Alright. So yeah, I'll I'll set it up and kinda go through the you-know-who. You just briefly you your time who you are. Alright. This is State Representative Adam Patterson from House District 59. thanks again for joining us on our continuing series on our Friday tele-town halls today, we're doing our Pride month kickoff Tele-town Hall and with us we have the Equality, Florida development officer and media relations manager. He's also a pulse nightclub survivor. Brandon Wolfe so our. Personally knows and loves you all but for for the people tuning in that may not know anything about the quality of Florida. Can you first talk a little bit about what the Organization does and who it serves and what is your specific role at the quality of Florida. Yeah. absolutely. thanks for having me on. I'm I'm really excited to chat a little bit of a a little bit today about the LGBTQ community and you know kind of where we sit in this really uncertain time of of covid- 19 but I I really can't get started until I acknowledge that the country as. Is in a really painful place right now there is you know an open wound that is systemic racism that is torturous for a lot of you know people that look like me across the country. so I just wanna start by acknowledging that pain and calling it out for what it is and I also wanna make clear that equality, Florida while we are the state's largest LGBTQ civil rights Organization, the Equality, Florida is committed to uprooting systemic racism Equality, Florida. To uprooting, hatred and bigotry of all kinds so it's really important for me to acknowledge what people are going through today to share my solidarity with them. I know you know for me, it's been a really difficult last few days to talk about these challenging subjects to see horrific traumatic video that I don't need to see to prove that injustice exists and to begin the process of you know what is uprooting that kind of hatred and bigotry look like so Again, I appreciate the chance to chat at Quality Ford as I mentioned is the state's largest LGBTQ civil rights Organization, which means we do a lot of things. We do a lot of work in Tallahassee. we work alongside you Rep to fight against anti LGBTQ policies that come across the desk of legislators in the 2020 session, they're actually eight anti LGBTQ bills that that were rolling around in Tallahassee and as we have done over the last several decades of quality. Alongside citizenss supporters of equality and of course, our allies and Tallahassee, we're able to defeat all eight of those anti LGBTQ pieces of legislation. so we do a ton of work in Tallahassee, not just fighting bad bills, but also promoting good ones right the Florida Competitive Workforce Act is our signature piece of legislation and I know you've been a huge supporter of it. it would do something very simple, which is to update the Florida civil. To include four additional words, sexual orientation and gender identity and that means that people in the LGBTQ community would be covered Non-discrimination protections in trying in law that made sure that you know whether it's housing public accommodations or the workplace that they're not facing discrimination for who they are or how they love so we do a lot of that advocacy work from a policy lens. We, of course, do a lot of work around elections and mobilizing pro equality. Across the state of Florida and helping them understand the issues that they're gonna be voting around. we also do a ton of work in educational spaces. So we do a lot of work around HIV and Aids advocacy work. we do a lot of work in the transgender community. We have a huge transaction network. we have a fabulous transaction Leadership academy that helps to develop the next generation of leaders out of the transgender community and then, of course, our largest program area and our signature program. This is the safe and healthy schools program that was born out of the Pulse nightclub tragedy in 2016. I think we hit this inflection point as a community and specifically as an Organization, and we said, you know what we've got to do something different because if all we're doing is just fighting the battles in Tallahassee. if all we're doing is resting on the laurels of our progress, then we're not doing enough to make the world safer for young people. We've got to go to the source of hatred of homophobia, transphobia bigotry. We've got uproot it. It starts and a lot of that is with our young people in our schools and so we launched the safe and healthy schools program. we're now in nearly all of Florida 67 school districts deeply embedded doing the work of truly changing the culture in our schools in our school systems, so that young people can be free to be who they are without fear of discrimination or violence. my job inside the Organization. I do a lot of fundraising and I'm really excited and proud to connect with supporters and donors. Incredibly generous and always struck by the work that they do to lift up the fight for full equality and so I get the privilege of connecting them to the work in Orlando and Gainesville across the Central Florida area. And then, of course, there's our media relations manager. I helped to craft our messaging and our strategy to help to tell stories of LGBTQ people. you know you know better than anybody else