Rainbow strobe lights could be seen waving and twirling in the darkness along Seven Mile Beach on Saturday evening, 15 July, during a walk for LGBTQ+ equality and acceptance.
Close to 100 people took part in the 3-kilometre Pride Rainbow Walk from Public Beach – where colourful flags fluttered as a DJ played upbeat music – to The Ritz-Carlton and back.
Governor Jane Owen, who participated in the walk, spoke to the Compass before setting off just as the sun set.
“I’m really pleased to be here,” she said. “It’s lovely to see Cayman supporting love and friendship and togetherness in all its forms.”
She said during the walk she was looking forward to meeting “some more of the voices and the people that make up our community in these wonderful islands”.
Participants paid $25 to join the walk and were given a Cayman LGBTQ Foundation T-shirt and strobe light. All proceeds will go to the foundation’s ‘Back to School’ supply drive.
Foundation founder Noel Cayasso-Smith told the Compass: “This event is basically being proud of who you are, being able to express yourself in our community without fear.
“And also, we’re giving back to the community. All money raised from this event will be going to help families in need for school uniforms and school supplies.”
He said the Cayman LGBTQ Foundation, a community organisation set up to promote LGBTQ equality, offers support to all people in the Cayman Islands regardless of sexuality.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re gay, straight, bisexual, black, blue, red or green. If you need help, come and see us,” he said.
“I don’t care what you’re about, who you are, what your sexual preferences is; we are here to help everyone.”
Cayasso-Smith said he is proud of how far the organisation and LGBTQ acceptance have come in the past few years.
“I started pushing the barriers back in 2008 with the first drag event at The Living Room at The Strand, and then we kept going and going,” he said.
“And then civil partnership came in and we thought to ourselves, okay, now’s the time to have a Pride parade.”
The third annual Cayman Pride parade will take place at 4pm on 5 Aug. It will start at Public Beach and head to the Bevvy bar, in the former Margaritaville, on West Bay Road.
It is free to take part and participants are encouraged to make their own colourful outfits but to not wear overly revealing clothes.
“I’m really pleased with the way the community [are] accepting us,” Cayasso-Smith said.
“We still have a long way to go, but at this point, I am pleased and quite happy to where we are. We’re looking forward to progressing even further in the next few years.”
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