Best Gay Blogs » Florida

Crist Speaks Out

admin — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 13:44:26 +0000

According to a report, Florida’s current Governor is preparing to announce his intent to support legislation that would support the LGBT community’s fight for equality in several areas if elected to the U.S. Senate.

According to a post on Raw Story:

The document provided to RawStory.com includes Crist’s vocal support for gay couples, including hospital visitation, inheritance and adoption rights; opposition to the ban on gays serving in the military; support for anti-discrimination laws and appropriations for HIV and AIDS programs.

Find out more here!

Equality Means Biz in FL

admin — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 12:36:10 +0000

Equality Florida has launched “Equality Means Business,” a project to spotlight employers in Florida that demonstrate a strong commitment to supporting diversity and specifically provide protections to LGBT employees.

We’ve long known that protecting employees from discrimination is the right thing to do. Now, more and more research shows that it’s also a smart business decision.

Through our online presence and public education efforts, Equality Means Business will spotlight companies with strong policies as a way of encouraging others to raise their standards as well.

We believe honoring those companies that set the standard with comprehensive policies is the best way to encourage others to promote inclusivity and to strengthen Florida’s national and international reputation for attracting and retaining a highly talented workforce.

Major Florida employers are already part of Equality Means Business, including: BlueCross/BlueShield of Florida, JetBlue, Symantec, Carlton Fields, Pepsico, Citi, Sweetbay and Wachoiva/Wells Fargo to name a few.

Visit EqualityMeansBusiness.com to see our most recent corporate members and stay informed on our efforts.

Passing Over Threats

admin — Tue, 18 May 2010 13:07:09 +0000

It seems that every time there the opportunity arises to address an issue that affects the rights, equality and inclusion of LGBT citizens through laws and ordinances, some from the religious right are quick to toss out threats. They claim that if such laws are passed, those responsible for passing those protective laws and/or ordinances are going to be tossed from office through a mad fury of anti-gay Christian voters.

It was no different in Leon County Florida, the home to the state’s Capitol in Tallahassee.

According to a post on Joe My God:

Before the vote a small plane towed a banner across the Tallahassee sky, warning county commissioners that they would be voted out if they approved the bill.

Find out what this was all about at: Joe My God!

Double Standards?

admin — Fri, 14 May 2010 13:18:09 +0000

By now you’ve probably heard about the George Rekers debacle and how he was instrumental in maintaining the 30 year-old ban on gay adoption in the state of Florida as he was paid up to $300 per hour for his testimony against homosexuals then was busted with a rent-boy.

Well, McCullom, the guy responsible for recruiting Rekers as a witness, who is also Florida’s Attorney General and who is also (or perhaps was) gearing up to run for the state’s Governor spot currently held by Charlie Crist, but more importantly is the one who has been fighting to maintain Florida’s anti-gay “no adoption by gays” law has some other skeletons that are coming out of his closet.

According to a post on Tampabay.com:

McCollum’s brilliant, longtime campaign adviser, Arthur Finkelstein, is a ”married” gay man with two adopted children.

Oh the tangled webs the anti-gay Republicans weave.

Read more at: Blogs.Tampabay.com!

Nixon Supports Florida Gay Adoption!

Jason Shaw — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 11:00:50 +0000

The lovely Sex And The City’s Miranda – actress Cynthia Nixon, has thrown her support in to a campaign to repeal Florida’s ban on gays and lesbians adopting children.

Cynthia, joins with the American Civil Liberties Union’s three-year campaign to end the ban this weekend at South Beach’s Shore Club in Miami, Florida. Florida is the only state in the whole of the US that has a outright ban on gays and lesbians from adopting kids.

The ACLU sued the state in 2008 on behalf of Martin Gill, a gay foster father whom wanted to adopt two children that had been in his care since 2004. The children were allowed to remain with Gill, although he’s not allowed to adopted them and a state appeal is pending.

In a press release from the ACLU, it says they had been give a $240,000 grant by the Tides Foundation’s State Equality Fund to pay for a three-year LGBT public education and outreach campaign. It added: “The ACLU’s Campaign to End Florida’s Adoption Ban is designed to support the ACLU’s lawsuit challenging the adoption ban by educating Floridians about the adoption ban and the negative impact it has on Florida’s children and families.”

Also due to attend the meeting this weekend, will be three of South Florida’s political leaders, Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Democrats Nan Rich and Mary Brandenburg.