that it's easy to get lost in the minutia when you're dealing with. The legislation and committees and you know dialogues in that way and my job is the media relations Manager at the equality is to make sure that we don't lose the human face behind the work that we're doing my job is to tell you about Monica out on the space Coast who lost her job because she was outed by someone at work. My job is to tell you about the transgender young people who are getting critical life-saving health care who would be damaged by policies that would take that away. So I. Proud and excited of the work that I do to lift up those stories and I'm really excited that we get an opportunity to work with allies like you up in Tallahassee to get the get the job done. Thank you so much and yeah, I mean if a lot of people watching don't know I got into politics on LGBTQ issues. you know it's one of the foundations of why I got involved in the first place and it's it's been one of the things that we really fought for in Tallahassee cuz you know what's more American than just treating everybody as they deserve to be treated and that's all anyone really asks. and that's that's that's all we're trying to try to push for you're right about that. and so you know we're gonna get into a few things here, but you know with kind of the topic of the day was Corona virus we can we can. There are there are there any resources that equality, Florida has available to help LGBTQ people throughout the the Cove, 19 health and economic crisis. Yeah. there are resources available courtesy of the quality for the first thing I would say is you know we put together a really comprehensive guide on how Covid- 19 is impacting the LGBTQ community specifically, and also what folks can do to seek out resources that they need so if you go to EQ F. Dot Org slash covid- 19 resources you'll find our guide there again, there's really specific informations you know centered on the trans community centered on people living with HIV it on our LGBTQ elders centered on LGBTQ youth so the most marginalized populations among us. we've we've sort of rooted out information and resources that can help guide them through this crisis and we look to be a resource in that way moving forward. you know I think the other. That it's important to note that equality, Florida is working on is just not losing sight of the advocacy piece of our work right. that's a large portion of the work that we pride ourselves on is being the advocate for LGBTQ floridians when it comes to policy making and that is true today as well, You know I think about as soon as the crisis happened, one of the first things that we did was convene over A hundred and 50 leaders be a local leaders. Leaders National leaders across the LGBTQ community we had elected officials in those conversations and then we started to meet weekly right and ask what is happening on the ground and what resources are needed today. We started connecting communities to financial resources that we're being made available by other organizations. We started connecting the community to mental health resources that we're being made available to the community and we started doing the work of compiling this information in the Central location through our Cove. Resource guide so that people had a one -stop shop to go right to know how they were being impacted and what resources were available and then, of course we advocated by joining partners are joining hands. I guess with some of our partners in government one of the things that we did was partner with Nikki Fried's Office, the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. They've got a hotline that people can call in and ask consumer questions and we wanted to make sure. We were equipped with the answers for LGBTQ people because we have specific needs. We have specific questions. you know we're disproportionately impacted by job losses in the gig economy and and you know, hospitality and entertainment. so it's really important for us to know that that Commissioner Freeman's office and that hotline we're prepared to answer questions that were specific to LGBTQ people and so we've partnered with her office. Nick Harris is a fabulous fabulous. Up there and we've partnered together to make sure that the hotline is equipped with those resources. and of course, we haven't taken our eyes off the ball of the really important work that we do every single day are safe and healthy schools program is working overdrive right now to provide resources because we know that LGBTQ young people are in a precarious position for many of them. The work that we've done in their school has meant that their school is the only safe place they can be and now they don't have that outlet right and so we. Are safe and healthy schools program with doing the work of of continuing to check in on the school districts continuing to do those wellness checks on our students and make sure that they're taking care of during this time right and I'm glad that you touched on some different populations within the LGBTQ community cuz we're gonna get into some of those specifically a little bit more in depth with the upcoming here and one of those you briefly mentioned. So can you talk a little bit more about some of the specific health concerns for members of the? LGBTQ community