancer at 68 in 2000, served in the Legislature from 1972 to 1994 and championed gay causes and the doomed Equal Rights Amendment. Her daughter-in-law is Liebe Gadinsky of Miami Beach, an ally considered one of the nation’s top LGBT activists.
North Miami, along with Miami Dade County’s Cultural Affairs department, has issued a national “Call for Work” to build the sculpture. The project has been budgeted at $30,000, “funded by unallocated dollars from the City Council District 1 budget,” according to the Call for Work order.
Call for Work Enchanted Forest by Scott Galvin on Scribd
This story was originally published September 8, 2016 at 11:05 AM with the headline "North Miami seeks to build park sculpture dedicated to LGBTQ community."