Nixon announced her engagement to long-term girlfriend Christine Marinoni last May during a gay marriage equality campaign in New York. She has always been a strong supporter of and an active campaigner for gay rights, both in the States and elsewhere. She recently won a battle against breast cancer and is one of a growing number of powerful lesbians in the American entertainments industry

Jason Shaw, Brighton, England.

Jason’s own blog is – The Seafront Diaries

7 out of 10 people believe in life after death, almost 30% of people skip lunch, 80% of lipsticks contain fish products, 68% of the population have little faith in a politicians ability to tell the truth! Have your views heard and counted so they can really make a difference. YouGov surveys are used by respected newspapers, TV stations, companies, organisations and even governments. Join the YouGov panel here and get paid for your views!

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Why Gay Adoption Matters

James — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:00:38 +0000

Florida is one of two states that have instituted bans on adoption for LGBT families, sharing the dubious honor with Arkansas. Thankfully, there’s movement in Florida to overturn this out-dated law that not only fosters homophobia, but punishes children by keeping them away from healthy families.

First a judge last year in Miami ruled that the ban on gay adoption was illegal. Then came word this week that a candidate for governor in Florida, Alex Sink, supports overturning the ban.

That’s huge news, in part because Alex Sink’s opponent in the Governor’s race — current state Attorney General Bill McCollum — proudly defends the ban on gay adoption and believes that homosexuality fosters depression and psychological illness. Those are McCollum’s exact words in a lawsuit filed to keep the gay adoption ban in place. Seems like he’d rather have children languish in America’s foster care system than see them placed with qualified and outstanding parents.

To be clear, nearly every single study on adoption shows that not only do children do well when they are placed with LGBT parents, but they in some cases outperform children raised by straight parents. Moreover, massive numbers of studies show that gay parents are just as gifted and qualified to raise children than straight parents.

More at: Change.org – Gay Rights!

Chris Christie Wants to Ban Gay Marriage

James — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 11:01:05 +0000

Don’t confuse New Jersey gubernatorial hopeful Chris Christie with Florida Gov. Charlie Crist. Sure, their names sound similar. And yes, both are (lower case h) heterosexual. And neither of them like the gays very much. But while Crist — who called civil unions for gays “fine” — backed off support for Florida’s constitutional ban on gay marriage (which passed anyhow), Jersey’s Christie is going gung-ho over the possibility!

Read more at: Queerty!

The Case for Gay Adoption

James — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 11:00:03 +0000

Would orphaned and abandoned children be better off if every one of them could be raised by stable, loving, heterosexual couples? Possibly. But that’s not an option. For many children, the alternative to having gay adoptive parents is having no parents at all.

There are hundreds of kids in Florida who need adoptive families—nearly 1,000 at any given moment. The average child spends 2.5 years in foster care before being adopted, and some wait forever. Noted Judge Lederman, “165 children in Florida aged out of the system in 2006 without ever being adopted.”

The Florida ban is simple and stark. It says, in effect, that a child may not be adopted by gays even when the adoption is in the best interest of the child. That’s the main reason the court overturned it: It violates the rights of children and “causes harm to the children it is meant to protect.”

Those who want to keep gays from adopting think that’s a small price to pay for blocking the “homosexual agenda.” But then, they’re not the ones who will be paying it.

Read the entire post at Reason Online!

Join The Impact

James — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:44:20 +0000

oin the Impact is a nationwide protest that will take place in front of city halls and state capitols all across America on Nov. 15 (10:30a.m./1:30 EST) to rally against California’s Proposition 8, Florida’s Amendment 2, Arizona’s Amendment 102 and the other anti-gay measures that were passed this election and in the past.

Go to www.jointheimpact.com to find your protest location and learn how you can help.

By the People – For Some of the People

James — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 10:59:23 +0000

‘CHANGE HAS COME TO AMERICA.’ This was the basis of Mr. Obama’s victory speech. He spoke of slavery and freedom. He spoke of blacks and women getting the right to vote. He spoke of the change that is to come and equality for Americans. I was moved by his words, yet disheartened by the numbers filtering in on the Prop 8 initiative in California; which I don’t believe should have been on the ballot. When the Supreme Court passes a human right it is passed and should never be overturned. The abolition of slavery was a human rights issue – what if the religious rite wanted to challenge it today?

Get the rest at thethoughtvox.com.