who live with HIV how does it make them even more vulnerable to to coro a virus and what can they do to take extra precautions to safeguard their health? and how can we support these individuals? Well? I think the first thing to point out and this is a common misconception is that I think it I guess the way I would phrase. it is this one of the biggest dangers of people living with HIV are facing right now during this crisis is stigma. And that's the first thing that we have to address you know one of the things we were concerned about as an Organization was as soon as the novel Corona virus came out and we were talking about you know getting tested and who's vulnerable who's at risk the immediate assumption in many for many in the medical community and even within our own community was that simply living with HIV make somebody more susceptible to complications from Covid- 19 and that's actually not true. if you are undetectable right, which means that you're viral load the level of the virus, HIV in your blood is not detectable on a test. if you're undetectable that first of all, it means you're unmissable, which means you can't actually transmit HIV to somebody else so that's the first thing to know. Second thing to note is that people who are living with HIV are on you know a regimen of medication are undetectable or have a low viral load are considered. Healthy immune systems, which means they are not at high risk or there is no statistical data that we've seen that puts them at higher risk for contracting covid-, 19, or from having complications from Covid- 19 and so that's one of the things that we worried about right away. was you know if we get to a place where we're rationing medication or you know, we're having conversations with health care providers about who's at high risk. We don't wanna feed misinformation to the population. It's specifically we don't wanna feed misinformation to people living with HIV to tell them that somehow their status alone and determines their risk. For contracting or having complications from Cogan 19, so a lot of the work that we've been doing since since the outbreak of this, this pandemic is to educate people on you know what does that actually mean What does viral load actually mean, and how do those things actually relate to someone's risk of contracting Coen 19? the thing that I would say you know you ask what can people do or what should they do to protect themselves? First and foremost? Follow. CDC guidelines I know it's really difficult when you've got someone like Donald Trump telling you to inject bleach in places that it shouldn't be and and all of the nonsense that you might hear. we're taking medications that have not been tested by doctors. my recommendation to everyone is go to CDC dot Gov and read the guidelines that they've put forward around keeping yourself safe right practice good social distancing if you can be home be home if you're able to work from home. Work from home If you have to be in public wear a mask right that limits your your ability to pass a cove at 19 someone else. If you're you know a symptomatic and may not realize you have it. So that's the first thing that people can do is you know protect yourself by following the CDC guidelines being smart social distancing all the things that we've been doing and then the second thing I would say is you know for people living with HIV and really anyone who's got any underlying health conditions? always be in contact with your primary care physician right you've got someone. You've determined you trust and you know they've helped you to get onto a regimen of medication. Maybe they've helped you get to an undetectable place with your viral load be in constant contact with that person right asking for updates and and sharing updates on your own health. if you are sick, obviously get in contact with your doctor and figure out what those next steps are. but I do think that you know primarily where we focus our energies is on battling back against the stigma and making sure that health care providers know that discrimination is illegal in health care. That our community knows the status alone does not determine your risk of contracting or having complications from Coen 19, and again, I would encourage people to go to EQ F L dot Org slash Cobain Resources We've got a whole section on people living with HIV that I think is is really helpful. Okay great another specific group that you mentioned are elderly people within the LGBTQ community. So what what about that the elderly LGBTQ folks? Who could potentially also be in a higher risk of contracting covid- 19, are there any preventative resources out there for them or even support for some who may be experiencing some mental health issues from along the isolation? I mean there's a lot of different issues to talk about with with different groups. Yeah. I I've really feel for our at risk populations right now, you know I think about my own and grandparents and how fearful they are. It's just not knowing it's a it's a it's an enemy. that's unseen. you can't you can't hear it. You can't taste it. You can't feel it but you can certainly feel it's presence in our community. so my heart goes out to people who are at high risk and specifically our LGBTQ elders and you know to your question about how can people