Manatee LGBTQ Democratic Caucus

On the first day of Pride month, we’re remembering Marsha P Johnson, the tireless activist who participated in the 1969 Stonewall riots against police.

She fought throughout her life for trans rights and for the rights of people of colour within the LGBT+ movement before her passing in 1992. Her body was pulled from the Hudson River, and her death was initially ruled to be by s*icide, but authorities later claimed it was a “drowning from undetermined causes”.

On the subject of history, Johnson famously said: “History isn’t something you look back at and say it was inevitable. It happens because people make decisions that are sometimes very impulsive and of the moment, but those moments are cumulative realities.”

📷 Getty

Setting the example

Today (and every day) is a great day to live your life as your true, authentic self. I’m wishing everyone a happy Pride Month! 🏳️‍🌈

Happy Pride month!

RIP, Barney

Breaking: Barney Frank has died. The man who stood up in Congress and said "Am I gay? Yes. So what?" - at the height of the AIDS crisis - is gone at 86.

He died Tuesday night at his home in Maine. He had spent his final weeks in hospice giving interviews and working on one last book. Of course he did.

Barney came out in a 1987 Boston Globe interview at a moment when the epidemic was killing gay men by the thousands and few politicians would even say the word "gay" out loud. He didn't just survive it - he became the most powerful openly gay official in the federal government.

In 2012, he became the first sitting member of Congress to enter a same-sex marriage, with his husband Jim Ready and Nancy Pelosi in the room.

Last month he told NBC News what it had all meant. "It was life-changing, lifesaving for me. The key to the enormous progress we made was us all coming out - and people discovering the gap between our reality and the way we were painted."

Rest easy, Barney.

"In the years since the [Pulse Orlando] attack, [Brandon] Wolf has turned grief into action, co-founding The Dru Project to empower young leaders and becoming the first Pulse survivor to testifying before Congress. He has also become one of the nation’s most recognizable voices for LGBTQ+ equality and gun violence prevention, joining the Human Rights Campaign as national press secretary in 2023.

"He now returns to Florida to expand on that work. According to a press release, he “will shape Equality Florida’s messaging strategy and serve as a key state and national spokesperson during this defining chapter for LGBTQ Floridians and for the broader fight over freedom, equality and democracy.”"

Brandon Wolf returns to Equality Florida to lead national LGBTQ+ strategy - Watermark Out News Pulse survivor and national LGBTQ advocate Brandon Wolf rejoins Equality Florida as Senior Director of Communications Strategy.

Silver Pride -- Saturday, June 6, 2026

✨ We’re bringing the sparkle back to Sarasota for Silver Pride 2026! ✨

🌈 “Honoring Our Past, Celebrating Our Future” 🌈

Hosted by Joey Panek, best known as one of the hosts and producers of ABC7’s morning talk show, Suncoast View.

Enjoy a fabulous afternoon filled with:
🎶 Live Music
🍴 Delicious Food Options
🛍️ Local Vendors & Community Partners
💖 Pure Joy & Community Pride

Best of all — it’s FREE, fabulous, and all about YOU! Let’s show the world that Pride only gets better with age.

📍 Senior Friendship Centers
1888 Brother Geenen Way, Sarasota, FL
📅 Saturday, June 6, 2026
⏰ 12:00 PM – 4:00 PM

Manatee County's congressional district, CD-16, has included portions of neighboring suburban Hillsborough County -- at least until today's predicted vote in the Florida State Senate.

DeSantis's wildly redrawn CD-16 encompasses Manatee County, and the southern half of St. Pete (Pinellas County), and all of the eastern portion of Sarasota County east of I-75, and all of Desoto and Hardee counties, and even the southern half of Polk County.

Good luck to *any* candidate of any party trying to campaign for this hodgepodge gerrymandered district, where voters' urban-suburban-rural interests vary wildly.

Issue 283: Ron DeSantis releases his "Screw Fair Districts" Congressional Map DeSantis decides what laws apply