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NOTE: Alex Sink headlined Equality Florida's Broward Gala Sunday evening and received the 2009 "Voice for Equality" award, our highest honor. LGBT champion, Sen. Nan Rich, who is working hard to overturn the adoption ban, introduced Alex. Here is Alex Sink's official statement on the issue:

UF study: Religious left emerging to oppose rightResearch shows growing influence of liberal Christians in politics. By Nathan CrabbeStaff writer Published: Sunday, November 15, 2009 at 6:01 a.m.Last Modified: Sunday, November 15, 2009 at 2:12 a.m. A new University of Florida study finds the religious left is emerging as an alternative to the Christian right.

The Saint Petersburg Times published the following editorial on Alex Sink, Equality Florida's "Voice for Equality" award recipient. Alex headlined the 2009 Equality Florida Broward Gala on Sunday evening, Nov. 15. A Times EditorialA stand against hypocrisy

Longtime Rutgers Professor, Community Activist, Gay-Rights Pioneer Hilda Hidalgo Loses Cancer Fight November 12, 2009 (Newark, N.J., Nov. 12, 2009) – Professor Emerita Hilda Hidalgo, 81, is being mourned by the Rutgers University community, scores of former students, and numerous others, including many who never met her.

Senate Leadership Commits to Marriage Vote in 2009 Last night, for the first time ever, LGBT New Yorkers received a commitment from the Senate Majority to vote on the marriage equality bill in the next six weeks. Here's the statement from Austin Shafran, spokesman for the Senate Majority Conference:

Members of Equality Florida's GSA Network took to the streets in protest of the discriminatory Don't Ask Don't Tell Policy. Students from 11 area high schools showed up to protest and urge the Weston City Council to pass a resolution against Don't Ask Don't Tell. -------

In recent years, a growing number of teenagers have been dressing to articulate — or confound — gender identity and sexual orientation. Certainly they have been confounding school officials, whose responses have ranged from indifference to applause to bans.

Editorial - Equality’s Ragged March - NYTimes.com Here's the excerpt: Last Tuesday’s Election Day results showed how far the nation has traveled in the struggle for gay equality — and the distance still to go... Voters in Washington State approved a ballot measure endorsing a new law granting gay and lesbian couples the same state-provided benefits that heterosexual couples have.

From the News-Journal in Volusia County: November 09, 2009 Registry is right

Originally Posted by the Washington Blade

ACTION: Take a moment to Thank the City Council for taking this important step:www.eqfl.org/thanktampa UPDATE: The vote is now unanimous. Caetano changed his vote later this afternoon. An amendment to add "gender identity and expression" to the Tampa Human Rights Ordinance passed first reading and will come to the council for a final vote in two weeks.

A teacher at Southwestern High School in Piasa, Ill., will be reinstated after having been suspended for a controversial reading assignment. Hundreds of Dan DeLong's students showed up at a six-and-a-half-hour school board meeting to urge members to keep the 10th-grade English teacher on staff. DeLong had been suspended after a parent of one unidentified student asserted that an assignment on homosexuality in the animal kingdom was inappropriate.

Equality Florida Action PAC Election Results Name Running For:

A jury convicted one of Ryan Skipper’s two killers of first-degree murder just hours ago. It’s all over the evening news. My how times change. Today was the second of two trials, both resulting in a life sentence for each of Ryan’s killers. Three young Florida men whose lives are ended in one way or another. There is no joy, no celebration, no closure, but there was justice and that’s something.

Miami - The Reggae concert featuring two artist known for gay-bashing lyrics lost $100,000 money in the wake of public outrage surrounding their performance, according to the show's promoter. Buju Banton and Beenie Man have provoked international condemnation for songs that advocate the murder, maiming and torture of gay men and lesbians. Buju Banton's song "Boom Bye Bye" has become an international gay bashing anthem and his failure to denounce and distance himself from the murderous lyrics has caused venues across the country to cancel his show.

BROWN TRIAL ADVISORY: Equality Florida to Join Bartow Press Conference Today Immediately following the verdict and sentencing in the William David Brown, Jr. trial, expected to occur this afternoon in Bartow, Brian Winfield of Equality Florida will join Ryan Skipper's family in a press conference outside of the Bartow courthouse on 255 Broadway. Equality Florida is the statewide LGBT advocacy organization which initially raised awareness about this anti-gay hate crime and has supported Ryan's family since the crime occurred.

There have long been rumors that state Senator Paula Dockery would challenge AG Bill McCollum for the Republican nomination for Governor. The Ledger, Dockery's hometown newspaper in Lakeland, is reporting that "multiple Republicans sources," say she will enter the race for governor next week. 

It has been a great week for LGBT Americans. Earlier today President Obama signed the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Act and lifted the ban HIV travel and immigration ban.