protect themselves Our resource guide again has a-section on you know our LGBTQ elder population and the steps that they can take some of the things I think in. Of self care that we would recommend you know first of all, I would I would recommend people to take a break. It can be extremely mentally taxing and emotionally draining to inundate yourself with bad news all the time there is no there's no sugar coating that over a hundred thousand people have lost their lives. That is a massive catastrophic loss. that is it's difficult to digest right, especially if you're someone who has been around a long time and lived through crisis before to know that. Scale and size of this pandemic is is difficult so that's the first thing. It's just unfollow things on Twitter that you don't need to follow. You don't have to watch endless news coverage connect with your family via FaceTime Text message Facebook. I know my grandma loves to Facebook post so I've been keeping up with her there. it you know, stay in touch with people, but you don't have to feel like you like you need to plug in all the time to some of the. Nuria of the bad stuff that's going on. It's okay to take breaks for your mental health. It's also important that you take care of your body. I think one of the difficult things right now is how little routine we have right-I know I even catch myself, not getting enough sleep or not drinking enough water or not getting enough exercise right and and so it's important that people especially in the LGBTQ elder population find ways to take care of their bodies whether that's meditating or stretching or you know eating broccoli if. Thing but really taking care of yourself. I think that's what's most important. you know again following CDC guidelines around social distancing and wearing a mask and staying out of public spaces if you're in an at risk population like that and you know if stress or mental health or physical health are beginning to deteriorate, It's really important that you stay connected with your health provider. I can't stress that enough. I feel like that's a relationship that we don't. Enough but the relationship between you and your doctor is paramount right now. They're the ones who know your health the best you and your doctor know the path forward for you. So if you feel like you need to reach out definitely keep in touch with your health provider. you know in terms of resources broadly I would encourage folks to connect with the Organization Sage which is an Organization that exists to provide resources to LGBTQ elders across the country. so. A chance you know, follow them on social media go to their website. Just Google Sage and check out some of the resources that they've got available. I know that they've done a ton of work around kind of providing hubs for those pieces of information as well and then, of course mental health. We've got a ton of mental health resources available. I know here in Central Florida. I'm 20 - Six health, which again is available if you go to EQ F L dot Org slash covid- 19. Health is under our LGBTQ elders tab and they're providing some of these mental health services. from home, I know health care providers are doing a ton of telehealth right now, which is great for people who don't wanna leave home and and potentially put themselves at risk for contracting covid- 19, so take advantage of those mental and physical health resources that are virtual right now. Check out 26 health. If you want to definitely check out the resource guide check out Sage and I think most importantly, please take care of yourself. And so you know and you've touched on this a little bit, but you know we know that that access to health care, especially it's it's gonna be crucial to staying well. you know while go with 19 remains remains a threat. so when you talk a little bit about the rights that transgender and non-binary people have to access safe and equitable health-care. Yeah, I think it's really important to say this directly to you at whoever is watching at home very slowly and carefully that discrimination in health care is illegal. So I wanna say that. Discrimination in health care is illegal, it is against federal law for a doctor to discriminate against you based on your sexual orientation or gender identity. So we need to say that out loud and we need transgender non-binary LGBTQ folks as a whole to understand that when they go to see a health care provider, they deserve exactly the same dignity and respect that everybody else gets right. You have a right to be called by your pronouns as you prefer that you have a right. Use facilities based on the pronoun excuse me based on the gender that you identify as right, you have a right not to be discriminated against and a health care setting. so it's important to go in knowing those things knowing that you deserve exactly the same dignity and respect as everybody else. It's important to note also that there are resources available again. I'm gonna bring you back to our resource guide cuz it really is comprehensive. we have resources available on that guide that will help. Get in touch with someone if you face discrimination right, it's important for us to call it out when we see it in many cases, health care providers need to be called out so that they can have they can begin to build