Florida Agenda

MIAMI – On May 11, the LMNT gallery hosted the SAVE Dade Champions of Equality Awards Reception and Silent Auction, to honor individuals who have “significantly advanced the cause of equality for the LGBT community in Miami-Dade County.” Among this year’s honorees were U.S. Senator Bill Nelson, and the Miami office of the law firm of White and Case.

Nelson’s support in the Senate was crucial to dismantling the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell military ban, which prohibited gay Americans from serving openly in the armed forces. White and Case, a New York-based for-profit law firm, represented— pro-bono—the rights of existing and future gay service members by arguing for their client, the Log Cabin Republicans, that the federal government needed to prove the “important government interest at stake to intrude on the personal and private lives of homosexuals.”

Also honored were six popular Miami-Dade County activists, who were inducted into SAVE Dade’s Hall of Fame. They included Dennis Edwards, Mark Steinberg, Elizabeth Schwartz, Joan Schaeffer, Eric Hankin, and Richard Milstein. More than 600 guests were in attendance, including Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Weston), Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Miami), Miami- Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, and other lawmakers and officials.

MIAMI – On Monday, over 150 LGBT activists and allies attended the first White House LGBT Conference on Aging, which was held at the University of Miami Clinical Research Building. The one-day conference was attended by advocates and stakeholders from across the Sunshine State, as well as Obama Administration officials and state, federal, and municipal lawmakers.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fort Lauderdale) spoke of the unique challenges facing South Florida’s aging LGBT population.

“I represent one of the largest gay populations in the country. We have had for many years a generation of the LGBT community that has been able to live openly,” she noted. “Now, we have unique and specific issues for LGBT seniors that we’re aware of. They always existed, it’s just that they existed in the shadows and there were no services and no attempts to help them.”

Wasserman Schultz, who also serves as chair of the Democratic National Committee, added that “It’s important to have the White House conference on aging because now we can specifically identify and assist when there are unique issues, like there are unique issues with every type of senior community.”

Also attending was Rafael Bostic, Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for Policy Development and Research, and Kathy Greenlee, the openly gay Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services Department for Aging.

“These LGBT elder issues are real, and they are going to get bigger as we go on,” said Bostic, who is openly gay. “We’ve got a wave of elders coming in our community and we need to be ready for them.”