There’s only one week left of Florida’s 60-day legislative session – and Governor DeSantis’s rubber-stamping GOP legislature remains determined to push through as many bad bills from his Slate of Hate as possible before it comes to an end.
Kudos to the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Orlando Magic for their continued commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. This week, both major sports franchises celebrated Florida’s LGBTQ community by honoring two Equality Florida leaders.
Rene Cantu, Business Outreach Manager, has been honored as Magic Diversity Game Changer by the Orlando Magic.
(Last Updated: May 19, 2023)
Do you remember what school was like? Were you ever bullied? Experienced isolation? Never quite felt connected to your school or classmates? For many of us, that’s our experience too.
That’s why we started our Safe and Healthy Schools program: to help create a culture of inclusion within our schools — supporting teachers, administrators, and district staff — to adopt nationally recognized best practices for meeting the needs of LGBTQ students across Florida’s 67 school districts.
On November 19, we woke up to the all too familiar horror that a gunman had opened fire at Club Q — an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs — killing 5 people and injuring 19 more:
Ashley Paugh (35 years old).
Daniel Aston (28 years old).
Raymond Green Vance (22 years old).
Derrick Rump (38 years old).
Kelly Loving (40 years old).
ST. PETERSBURG, FL -- Last night, a gunman opened fire at Club Q, an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, killing 5 and injuring 18 others. Equality Florida, who helped coordinate the response to a similar attack at Pulse Nightclub in 2016, issued the following statement:
There’s no sugarcoating it. While we were bracing for a potentially tough night in Florida, watching the results come in was difficult.
One of the most heartbreaking losses was that of State Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith who was running for reelection. Carlos has been a fierce champion of equality and defender of our families for 6 years. At a time when DeSantis and Republicans have made anti-LGBTQ attacks their playbook, his absence in Tallahassee will be greatly felt.
New rules target school districts that have LGBTQ-Inclusive policies, teachers, and transgender youth