relationships with the LGBTQ community. We can begin to educate them on how to do better and hold them accountable when they do wrong. so I think it's just really important to call that out in terms of the law you deserve exactly the same dignity and respect and care that everybody else is owed please. That's protected under federal law. Please know that you've got allies and equality, Florida at the National Center for Transgender Equality. You've got allies across the country and especially right here in Florida that will help you and then also know that we've got LGBTQ health services, Right-I know down in the Tampa Saint Pete Area Metro Inclusive Health has been an incredible partner for a long time, helping to provide mental and physical health resources for the LGBTQ community. so definitely take advantage of folks in the community. Ask some you know, friends and colleagues and peers within the community who are those health care providers that are doing it right, Who are the ones that are providing a safe space? Where are the 26 health organizations or the Bliss cares as we have here in Central Florida, who are those organizations that are really doing the right work and how can we amplify their voices right now? How can we plug people in and get them access to those resources? And then how do we turn around and make sure everybody else is treating people. Respect in the same way, okay great let's actually back up to another group that you mentioned at at the at the opening LGBTQ youth what can LGBTQ youth. They know that it may not come from the support of homes and might not have safe and comfortable spaces to quarantine. What can they do to ensure that they have access to a safe environment to self isolate? While the virus remains a threat? Are there are there resources or even shelters or support programs out there for those that are in that situation? Yeah, you know this is one of my primary concerns amidst the Covid- 19 crisis, and I think it's because I know how at risk. LGBTQ young people are after the shooting at Pulse. I was not an activist at that time. I was actually working at Starbucks as a store manager. I've been there for over a decade at that time and and I wanted to get involved. I lost my very best friend Drew Lyon in that night and one of the. Love most about him is that he had a master's degree in clinical psychology, and he spent his entire career, donating and volunteering his time to causes that positively impacted the LGBTQ young people. And so when I thought about what kind of a legacy I hoped you would leave behind it was one of protecting and uplifting LGBTQ young people. so over the last four years now, I've done a lot of work in that space and once. Sits in the back of my mind forever and ever, and it's what drives me and motivates me around this work and it is that LGBTQ young people are an exponentially higher risk. We know this for discrimination for acts of violence and also for oh sorry about that got a little call coming in and also for attempted suicide right, they're they're at risk for taking their own lives but That stands out for me is how much safe spaces help. we know that the presence of a safe space in a school, a space where LGBTQ young people are free to be themselves and identify how they identify without fear of discrimination. The teen LGBTQ suicide attempt rate falls by 50 percent in those schools, so the work that we do to make sure that LGBTQ young people can just be themselves is life saving. It's literally life saving so that's why I tell you that. Probably what weighs on my mind the most and what I worry about what keeps me up at night. you know, first and foremost our friends at The Trevor Project. If you go to the Trevor Project dot Org, they've got a ton of resources virtually that LGBTQ young people can plug into there's other spaces like gender spectrum and queue chat space and they've created almost virtual gay-straight alliance spaces so that LGBTQ young people can take those spaces they had in school and. Them into the virtual spaces that we're all living. I think it's really really important that LGBTQ young people feel comfortable leveraging those resources at a time like this, I told you that school and many times in many instances was the safe space right they've got affirming teachers or an affirming counselor. They've got peers who maybe identified as LGBTQ or maybe just I identify as allies who are helping them, you know through the process of self love and self accept. And in many cases that goes away when they go home so I think it's really important that we highlight some of those virtual chat and convening spaces that have taken the place of some of those in person spaces they would have used to school I think it's also important to call out the virtual mental health communities that are available right so again. If you go to our resource guide, you'll see there's a whole bunch of mental health resources that we've provided on the LGBTQ youth tab that. Can go and check out 26 health again is offering LGBTQ youth mental health resources so definitely take advantage of those right-I know it seems weird to be in this virtual space for a lot of us, but the reality is that's that's where young people often feel the most comfortable being themselves right They operate on social