In 1986, Mort Jonas and Bruce Freeman decided to form a musical group for the gay and lesbian community in south Florida. Jonas had recently returned from a vacation in San Francisco where he had connected with an organization called the Lesbian and Gay Bands of America (LGBA) that was performing at the Gay Games II. Freeman had just moved to Fort Lauderdale from Washington, DC where he had been a founding member oft he DC’s Different Drummers, one of the more-established gay bands in the country.

Together they created the South Florida Gay and Lesbian Band, which appeared publicly for the first time at the annual Health Crisis Network White Party on Thanks-giving weekend in 1986. They accompanied the Gay Men’s Chorus of South Florida on one song. In the beginning there were five members: two clarinets and three alto saxophones. After a sixth member joined, the band went for many months without any new members. It wasn’t easy, but they met every Monday night and continued to prepare simple marches and to perform them at various gay community fund-raisers.

In the early spring of 1987 things began to take off. The band was incorporated as a 501(c)(3), non-profit organization and established the South Florida Musical Guild. Freeman was elected. the first President and the name was changed to the current Flamingo Freedom Band of South Florida. While performing at Sugar’s, one fateful Saturday night, DJ Jim Buonopane was recruited as conductor, arranger, and brass player. He arranged several pieces that remain standards in the band’s repertoire even today.

The band continued to grow as eight members played for a wildly enthusiastic audience at the Southeastern Conference for Lesbians and Gay Men. Eleven members paraded around Holiday Park playing “I Am What I Am” for the 1987 Pride Festival. Thirteen members played for a packed Miami Beach hotel for the national conference of Dignity and seventeen heralded openly gay U.S. Rep. Gerry Studds at an HCN fund-raiser in Coconut Grove. In October of 1987, twelve members traveled to Washington, DC for the March on Washington. Late December saw the band perform in its first non-gay event, the King Mango Strut Parade in Coconut Grove.

Over the years the band has continued growing and has performed across the United States. In Canada the Flamingos participated in the Vancouver Gay Games III. The FFB hosted the LGBA conference, “Showboat ‘89” which culminated in a 150-piece band performing on the sold-out Scandinavian Sun cruise ship. The band marched on Washington again in 1993 and returned to Florida to overpower the Ku Klux Klan’s cries of hate at the Tampa Gay and Lesbian Pride Parade. In 1994, the FFB again joined with LGBA to perform at Gay Games 1V in New York City.

Today, the band averages 50 members and continues to harmonize the community by offering lesbian and gay men the opportunity to communicate through music, perform fund-raisers throughout South Florida, socialize, and express gay pride.