city manager<\/a>, I\u2019m thrilled to represent and be embraced by our community and share the joy and unity we have in living here.\u201d<\/p>\nFort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis has never been asked to serve as the parade\u2019s grand marshal, but said he was happy for Williams.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m proud of our city manager being recognized by the Stonewall Pride Committee for her civic work in our community,\u201d Trantalis said. \u201cShe\u2019s the first woman of color to serve in that role, an important milestone in our city\u2019s history.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williams is married to a man and has two children.<\/p>\n
To some, it was puzzling she would be chosen as a ceremonial leader of the parade.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy would you pick a non-gay city manager from another city?\u201d said John Fiore, the first openly gay mayor of Wilton Manors. \u201cPeople will probably raise eyebrows about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The news, announced on Thursday, is already making waves with some in the LGBTQ community, according to Fort Lauderdale Commissioner Steve Glassman.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been hearing from a lot of people who are quite surprised at that selection and wondering why,\u201d Glassman said. \u201cIt\u2019s an unusual choice. Typically city managers would defer to their commission to perhaps take that role in a parade. I would say a lot of people are scratching their heads over this one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jeff Sterling, CEO of Stonewall Pride Inc., could not be reached for comment.<\/p>\n
Williams will serve as grand marshal along with drag queen TP Lords; Kal Gajraj, senior vice president and chief marketing officer of CAN Community Health; Tatiana Williams, co-founder and executive director of Transinclusive Group; and Dan Bassett, artistic director of the South Florida Pride Concert Band.<\/p>\n
The June 20 parade begins at 8 p.m.<\/p>\n
Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com. Follow me on X @Susannah_Bryan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A surprise honoree will be on the court of grand marshals at this year\u2019s Wilton Manors Stonewall Pride…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[506,28,249,251,250,114,266,109],"class_list":["post-299146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-broward-county","tag-florida","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-social"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}