Celebrating a Legacy of Greatness Under the Sun
By John Hayden
He will be missed by everyone under the sun. Richard Gray has spent the last 30+ years preaching the gospel of inclusion and telling the world that Greater Fort Lauderdale is the pot of gold at the end of the LGBTQIA+ rainbow.
Now Visit Lauderdale’s Senior Vice President of Inclusion & Accessibility is retiring. Gray will be taking a three month break and will then start a Consulting Company specializing in Inclusion & Accessibility.
“I still have plenty of strategies that I want implemented. I want to continue to implement global change and influence global standards for serving disadvantaged and marginalized communities,” said Gray.
“It’s been a tough decision and I’ve been thinking about it for a few years. I feel the time is right,” he said during an exclusive interview.
Gray has spent his career with Visit Lauderdale, Broward County’s tourism arm, creating diversity programs and luring tourists, especially LGBTQIA+ tourists, to Fort Lauderdale.
In short: if someone has decided to visit Fort Lauderdale in the past 30 years, Gray likely had a role in bringing them here.
His first LGBTQIA+ campaign came in 1995 with a $35,000 budget. Even back then, that wasn’t a lot of money to do an intensive project. But Gray made it work despite being in the era of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and the so-called Defense of Marriage Act. Saying ‘Gay’ still wasn’t easy.
“It was a question of not having the courage or the confidence to say the word ‘Gay.’ We had to start off with baby steps so we said ‘rainbow.’ We were one of the first destinations in the United States to even go close to launching a gay campaign,” he said.
The campaign was called Immerse Yourself, a reference to our miles of coastline and inland waterways. But Gray based it on a gay icon of that time, Greg Louganis. The Olympic swimming champion trained at the aquatics center.
“The image we used was a man diving into this big, bubbly swimming pool. I loved it and immediately thought of Greg,” he said.
Eventually Gray told Louganis that he served as inspiration for the campaign that began highlighting the best Broward County has to offer.
The team realized they had become thought leaders and other cities started slowly dipping a toe into the LGBTQIA+ tourism arena.
“At the end of five years we found gold right at the end of the rainbow,” Gray said.
Thirty Years Later
Fast forward to today and Gray’s team is pushing more envelopes than a stationery store. In 2022 Visit Lauderdale launched the Everyone Under the Sun campaign. When they say “everyone,” they mean everyone. Yes, it is LGBTQIA+ inclusive, but there is so much more. It features Black and brown people, a disabled person, and more.
In fact, one-in-four Americans have a visible or invisible disability. Gray says they are welcome here. “We put Broward County in a great place, highlighting inclusion,” Gray said with a bit of an extra smile crossing his face. “We have always been a welcoming destination. I’m proud of that.”
Gray is also a champion of the most maligned member of the LGBTQIA+ acronym: our trans brothers and sisters. Broward County was the first destination in the world to do a marketing survey of what trans tourists would look for in a vacation. The subsequent campaign was titled Where Happy Meets Go Lucky.
The biggest concern of trans travelers was safety. Gray reminds us that we live in a “bubble” of acceptance and inclusion in Broward County. While we are in Florida, we’re not the Florida the state government in Tallahassee shows to the world.
Visit Florida, the state’s tourism website with no connection to Visit Lauderdale, recently removed the landing page for LGBTQIA+ businesses, saying the state’s website should conform to the state’s policies. Those policies include erasing and bullying LGBTQIA+. Book bans, healthcare restrictions on trans, attacking drag entertainment, and Don’t Say Gay are policies passed under Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Gray says that’s not happening here. “We’re firm believers that travel transcends politics. We are continuing to market to the LGBTQ+ community and allies. We’re continuing to welcome everybody. For us it’s business as normal,” he said.
Visit Lauderdale’s work with the trans community was recognized by the United Nations. Indeed, Gray’s mantle is getting crowded with accolades. He won a Suncoast Regional Emmy® Awards (2018) for the Greater Together Video campaign.¹
ITB Berlin gave him their LGBTQ+ Pioneer Award, Travelbility recognized him as an Access Hero, and he was named to Out100’s list of most influential leaders.
Out of the Box, Into the Parade
Gray says it’s his boss, Stacy Ritter, who challenges her team to always think outside the box. Gray excels at this because he was never in a box to begin with. “We’re savvy, we’re edgy, we push the envelope,” said Gray.
One campaign used black and white images.
“Celebrate You was one of my favorite campaigns. It was very unusual because we used black and white images. I wanted to include trans, non-binary, plus-sized, lesbian, latino, white,” he said.
This year Visit Lauderdale has been working with the Provincetown Business Guild to cross-promote LGBTQIA+ business. It’s an obvious opportunity for synergy and more than one million people have been reached and it’s been a huge success on social media.
On New Year’s Day, Visit Lauderdale made its biggest statement yet, entering a float in the Rose Parade. They commissioned an original song and got several minutes of sunny coverage from Southern California. “I said, ‘I love it, let’s do it,’” he said.
The float featured the beach’s iconic wave wall, the Guitar Hotel, and the Florida Panthers. The best of Broward’s people were on board, including a member of the Seminole Tribe and Broward’s teacher of the year.
All the work is paying off. In 2023, 3.375 million LGBTQIA+ visited Broward County and spent $1.3 billion. Their work is primarily funded through tourist taxes and the bottom line proves the effort is paying off.
Gray believes his worldly outlook is helped because he came to Florida with a different perspective. “I’m English. I think internationally. For 33 years I’ve been a piece of the pie. It makes me feel good that we’ve evolved that way,” he said.
He evolved because LGBTQIA+ tourists have evolved. “In the early days it was very easy,” said Gray. “You stuck up a rainbow flag, ran an ad and you got business. LGBTQ+ travelers are more savvy now.”
Now you don’t have to choose between being in the “gay” area or the beach. Just about all hospitality businesses in Broward welcomes the community.
Active Retirement
Gray’s official last day is January 3, 2025, and his first plan is to have no plan. “The plan is just to take it easy for a while, not having my email inbox full. Take better care of myself, enjoy my family in Britain,” he said.
He’s traveled all over the world – almost. There is still one spot he wants to hit: Antarctica. The world’s largest desert is not easy to reach and getting there is a trip in itself.
Also, he’ll still pick up when Ritter and his Visit Lauderdale colleagues call. “I’ve got lots of ideas. I’m here still,” he said. “I believe we’re here to make a difference. Even in retirement I want to make a difference. Travel is in my blood.”
As for his legacy, he hopes that since he blazed the trail many others will follow. “I would like to be remembered as someone who pushed boundaries and created paths for others to follow,” he said. “It’s all about the rainbows.”
¹www.visitlauderdale.com/partners/awards-recognitions, referenced 11/13/24
