In the News

Written By: Mary Jane Park

Equality Florida to celebrate trailblazers

Written By: Alex Leary

A gay couple from South Florida has been invited to attend the White House Easter Egg Roll with their son, an advocacy group said today.

Written by: Arianna Prothero

The lawsuits challenging Florida’s ban on gay marriage are piling up. But what does it take to win -- especially in the court of public opinion? It takes just the right kind of plaintiffs.

Catherina Pareto and Karla Arguello live with their son in Miami’s Coconut Grove neighborhood on a quiet street-- the kind that turns into an unofficial playground in the evening for the neighborhood kids. The street is lined with quaint houses peaking out from behind lush, Florida vegetation.

Written By: Margie Manning

Executives from Tech Data, Cassidy Turley and Florida Blue are stepping up the fight to include discrimination protection for the LGBT community.

Leon County Commissioner Mary Ann Lindley will be honored Saturday by Equality Florida for her efforts to establish a domestic-partner registry for both straight and gay unmarried couples. She will be presented with the Voice for Equality Award during the Equality Florida Tallahassee Gala, which begins at 7 p.m. at Dorothy B. Oven Park.

Written By: Steve Rothaus

Miami financial planner Catherina Pareto must think outside the box, especially on forms and other legal documents.

Written By: Mitch Perry

A jam-packed crowd of 450 attended Equality Florida's Tampa Gala at the Vault in downtown Tampa on Saturday night, where they were warned by CEO Nadine Smith that despite the enormous progress the LGBT community has enjoyed in Florida and the country in 2013, this is actually a "dangerous moment" for the movement.

Source: Advocate

Written By: Trudy Ring

LGBT ally Sharon Gless has recorded a video in support of marriage equality in Florida, where she has had a home for 20 years.

St. Petersburg – Representatives of Equality Florida’s upcoming Greater St. Petersburg Area Gala have let it slip that their guest speaker will be Edith Windsor this year.

Written By: Steve Blanchard

 

Tampa – If ticket sales continue to go as they have the last few months, Tampa is poised to set records with its fundraising totals at this month’s Equality Florida Gala. The Feb. 22 event, held at The Vault on Franklin St., could easily raise $225,000. But that doesn’t mean organizers wouldn’t appreciate adding more to the coffers.

Source: Fusion

Written by: Amy Stretten and Ingrid Rojas

Now that same-sex marriage is becoming legal in states all across the country, could Florida be next?

Written By: Billy Manes

On Tuesday, Jan. 21, Equality Florida and the National Center for Lesbian Rights announced from a Miami Beach press conference that they would, as had previously been hinted, team up to challenge Florida’s gay marriage ban in Florida courts. Though the move falls in line with recent historic efforts in Utah, Oklahoma, Virginia and Pennsylvania (among many others), Florida’s first step toward righting the perceived wrongs of 2008’s Amendment 2 is impressive in its own right.

Written By: John Romano

For the moment, his world is nearly perfect.

A continuous romp of beach days, flag football practices and like-minded cohorts in a wondrous place known as preschool. If bedtime comes too early and baths too regularly, that's just the price a 5-year-old must sometimes pay.

For the time being, he is unburdened by social injustice.

 Written By: Scott Powers

This may be the year that gay political clout comes out of the closet in a Florida governor's race.

Gay activists and others sympathetic to their causes are eyeing the 2014 governor's race as an opening, with a Democratic candidate, Charlie Crist, who professes to support the call for equal rights for marriage and workplace anti-discrimination.

Source: WTSP News

Six same-sex couples are filing a lawsuit, challenging Florida's constitutional amendment that bans gay marriage.

Equality Florida Institute is also challenging the ban. The couples are all from South Florida, and several of the couples are raising children or have grandchildren.

The lawsuit reportedly argues that Florida's laws barring same-sex marriage violate the U.S. Constitution by denying them the legal protections and equal dignity that marriage provides.