OUT FRONT
– Newsletter from Organizations United Together, Issue 1, March 3, 2009
A lot has happened in the last month, since Florida Together Federation’s first organizational meeting on January 24, 2009.
Florida Together Federation compiled and sent out a directory of attendees of the January 24 organizational meeting. We developed and publicized a list of Frequently Asked Questions and answers in order to further clarify OUT’s mission and role in the struggle to achieve equality for LGBT Floridians. We also sent out a survey on February 27 to attendees of the January 24 meeting to ask for evaluation and input.
Meanwhile, the number of local organizations becoming members of Florida Together Federation continues to grow steadily every week.
Membership Update for Organizations United Together Federation
Florida Together Federation has received membership applications from a number of organizations since our organizational meeting on January 24, and all of these membership applications to date have been accepted. If you think your organization submitted a membership application and you’re not listed below, please contact us immediately so we can add you to the membership roster. In addition to the organizations listed below, several others have advised us that their membership applications are en route.
1) BLAST (Bi, Lesbian, and Straight Together) Women of the Palm Beaches
2) Embracing Our Differences (Sarasota)
3) First Coast Metropolitan Community Church, St. Augustine
4) Hillsborough County GLBTA Democratic Caucus
5) HRC Tampa Steering Committee
6) HRC Orlando Steering Committee
7) ImpACT Florida- Pinellas
8) Lakeland Youth Alliance, Polk County
9) Log Cabin Republicans, Orlando
10) North Palm Beach County NOW
11) Orlando GLBT Center
12) Palm Beach County Human Rights Council
13) PFLAG Brevard County
14) PFLAG Polk County
15) Phi Epsilon Mu Chapter of Tri Ess
16) Pinellas Youth Pride
17) Pride Community Center (Alachua County)
18) Sarasota Equality Project
19) SAVE Dade
20) SAVE Foundation (Miami-Dade)
21) South Florida Family Pride
22) Tampa Bay Business Guild
23) UM for Equality (University of Miami)
24) Unity Coalition/Coalicion Unida (Miami-Dade)
25) Unity on the Bay Church – Miami
News About Florida Together Federation Members
We want to list more news about your local organization and its accomplishments and needs in our future newsletters. If your organization is facing a special challenge, is working on a specific project, or has recently achieved a notable accomplishment, you can be sure that other local groups around the state are interested and want to know more about it. Please let us know about your organization’s news, and we’ll be glad to disseminate the news in OUT’s next newsletter. If you have suggestions for improving the newsletter, or have skills you can use to improve our newsletter’s format and content, please let us know if you can help. Send info and suggestions to Stephen Gaskill at sagaskill@aol.com.
March 26 GLBT Community Dialogue in Tampa Bay
CommUNITY Tampa Bay and Pinellas Youth Pride will hold a GLBT Community Dialogue for all Tampa Bay groups on Thursday, March 26, 2009 from 5:30 - 7:30 pm at the Pinellas Classroom Teachers Association, 650 Seminole Blvd. , Largo , FL 33770. The purpose of the meeting is to gather all of the different GLBT and allied groups together to ask the questions
- What are our resources?
- Where are the gaps in services?
- How do we better fill the community needs?
RSVP to CommUNITY Tampa Bay by calling 727-568-9333 or email at MMochizuki@communitytampabay.org
Please spread to the word to all Tampa Bay area organizations.
Update on Gainesville Charter Amendment 1 Election
Charter Amendment 1 is scheduled to be decided by Gainesville ’s voters on March 24, 2009. If it passes, Charter Amendment 1 would make it legal to fire, deny housing or a loan, or decline to serve someone at a restaurant or hotel just for being gay or transgender. It would also prohibit the city from providing civil rights to its residents beyond those rights provided by the state legislature -- meaning Gainesville would be forced to surrender its power to protect its own citizens against discrimination to politicians in Tallahassee.
The local group spearheading the campaign against Charter Amendment 1 is Equality Is Gainesville’s Business, chaired by openly gay Gainesville City Commissioner Craig Lowe. OUT organizing committee member Terry Fleming is an active member of the campaign’s steering committee.
Several of OUT’s member organizations and other local groups have signed on to assist the Gainesville campaign with fundraising and satellite phone banks. For example, SAVE Dade and UM for Equality have worked in partnership and conducted 11 phone banks to Gainesville voters from Miami-Dade County , putting in about 150 volunteer hours of calls. Hillsborough County GLBTA Democratic Caucus and Dolphin Democrats of Broward County have started weekly satellite phone banks, continuing through election day. North Palm Beach County NOW, in cooperation with the Palm Beach County Equality Florida Meet-Up Group, has also signed on to do satellite phone banks to Gainesville voters in Palm Beach County.
