If you happen to be strolling the 800 block of Duval Street on a weekday and want a buzz without the booze, stop by Gay Key West Visitors Center, a sunny-yellow building across the street from the 801 Bourbon Bar, near the rainbow crosswalks. At the top of the stairs on the other side of the rainbow rug, you’ll meet the Key West Business Guild’s event coordinator, the effervescent Fritzie Estimond. It’s a relatively small space, but if you’re unsure, listen for her infectious giggle. That and the metaphorical “One Human Family” heart on her sleeve are hard to miss.
Though fair warning — stay more than just a few minutes and your abs will hurt from laughing and you’ll likely forget where you meant to head next. You’ll also see why KWBG’s executive director Kevin Theriault recruited Estimond to represent them — and it’s not just because she’s a gay black woman, reasons she says make her a great fit for the job.
“Everything it stands for is basically part of my identity,” she says of the agency that warmly welcomes 250,000 LGBTQ visitors to the island annually and points them to their membership’s business offerings.
Before promoting parties and parades, Estimond’s career focused on patrols and paroles as a juvenile corrections officer in her hometown of Fort Lauderdale. Two years into a Key West position transfer in 2010, the realization hit that working with kids in her current capacity no longer called to her. She transitioned from “working with juveniles to working for adult juveniles” as a front desk concierge at Eden House bed and breakfast and later, the Gates Hotel. There she met Theriault just before he jumped ship and later asked her to do the same.
With nearly 500 business members to serve via promotions and newsletters to be made and sent and monthly luncheons and mixers to orchestrate, Estimond has had her work more than cut out for her during the last five years working for the nonprofit Key West Business Guild, which formed in 1978 to promote Key West as a gay-friendly destination. Big on the list are the organization’s annual signature events: Key West Pride, Tropical Heat, the Headdress Ball, and Key West Womenfest — a five-day festival for women underway through Sept. 12 meant to celebrate “all women — lesbian, trans, cis — all of us,” Estimond says.
Check out the full roster of Womenfest happenings at gaykeywestfl.com/womenfest. Thursday, Sept. 8 alone is a full day of back-to-back events: a Beach Bash and Cornhole Tournament at Lagerheads, Women and Words poetry reading and art show at Little Room Jazz Club, a Key West Burlesque Show at Key West Theater, and then a clothing-optional party at Poke in the Rear.
“I would say not to miss any of those things. It’s a little bit of everything and then you can just get naked,” she laughs. “I just want people to embrace all facets of it, whether it’s out on the water or doing something cultural, doing something different. We’re even doing a plogging trash pickup. It doesn’t all have to be parties.”
Estimond dove into her own deep end of different this summer by acting in The Studio of Key West’s “One Night Stand” 24-hour theater project. She expected to be terrified. Instead, she ended up later auditioning for Fringe Theater.
“I’m all about doing things that scare me,” she says. “I make a mental list and ask myself ‘Why? Why does it scare you?’ I think it’s important to know. I think it’s important that we challenge ourselves to face our fears, as hard as it may be.”
Acting, traveling alone on a Virgin Voyages cruise for her birthday, then hanging out nightly with a new group of friends doing karaoke, attending a vocal lab then performing for an audience, jumping out of an airplane — these are the things that help Estimond bust out of her self-protective bubble and let in people she’d most likely not meet otherwise.
“Being around people like Fringe director Rebecca (Tomlinson) who’s got this way of doing this magic she does, helps me lower my guard. I have met so many good people. So many great people. Life just has a way of reminding you of things that you’re capable of.
“F*ck fear. Do the things that make you happy. Wholeheartedly. F*ck it. Because on the other side, it just feels good.”
