Q&A: PRIDE OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Thor Falk '78 launched the Winter Park Pride Project to increase LGBTQ+ visibility and a sense of welcome in his community.

Falk had lived in Winter Park, Florida, just outside Orlando, since college and questioned why the city never acknowledged LGBTQ+ people in the community. In 2020, he started a nonprofit to help the city’s residents and businesses more intentionally express their pride and support for LGBTQ+ community members and visitors while also raising funds for LGBTQ+ youth programs.

Question: What led you to found the Winter Park Pride Project?

Answer: My niece lives outside of Boston in Hingham, Massachusetts, and she sent me an article about a local group that had started a campaign to fly 1,000 Pride flags during Pride month, and they used their leftover funds to buy more inclusive books for their library. Over a weekly coffee with local LGBTQ+ and ally business owners, I brought up the Hingham Pride Project and joked, “I wonder if that would fly here.” I didn’t know how the community would react, but I thought the only way to find out was to try it. I reached out to the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce president, who loved the idea. She presented it to her board, and they decided to back me 100 percent. So I formed a nonprofit, which I had never done before.

Q: What has been the community response?

A: The majority of people in Winter Park embrace this. The businesses embrace it. The people who live here embrace it, and we see a lot of flags flying. But there are some who are devoutly opposed to what our organization is doing, and they periodically show up at city commission meetings to express their point of view.

Q: Have current events changed your approach or priorities for the project?

A: We are not a political organization. There are organizations that do a wonderful job lobbying and fighting for the LGBTQ+ community. We’re about visibility, so we stick with asking people to fly a flag to show that everyone’s welcome in their neighborhood. We stay on the positive side of things; nobody is shamed for not doing it. It’s all about taking positive measures, increasing our visibility and participating in community events.

GIVEN THE WAY OUR SOCIETY WORKS, CERTAIN GROUPS NEED TO FEEL INVITED. THEY CAN’T JUST FEEL TOLERATED; THEY NEED TO FEEL INVITED AND CELEBRATED.

Q: Beyond the flag campaign, what other initiatives has your nonprofit undertaken?

A: We have two initiatives. Each month, a local business sponsors OUT on the Avenues by hosting a happy hour. The business invites their customers to attend, and we invite our network to learn about this business that is open to everyone. The program gives us exposure to their customers, and they learn more about what we do.

Pursue Your Dreams is geared toward LGBTQ+ students and youth, offering financial support to help them achieve something they’d like to pursue. For example, if someone has a dream to become a photographer and needs a camera, it could be used for that. We recently gave two grants to students at Orange

Technical College (OTC), which has a campus in Winter Park. The school trains people for jobs on the frontlines of most industries, many in health care, and most of their students are coming from a place of great need. I think our focus moving forward will be to support more OTC students.

Q: In 2022, the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce named you the Community Organization of the Year and in 2023 you were a Winter Park Magazine “Influential.”

What do these recognitions mean to you?

A: I didn’t do any of this to be recognized, but there were hundreds of people at each awards dinner, giving us a lot of exposure. Ultimately you just want to be ubiquitous, where everybody just accepts that you’re there, and I feel like this recognition moved us in that direction.

Q: What’s been the biggest surprise for you in launching and running the project?

A: When I started the Winter Park Pride Project I was also in the process of selling my house. (I’m a licensed realtor.) I was holding an open house, and a couple came to look at it. They lingered for a long time, and, once there was no one else there, they came up to me and said, “We’re not really looking at your house, but we saw your flag outside and wanted to tell you we just rented the house across the street from you because we knew this was a neighborhood where we could feel safe.” They weren’t LGBTQ+; they were a biracial couple who had not felt safe in other neighborhoods. That was an aha moment. I hadn’t thought about what impact we could have on other groups that are marginalized or that do not necessarily feel welcome without an invitation. Given the way our society works, certain groups need to feel invited. They can’t just feel tolerated; they need to feel invited and celebrated.

Do you know Blake alumni doing interesting work? Let us know at cyrus@blakeschool.org.

Photo credit: Winter Park Magazine Publishing Company