media. They don't know what ticktock is. I wish I was good at content creation on ticktock, but I can tell you that on that on other, you know social media outlets I. I see how comfortable young people are exploring their identities and connecting with people who you know who identify the way that they do so definitely leverage those virtual mental health spaces. Those virtual you know, chat and convening spaces and then, of course, you know you've got an ally and equality, Florida right and and we're doing a ton of webinars and town halls to continue to put the accountability back on our communities and continue to ask our school communities to make sure. Young people are being taken care of right We've been fielding Christ calls. I know day and night from LGBTQ young people who are not feeling safe. They're not feeling like they have a space to be themselves. They feel like home isn't isn't a safe place to be and part of the work that are safe and healthy schools team is doing right now is to go back to our school communities and ask what are we doing to make sure that our LGBTQ young people are safe? What are we doing to check in on them? in the last? This is really important to me, so I wanna make sure I get all the pieces here. We've got the virtual chat and convenient spaces. We've got virtual mental health resources available through the Trevor Project and organizations like 20 - six health. We've got a quality Florida advocating for young people, making sure that we're staying connected to the school communities. be those administrators, school board members teachers, whatever that is to make sure that we're staying connected to LGBTQ young people in the last piece is local organizations right-I know. In Orlando, we've got an Organization called the Zebra Coalition and they do a ton of work they do offer occasionally spaces for LGBTQ young people who are experiencing homelessness. they offer other resources to LGBTQ young people. so definitely keep your eyes filled for our local partners. They do the most important work on the ground every single day and then, of course, check out our resource guide for all the other stuff that I mentioned we've got a ton of resources available for LGBTQ young people. I just really hope that. Now that they've got allies, you know across the state of Florida, including here at Equality, Florida that are fighting for them every day great and actually we have a question from the comments. It's going back for just a second and he says, I heard you say that a person with HIV would not be risk at risk if they're at Undetectable levels would have a trans person be at a higher risk. So I'm not a medical professional. I wanna just put that caveat out there but what I know be true is this people with relative. Relatively healthy immune systems who you know whether they be living with HIV or transgender, or you know just people in general who have healthy immune systems are not in a high risk category are not put at risk simply based on who they are or their HIV status right. so you know, I would encourage people to go and check out again Our resource guide we've got a tab on there for the transgender and non-binary community. Lot more information around you know specific medical resources. we've got you know some pieces in there. We've got an entire resource guide specific to accessing physical health resources, so I would encourage everyone to go and check out that that guy, but I think the key part of what I was saying there and I think it applies across the board is to be sure that we don't allow stigma to define how we see risk from Covid- 19 right to make sure that we don't just say Well because. Person is who they are because they are living with HIV. They must be at high risk. we need to stick to the data and the data tells us that you know the people who are at risk are the ones with underlying health conditions. status alone does not determine that for someone living with HIV people who are at you know higher risk are the elderly population. they're definitely people who are you know, compromised et cetera. so just make sure we're leading with the facts and and Stigma and then again, of course, I would encourage Andi definitely. check out our resource guide for a ton of information there. We've also got Gina Duncan on staff Gina You can reach out to Hershey's Gina at Equality Florida dot Org. She's our director of our transaction program and she can go fully in depth with you on all things transgender coen, 19, related or otherwise great, and we actually just got a good comment here in in the comment section, which is a great transition to our next topic. Sally Phillips, She says. Thank you Brandon for what you're doing and happy pride and happy. And on to our next topic you know, we know that unfortunately, just about all the major pride parade and celebrations not only throughout Florida, but all around the country have been cancelled to the necessity of social distancing measures and place it to help stop the spread of the novel Corona virus how how can the LGBTQ people and allies alike celebrate Pride Month in a way that's safe, but still honors uplifts the historic and meaningful. Yeah. you know it's a good. And and pride means a lot of things right pride is is totally a celebration. It's absolutely a celebration of the