If you’d like to know more about how to help the campaign against Charter Amendment 1 in Gainesville, please contact Terry Fleming (sfcctpf@aol.com), Georg Ketelhohn (ketelhohng@bellsouth.net), Joe Saunders (joe@equalitygainesville.com) or Sultan Shakir (sultan@equalitygainesville.com). You can find more information about Equality is Gainesville’s Business at www.EqualityGainesville.com.
Florida Legislative Update
This year has seen an unprecedented number of pro-LGBT equality bills filed in Tallahassee.
Protection from Discrimination
OUT member organization Palm Beach County Human Rights Council (PBCHRC) has for the last two years spearheaded an effort to file a bill in Tallahassee to amend the Florida ’s Civil Rights Act to protect LGBT people. This year, PBCHRC succeeded in getting sponsors in both the Florida House and Senate to file a fully inclusive bill that would prohibit both sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination, to ensure that all gay, lesbian bisexual and transgender Floridians would be protected if the bill were to become law. This bill goes further than the proposed federal ENDA legislation, which would only cover employment discrimination. The Florida bill would cover discrimination in employment, housing, finance and public accommodations. The bill numbers to amend the Florida Civil Rights Act to protect LGBT Floridians are HB 397, sponsored by Rep. Kelly Skidmore and SB 2012, sponsored by Sen. Ted Deutch. PBCHRC has reached out to other local LGBT and allied organizations to assist in lobbying for this bill, and has received strong support this year. PBCHRC is working closely with Equality Florida, the ACLU of Florida LGBT Advocacy Project and the Anti-Defamation League on this important legislation. For more information about amending the Florida Civil Rights Act to provide basic human rights for LGBT Floridians, go to the PBCHRC website at www.pbchrc.org.
Adoption
Securing Our Children’s Rights (SOCR), the statewide organization focused on repealing Florida ’s gay adoption ban, succeeded in getting Tallahassee legislators in both the House and Senate to introduce, for the first time, a bill that would repeal the gay adoption ban outright. The adoption ban bill numbers are HB 413, sponsored by Rep. Mary Brandenburg, and SB 500 sponsored by Sen. Nan Rich. SOCR has requested OUT’s 501(c)(4) and its political members, as well as ACLU of Florida, Equality Florida and other allies to support and lobby for this bill. For more information about repealing Florida ’s shameful gay adoption ban, go to SOCR’s website at www.SOCRFlorida.org.
Relationship Recognition
Equality Florida succeeded in getting a Senate sponsor for a statewide domestic partnership bill this year. In looking for a House sponsor, Equality Florida contacted OUT member SAVE Dade to ask for SAVE Dade’s help in speaking with Miami-Dade Representative Richard Steinberg. With support from OUT member SAVE Dade, in cooperation with Equality Florida and NOW, our community successfully reached out to Representative Steinberg, who has agreed to sponsor a companion bill in the House. The Relationship Recognition bill numbers are HB 1067, sponsored by Rep. Richard Steinberg, and SB 1642, sponsored by Sen. Eleanor Sobel. For more information about the domestic partnership legislation, go to http://www.eqfl.org.
March 15 Strategy Meeting in Tallahassee
Equality Florida and Florida GLBT Democratic Caucus will host a meeting on March 15 in Tallahassee about policy change strategies for Florida for Florida LGBT and allied leaders. Representatives from OUT’s organizing committee will attend the meeting. If you are interested in attending this meeting, contact Equality Florida at david@eqfl.org or 813-870-EQFL(3735) or the Florida GLBT Democratic Caucus at info@floridaGLBTdemocrats.org.
Rally in Tally
Equality Florida has asked LGBT and allied organizations to support the Rally in Tally this year in order to send a strong message to Florida ’s legislators. Some of OUT’s members are official sponsors of Rally in Tally, and OUT’s 501(c)(4) has also voted to officially support the Rally in Tally and has requested to be listed as a sponsor of the event. OUT’s 501(c)(4) has urged its political members to support Rally in Tally by attending and participating in the event. ImpACT Tallahassee has been doing tremendous work to support the Rally in Tally in their home city. For more information about Rally in Tally, visit Equality Florida’s website at http://eqfl.org/rallyintally/ and ImpACT Tallahasee’s website at http://jointheimpact.wetpaint.com/page/Florida
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Organizations United Together (OUT)
Mission: OUT's mission is to connect and empower local organizations to share resources, skills and information, forging statewide strength in order to achieve equality and justice for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Floridians.
Vision: OUT's vision is a Florida free of prejudice and discrimination, where all persons have full legal, political and social equality
