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As we begin the New Year, we are reflecting on all the challenges and successes experienced by our community in the past year. Together with your support we were able to accomplish so much despite being a difficult year for our community politically and in public policy in Florida. As we look forward to 2023, we are reminded once again of how grateful we are for you – our generous volunteers, donors, and advocates. You make it possible for us to fulfill our mission to promote, protect and defend equality for people in South Florida who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and/or queer.

Here is a look back at how your support of SAVE made an impact in 2022:

Political Advocacy: Educating Leaders and Policymakers

SAVE is committed to promoting local, state, and federal policy change by building community consensus and supporting political leaders committed to ending LGBTQ discrimination.

With the help of our dedicated group of volunteer endorsement panelists and field volunteers, in 2022 we:

• Conducted 97 candidate interviews
• Elected 34 pro-equality candidates, 4 whom are openly LGBTQ candidates including:

Congressman Jared Moskowitz - US House District 23
Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz – US House District 25
Senator Shevrin Jones – FL Senate District 34
Minority Leader Lauren Book – FL Senate District 35
Rep. Hillary Cassel – FL House District 101
Rep. Robin Bartleman – FL House District 103
Rep. Dotie Joseph – FL House District 108
Rep. Ashely Gantt – FL House District 109
Rep. Christopher Benjamin – FL House District 107

Sign-up to become an endorsement panelist.

Through our collective efforts, SAVE fought back against an onslaught of anti-LGBTQ policies including the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, censorship by School Boards, and the Florida Medical Board’s ban on trans healthcare in 2022:

• 74 volunteer phonebank shifts
• Protesting in Miami-Dade, Broward, Orlando and Tallahassee
• Lobbying key elected officials for their support
• Providing buses for community members to attend rallies throughout the state
• Making sure our community is heard by testifying during public comments

SAVE continued to work to ensure cities in South Florida are welcoming and inclusive for the LGBTQ community through serving on the Miami Beach, City of Miami, and Miami-Dade LGBTQ Advisory Boards, and guide local leaders to improve local policies. Congratulations to all of the South Florida cities that received an "All-Star" rating in the 2022 Human Rights Campaign Municipal Equality Index: 

Coral Gables
Fort Lauderdale
Hialeah
Hollywood
Miami
Miami Shores
Oakland Park
Pembroke Pines
Wilton Manors

SAVE Volunteers: A Community United for Human Rights

SAVE volunteers are at the core of who we are; they give their time and treasure to mobilize voters, elect pro-equality candidates, and educate the public about the issues impacting the LGBTQ community are essential to our success.

• In addition to having a person on the ground in Miami-Dade, we hired a full-time Field and Community Organizer for Broward to fuel our expansion
• 98 volunteer actions were completed by 175 volunteers completing 674 shifts to aid in:
  • LGBTQ Advocacy Phone Banking to fight back against the “Don’t Say Gay” bill
  • Prejudice Reduction Deep Canvassing to combat the Housing Crisis
  • Get Out the Vote Canvassing and Phone Banking to support pro-equality candidates up and down the ballot in Miami-Dade and Broward

Sign-up to volunteer

Florida AIDS WALK: SAVE Raised Nearly $650,000

SAVE’s fundraising campaign via the 2022 Florida AIDS Walk and Music Festival was remarkably successful. Through the generosity of our donors, the SAVE Foundation raised a total of $324,485.87, matched dollar-for-dollar by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), making our total campaign tally $648,971.74.

We are thrilled that SAVE was once again selected to be a beneficiary of this important initiative in 2023. The festival will be held on March 18, 2023, and every dollar we raise through the walk will be doubled by AHF!

Click here to donate

SAVE’s 2022 Gala: Honoring Champions of Equality

We were fortunate in 2022 to be able return to an in-person event for the annual Champions of Equality Gala at the beautiful New World Center on Miami Beach. Hosted by Miami Beach Commissioner David Richardson with performances by Deborah Cox and Alex Zenoz.

2022 Honorees

Karla Hernandez-Mats – President, United Teachers of Dade

Stacy Hyde – Chief Executive Officer, Broward House

Georg Ketelhohn – Activist and Attorney, Siegfried Rivera

Ana Navarro – Political Strategist and Commentator

Lillian Tamayo – Former President/CEO, Planned Parenthood of South, East and North Florida

In addition to the honorees, five recipients of the Freidin Brown PA and SAVE Social Justice Scholarship – Misty Alicea, Monica Charleston, Juan Esquivel, Monica Larsen, and Mary Rosado - were announced during the program. Since 2019, Freidin Brown PA has donated more than $100,000 to this scholarship program for LGBTQ and allied scholars.

SAVE-THE-DATE for the next Champions of Equality Gala: May 14, 2023, taking place at the beautiful Frank Gehry-designed New World Center in Miami Beach.

