News4JAX is recognizing Pride Month all through June by highlighting the local organizations that support our unique and vibrant LGBTQ+ community.
Founded in 1997, Equality Florida has grown into one of the largest statewide LGBTQ advocacy networks in the country.
With nearly half a million supporters and staff based in communities across Florida, the nonpartisan organization is the largest in the state dedicated to LGBTQ rights. It works in schools, courtrooms, city halls, and the state Capitol to defend those rights.
Equality Florida said it worked with people across the political spectrum to help defeat every anti-LGBTQ bill filed in the Florida Legislature this session.
“We hold politicians of every party accountable when they attack our basic rights or our families,” the organization said. “When LGBTQ Floridians are targeted, whether it is a student silenced, a book banned, or a drag performance attacked, we respond quickly with legal support, public pressure, and community organizing.”
Equality Florida said it works with racial justice groups, immigrant advocates, healthcare leaders, and faith communities to protect the rights and dignity of all people, not just some.
Its major programs include Safe and Healthy Schools, Transgender Equality, Parenting with Pride, Health Equity, and Equality Means Business, which helps employers adopt inclusive policies for LGBTQ workers.
The organization has trained more than 40,000 teachers and school-based mental health professionals from all 67 Florida school districts to better support LGBTQ students and their families.
Equality Florida’s work has been honored with the Champion for Children Award from the National Association of School Psychologists.
To learn more about Equality Florida or to support the organization’s efforts to protect LGBTQ rights, go to www.eqfl.org.
