Florida

David Richardson has become the first openly LGBT candidate elected to the Florida legislature. He won a Democratic primary tonight to represent the Miami-area District 113 in the Florida House of Representatives, and faces no GOP opponent this fall.

The one-man outrage outlet better known as the Florida Family Association is up in arms over a new partnership between Office Depot and Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation, including a $1 million donation.

PALM COAST, Fla. — A Florida school district has settled a complaint filed against it with the U.S. Office of Civil Rights which alleged that the staff at Flagler Palm Coast High School allowed a gay former student to be bullied.

The gloves are off and the masks have been removed in the United States as apparently it has become acceptable, even fashionable, to bully your fellow citizens — or better still, hang an effigy of your president, who happens to be black, with a noose, and in a part of the country where not too long ago, that in of itself was quietly approved.

ORLANDO, Fla. — More than 150,000 gays and lesbians and their families descended on Walt Disney World and surrounding theme parks this weekend for the 22nd annual “Gay Days” events, an annual pilgrimage that contributes hundreds of millions of dollars to the Orlando-area economy.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A coalition of business organizations and elected officials are backing legislation to ban anti-gay discrimination which is set to be introduced at next week’s Jacksonville, Fla., city council meeting.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Gay Republicans joined many of their straight counterparts in Florida Tuesday night in congratulating former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for his decisive victory in the Florida Republican primary.

ORLANDO, Fla. — Gay rights advocates expect a strong turnout of same-sex couples at Orlando’s City Hall when the city’s new domestic-partnership registry opens next month. The registry, which takes effect Jan. 12, will extend vital legal protections to gay and lesbian families.

ORLANDO, Fla. — The Orlanda City Council on Monday voted unanimously to enact a domestic partnership registry, as the city became the first in Central Florida to recognize relationships of same-sex couples.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The Broward County Commission on Tuesday voted unanimously to approve Florida’s first countywide Equal Benefits Ordinance (EBO), a measure that requires the county’s vendors to provide domestic partners with benefits equal to those offered to spouses of married employees.