Advocates call out Rick Scott for failing to sign LGBTQ anti-discrimination order after Pulse

A year after a gunman targeted the gay nightclub Pulse on "Latin Night" and murdered 49 people, LGBTQ advocates say Gov. Rick Scott broke his promise by failing to sign an order that would protect state employees against discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

Leaders with Equality Florida and state Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith say in the days following the mass shooting, they met privately with Scott's staff to ask the governor to sign an executive order banning anti-LGBTQ discrimination against state hires. The Orlando Democrat, who was a lobbyist with Equality Florida before he was elected, said the governor's team promised they would take action.

But months after one of the worst hate crimes against LGBTQ people, Scott hasn't done squat except for proclaiming June 12 as "Pulse Remembrance Day" and acknowledging the attack was directed at the "LGBTQ and Hispanic" communities. And even that has been hard to do for him. In his remarks to the Florida Legislature earlier this year, he highlighted the Pulse attack as a part of his speech, but failed to mention that Pulse was a gay club or that the majority of victims were LGBTQ Latinxs.

Read the full article here: http://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/archives/2017/06/21/advocates-call-out-rick-scott-for-failing-to-sign-lgbtq-anti-discrimination-order-after-pulse