Be Election Ready

This year's critical midterm elections on November 8^th are just around the corner. We want to make sure you, your friends and your families are election ready. Visit our Election Center to view all of SAVE Action PAC's endorsed pro-equality candidates and to find links to update your voter information at www.WeVote.LGBT. These are important dates to remember are:

• October 11th - Deadline to Register to Vote
• October 24th to November 6th - Early Voting is Open
• October 27th - Last Day to Request Your Vote by Mail Ballot
• November 8th - Election Day

If we are going to stop the onslaught of attacks on the LGBTQ by Governor DeSantis, voting ourselves simply is not enough. All of us must take action to motivate pro-equality voters across South Florida to cast their ballots.

Get Involved and Do Your Part

You can help us by joining in our get out the vote efforts. Every Saturday we are going door-to-door in Miami-Dade and Broward to connect with and educate the voters that will determine the election if they cast their ballots. We need you to join the team now if we are going to motivate enough of these pro-equality voters in time. Sign-up now to take action at www.save.lgbt/actions.

Today Governor DeSantis signed HB 1557, the controversial “Don’t Say Gay” bill that aims to bar educators from discussing sexual orientation and gender identity with young students in the classroom and represents an egregious affront to American democratic values. We condemn the legislators that voted in favor of the bill and the Governor for signing the bill into law. This represents the worst of our fears despite the advances we have made in the last ten years. Our moment to take action and protect our LGBTQ community has come again. We need to show up at the ballot box to ensure anti-LGBTQ and anti-democracy lawmakers are voted out of office.

All in all, Florida’s 2022 legislative session saw little more than partisan lawmakers pandering to their far-right base by waging culture wars against their LGBTQ constituents, women, people of color, and the environment. In the process, they also handed Governor Ron DeSantis considerable political ammunition as the leading polarizing figure of the 2022 midterm elections.

With the legislative session now behind us, there’s no time to wallow, and we must urgently recognize how critical these elections in August and November will be. The reality is that we’re grossly outnumbered against anti-LGBTQ politicians and, as always, preparedness and organization are paramount as we fight to keep the future of LGBTQ equality from slipping away.

Elections in August and November are as critical as those in 2020.

Donald Trump may not be on the ballot in Florida’s 2022 midterm elections, but Governor DeSantis and his followers certainly are. And like the former president, this cunning careerist leading the state has emerged as a formidable champion of national conservative causes since assuming Florida’s governorship in 2019.

From banning free speech around gender identity and sexual orientation, to policing women’s bodies with a 15-week ban on abortion, DeSantis connivingly exploited this year’s legislative session to advance his political ambitions, which may include running for POTUS in 2024.

Before his stardom continues to rise nationally, however, DeSantis must first win a second term as Florida Governor. As we fight for the future of LGBTQ equality in this country, steering the outcome of November’s gubernatorial election could be our most historically decisive battle yet. And we must also begin to balance the legislature by making sure that pro-equality lawmakers are voted into office. While we may be grossly outnumbered, the path to a more moderate state house begins now.

Pro-equality voters need to prepare.

With the Florida primaries approaching fast, it’s imperative that we begin preparing for the 2022 midterm elections now. We must prioritize voting for leaders with integrity who advance civil rights and liberties for all Americans, not cheap power mongers willing to sell out our freedom for political gain.

To ensure your vote counts, creating a personal plan for how you will vote is a key first step. In Florida, the primary will be held on August 23, followed by Election Day on November 8. Incumbent Governor Ron DeSantis is running for a second term. On the ballot will also be every Senate and House seat in the Florida legislature, including the Senate seat currently held by Marco Rubio. Make sure you become familiarized with all the pro-equality candidates now so you can cast your votes accordingly when the time comes. Keep tabs of the SAVE endorsed candidates at www.WeVote.miami.

Conversations matter more than political ads.

A well-organized get-out-the-vote campaign is the most effective way for us to turn elections around. Not political ads, but rather one-on-one dialog as a means of squashing misinformation, combating ignorance, and winning hearts and minds across our communities.

At SAVE, we believe that if you’re not canvassing, then you’re not doing the work necessary to garner the votes we need to win. In today’s political reality, anything short of knocking on doors amounts to little more than slacktivism. To this end, we are deploying our teams of trained volunteers to engage South Florida’s voters in transformative conversations with the dual aim of informing, but also listening to advance our own knowledge of the populace voice.

The outcome of Florida’s 2022 midterm elections will determine the future of our state and, by extension, that of American democracy itself. We urge you to join our canvassing actions and help us rally pro-equality voters in the months leading up to the elections. A donation at the SAVE website will also go a long way in helping our organization stay in the fight for LGBTQ equality. Find a way to get involved in the field, even if it’s not through SAVE. What matters most is that we all do our part, however small, while time is still on our side.

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