Tampa – Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn made one thing very clear during the Equality Florida Gala held at The Vault on Feb. 22. He’s proud to be mayor of the most LGBT-friendly city in Florida, and he’ll continue making his city a beacon of equality for as long as he is mayor.
The LGBT Rights organization recognized Buckhorn, the City Council and the City of Tampa for its 89% rating on the Human Rights Campaign’s Municipal Equality Index Scorecard. That score made Tampa the highest-rated Florida city when it comes to LGBT equality.
When he took the stage, Buckhorn jokingly said that he was happy that his city outranked the city governed by mayor Buddy Dyer of Orlando, and went on tell a capacity crowd of more than 500 people that he will continue to ensure Tampa is a beacon of equality in Florida.
“It is so great to see a city that is alive, vibrant and is a destination,” Buckhorn said with the rainbow-colored dome of the SunTrust building across the street visible through the window behind him. “Part of that reason is our ability to compete for the best and the brightest around the globe and make them understand this city is a place of destiny and hope. That requires that we celebrate our diversity as a strength.”
Tampa was the first city in Tampa Bay to pass a domestic partnership ordinance in 2012, and was also one of the first to offer benefits to same-sex partners of city employees. The entire Tampa City Council was on hand to accept the award, and stood on stage with Buckhorn as he spoke.
“I’m not going to be a mayor of a city that demonizes people based on race, creed, or color or ethnicity or gender or the god you worship or who you love,” Buckhorn said to a round of applause. “I’m proud of that first place [on the HRC MEI]. But more importantly, I’m proud of how far this city has come. Proud of how we share each other’s successes.
“Ultimately, 10 years from now, they’re going to look at this time in our history and say this is where Tampa stood up. I can’t tell you what Hillsborough County is going to do. But I can tell you what this city is going to do.”
Equality Florida’s executive director, Nadine Smith, took to the stage after the awards presentation, and talked about the extraordinary gains for equality in the past 12 months.
But she warned that each victory made for equality only fuels those fighting against LGBT equality.
“We are winning all over the country and we should be thrilled and we should be proud, but also remember in Arizona they’re considering a law that would allow a restaurant or a barber shop or any place of business to say, ‘We do not serve your kind,'” Smith said. “So the backlash is real. The progress is real. And this is the moment to lean in like never before. This is the moment to hit the gas.”
And she told those attending that if Arizona seems like a distant country compared to Florida, they were wrong.
“This is the state where right now we can’t forget we have people who stay up late at night figuring out how to make our lives harder, and they’re not simply going to go away because the winds of change are in our sails, and we’re on the right side of history,” she said. “In fact, in these final hours, they’re going to fight harder than they ever have. They’re going to fight dirtier than they ever have. So stand up with us.”
Tickets to the annual gala sold out and early estimates put fund raising well beyond the organization’s goal of $225,000. No exact totals had been released as of press time, however.
Also recognized was PNC Bank, which received the organization’s Business for Equality Award. “PNC has always enjoyed a 100-percent ranking from HRC’s corporate equality index,” explained Ed Lally, Equality Florida’s Central Florida Corporate and Development Manager. “The bank is also a statewide presenting sponsor this year.”
The evening was emceed by Bay News Nine reporter Trevor Pettiford, who thanked the audience for its tremendous support of equality and shared that he was happy to be among “family” at the event.
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