On December 13, 2008, representatives of SAVE Dade and SAVE Foundation, as well as several other local leaders and local organizations from across the state, met in Orlando, Florida to share information and discuss major developments and goals from their respective parts of the state. This conversation was very informative, productive and inspiring, and led to the idea of creating a permanent way for local organizations to communicate, share resources, and cooperate with each other. SAVE Dade and SAVE Foundation worked with other local organizations to create a federation of local LGBT and allied organizations, called Organizations United Together (OUT) Federation. SAVE Dade and SAVE Foundation have joined OUT Federation, as have over twenty other local organizations throughout the state. OUT held its first organizational meeting on January 24th, 2009 in Orlando. This meeting was attended by over 80 leaders from across the state, representing roughly half of Florida’s 67 counties.
OUT’s mission is to connect and empower local organizations to share resources, skills and information, forging statewide strength in order to achieve equality and justice for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Floridians. A list of Frequently Asked Questions concerning OUT, and answers to those questions, is enclosed herewith. OUT intends to continue to provide a forum for local organizations to teach each other valuable skills such as local fundraising, volunteer recruitment, leadership development, use of the internet as an organizational tool, etc. OUT will also provide forum for local organizations to cooperate on joint projects in order to have greater impact.
Working together, local organizations can support each other in times of need, and can support the work of LGBT state and national organizations in order broaden our impact and hasten the accomplishment of statewide policy change in Florida. Already this cooperation has led to specific positive results in 2009. For example, at the request of Palm Beach County Human Rights Council, SAVE Dade was able to get additional state representatives from the Miami-Dade region to co-sponsor an amendment to the Florida Civil Rights Act. This amendment would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the state’s protections against discrimination. Palm Beach County Human Rights Council has been working for the past two years to advance this amendment to the Civil Rights Act, but OUT has now provided a new way for SAVE Dade to coordinate with such statewide efforts to provide support in our part of the state.
Also, at the request of SOCR (Securing Our Children’s Rights), the statewide Florida organization focused on repeal of Florida's adoption ban, SAVE Dade was successful in securing additional sponsors for a bill that would repeal Florida's gay adoption ban outright. This is the first year that such a bill was filed in the Florida legislature, thanks to SOCR’s leadership and the support of local political organizations. SAVE Dade and Palm Beach County Human Rights Council have already secured several additional sponsors for this legislation.
And also, at the request of Equality Florida, SAVE Dade helped to secure the primary sponsor for filing a bill to create domestic partnership recognition at the state level in the House of Representatives. Representative Richard Steinberg has agreed to sponsor this bill in the Florida House at the joint request of SAVE Dade, Equality Florida and Miami Clinic Defense Project.
