A ceremony was held Friday in honor of the 49 victims of the Orlando mass shooting last Sunday.
A section of the 1.25-mile long Sea-to-Sea flag was hung from the Orange County Administrative Building in Orlando as a tribute to the victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting, officials said.
The rainbow flag, a symbol of solidarity, flew above.
“That’s what it is about: unity, pride, hope," said project director Mark Ebenhoch, of Sacred Cloth Project.
William Jones and his husband, Aaron Huntsman, from Key West, who won the first court battle to get legally married, attended the Rainbow 25 Sea-to-Sea flag ceremony.
"It’s opening people’s eyes to see that we are just normal people who want the same acceptance as everyone," Jones said.
City Commissioner Patty Sheehan remembers a time when flying the rainbow flags was controversial.
"Now, the fact that this flag is flying on this building and I am with Mayor Jacobs-- it is a sea of change with the Sea-to-Sea flag,” Sheehan said.
"I want it to be a part of our history-- to look where we are today and look how far we have come," said Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs.
Jacobs wants to work with the city to create a memorial for the 49 lives lost.
The original rainbow flag was designed by San Francisco artist Gilbert Baker in 1978 as a symbol of gay and lesbian pride in response to anti-gay activities.
In the spring of 2003, Baker and a team of volunteers cut and sewed a 1.25-mile version of the flag in Key West to celebrate the iconic flag’s 25th anniversary.
On June 15, 2003, about 2,000 volunteers unfurled the flag and stretched it along Duval Street in Key West from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico.
The Sea-to-Sea flag has since become a globally recognized symbol of the LGBTQ movement.
The flag being displayed in Orlando, called section 93, has been displayed around the world.
Cox Media Group
