Fort Lauderdale residents Nico and Junior Acosta have been a couple for 22 years -- they have also witnessed an evolving and more LGBTQ-accepting Fort Lauderdale grow over their years together.
It鈥檚 a beautiful thing, they said along the Fort Lauderdale Beach during the last day of an annual celebration of the LGBTQ community.
While the 4-day Pride-themed 鈥淐arnaval鈥� honored the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall Riots pivotal to the gay rights movement, it also included the city鈥檚 first-ever LGBTQ pride parade along the beach.
鈥淧eople are still opening up to LGBT rights,鈥� Junior Acosta said when asked why it鈥檚 taken so long for Fort Lauderdale to actually host this parade on State Road A1A.
Nico Acosta talked about a growing LGBTQ community in Fort Lauderdale.
鈥淲e attract a lot of that community, and so being out here on A1A shows that we鈥檙e standing strong, and we鈥檙e standing together,鈥� he said.
Right after the 2015 Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage, Nico and Junior joined 100 other chosen couples in a
鈥淎ll denominations were there, marrying us together at the same time. Catholic, Baptist, Jewish, Protestant, it was really beautiful.鈥�
Festival speakers included Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, an eyewitness to the pivotal Stonewall Riots in 1969, and choreographer Todrick Hall, who also judges 鈥淩uPaul鈥檚 Drag Race.鈥�
Sunday's celebration was marred with . Authorities are still investigating the incident.
Celebrating all the South Florida love at - reports Pride Fort Lauderdale wraps up 鈥淐arnaval鈥� - these last 4 days included the first-ever gay pride parade in city history along Fort Lauderdale Beach on Saturday
— Lily Oppenheimer (@LilyOppenheimer)