progress that we've made pride is about parades. It's about floats. It always has been that and I know that pride celebrations have gotten really creative in the way that they've moved into virtual spaces. I think I've been to a couple of virtual rides now and I had a total blast. I didn't need a parade rolling down the Street to feel like I was in a parade online. And so I just hats off to you know the pride organizations here in the state of Florida that have done such an incredible job, bringing a virtual pride to life and giving us a virtual space to hang out together. I love putting my headphones in and kinda getting lost in my computer and forgetting that I'm just alone in my apartment, partying and dancing stream Chromatic by the way. I'm sure it's gonna be the the soundtrack to our pride month and so I'm looking forward to those moments, but I also think that. This gives us an opportunity to reflect on what else pride means to us right to have some introspection. it's not lost on me that Pride month is also June and June twelfth is the remembrance of the shooting at Pulse and I know that impacted me directly and it changed my life, but also know that it's changed the lives of people in our community, not just across Florida but really across the country and so for me while pride is about a celebration, it's about joining arms and. And celebrating the progress that we've made pride is also a humbling reminder of the work We have left to do pride is about honoring the sacrifices made at stone Wall. It's about honoring the people who lost their lives in the HIV and Aids crisis. It's about honoring the black trans women who are being hunted across the country and specifically here in Florida simply because of who they are. It's about honoring the 49 people that lost their lives at pulse that night, and it's not about just honoring them with the floats. About just honoring them with the celebration of our progress, it's not even just about honoring them with you know, Bank of America logos with a rainbow on them. It's about honoring them with our genuine action. It's about doing something differently. It's about disrupting the way that we operate on all levels right down to the individual level all the way up to the highest levels of government and societal structure. It's about disrupting the way that we live and operate to uproot. Stomach injustice and I mean that across the board and again it comes back to what I opened the town Hall with and that is we are at a really painful inflection point as a country. there are things that bubble underneath the surface that we don't talk about because they're uncomfortable across the country all the time the the murder of George Floyd that people watched on a horrific loop on social media, the the gay black. Christian Cooper in Central Park who was Bird watching when a White woman weaponized her race in a moment of fame, fear and terror that is systemic injustice and it's the common thread that binds a lot of these crises. It's the common thread that binds the struggle marginalized communities are facing for true equality for true equity for true Justice in this country. so for me and From a from a personal standpoint and also as an Organization Pride Month is about more than celebrating it is about that, and I love to do that. But it's about more than that. It's about honoring every single person that we've lost every single person who shoulders we stand on with more than just thoughts and prayers with more than just words with more than just parades and floats and zoom pride. But it's about honoring them with action and I'm really hoping that that action results in turn out in August for the primary. And in November for the election for me, I can think of no better way for people right now to share their pride in our community and our progress, Then by ensuring that they are set to vote in a safe way in August and November. So, that means not just registering making sure that your registration is up-to-date with your current address. It means signing up to get your ballot in the mail so that there isn't a soul who can stop you from sending that thing back. If you decide to do that. it's about taking every step we can to. The people that came before us with and that means getting out and making a plan to vote. actually answered the the last couple couple of questions I had. I was a great answer. So is there anything that that we haven't already talked about that haven't asked you that you'd like to touch on. You know, I think we had a staff call today and we talked a bit about this almost paralyzation that people are feeling right now they're crisis top on top of crisis and it can feel a bit like there isn't a way to be engaged right and you've got to take care of your household and and yes, take care of yourself and at the end of the day, it can feel overwhelming to try and figure out how to advocate right now. how to. Your pride in a way that understands that pride was a protest then and it's a protest now because so long as there is a Justice in the world, we are protesting for Justice right and so I think that there's a sense within the community that what can I do right now? What can I do to help what can I do to uplift and amplify my community? What can I do if I'm an ally to help in the fight for Justice? Be it racial Justice or Justice for the LGBTQ community? socioeconomic Justice. What can I do? Now to help lift up marginalized people who are hurting and I think Pride Month is a perfect time to send that right. as I mentioned, it's not just about celebrating. It's also about understanding the work we have left to do so I would encourage people to do what you can right from home. you can do a lot around an election from home. You can text Bank from home. You can send emails you can make phone calls all of that's possible right so figure out you can go to coming up on the weekend. 12 You'll be able to honor them with action dot Org and check out and sign up for our quality voter guide and figure out who those candidates are in those issues are out there that are helping to uplift our community. so that's one way you can get involved from home. You can donate to organizations like Equality, Florida, You can go to EQ F L dot Org. Click on. Donate now and your your dollars go directly to funding the fight for full equality the unfortunate part about this coin 19 crisis The other things that we have going on is that they haven't taken away from the work that has left to be done. We're fighting these battles right now. If you look at Jacksonville right, we're fighting a battle to reenact a human rights ordinance. We feel really good about the fight that we're waging up there. We feel really good about the language from the mayor but the reality is we're fighting those battles. We're fighting battles to protect against discrimination on a local level. We are still fighting the battle to pass statewide non-discrimination policy today in the state of Florida and in many States. The United States of America today I could get married, I can get married to the person that I love and on Monday I could show up to work put a picture of our wedding day on my desk and be fired because I married someone who you know is of the same sex and gender as I am. that's the world that we live in today and while I want people to be happy and excited about pride and find that virtual space to celebrate with each other, I have to continue to root us in this idea of what can we do in this moment? What? Can we take we can absolutely take those actions from home that I mentioned you can absolutely donate to organizations like Equality, Florida, and at the end of the day, we absolutely have to mobilize when it comes to elections in August and November right, and that means doing more getting a little bit more uncomfortable pitching in another $10. If you can, it means making another text Bank if you can and it means committing today that nothing will stand in the way of you exercising your right to vote. I wanna. I think we're coming to our close here, but I wanna root people in this number so I think I can share this with you that equality, Florida through its models has identified 500000 pro equality voters in the state of Florida that potentially may not show up in August and November for one reason or another, they may not show up in August and November Equality, Florida has committed to its largest. Program to help mobilize those 500000 voters to help remove obstacles between them and the ballot box and help turn them out in August and November. That is our commitment and I don't wanna come back to you Rep at the end of November and tell you that we did not have the resources or the willpower to get it done because we do we will get it done but that's what's at stake right now. That's what's at stake during Pride Month for me. That's what's at stake during the four -year remembrance of the Pulse nightclub. What's at stake is a future where LGBTQ young people don't have to be ashamed or afraid of who they are. It's a future where black trans women can walk the streets of their hometown without fearing being gunned down. It's a future where all of us are treated with the dignity and respect that we deserve and we're non discrimination is the law of the land. That's the future. That's at stake in Equality, Florida is a hundred percent committed to getting there, but it's gonna take every single one of us to do that. and I'm really hoping that people watching you and all of my allies and friends. Home are gonna jump in that fight with us. Right and then I would love to throw a bit of a plug in as Brandon mentioned on the local state level, the Competitive Workforce Act. you know it just adds those four simple words to update the Florida Civil Rights Act, you know, sexual orientation and gender identity, but that's all the change we're trying to make we've introduced that bill for 13 years in a row and it's got zero Committee hearings. Some something else we can do for action. Call your state legislators. Call your state senators call your representatives demand that they hear this. It's it's extremely important just to make sure that we live up to our American ideals and treat everybody equally. That's all we're asking Just let the debate happen. Let the bill be heard, but I wanna say thank you again to Brandon Wolfe for Equality, Florida for joining us on our Pride Month Kick-off Tele-town Hall. Please keep watch on our Facebook page and we'll be putting out the next Friday's Tele-town Hall. It should be a good one. I hope to see everybody there thanks again. Talk to you next Friday Thank you.