Issue #246: A look at some of Florida's First LGBT Elected Officials

From local office to the state legislature

Today marks the last day of Pride Month in the United States. To commemorate the end of the month, I wanted to continue my trend of Florida-centric LGBT articles for the final day of June.

• In 2023 - I wrote about the 2008 Same-Sex Marriage Ban referendum campaign

• In 2024 - I wrote about the fight for gay rights in Miami-Dade County

This year, I wanted to take a quick look at some of the trailblazing LGBT politicians in Florida; namely some of the first openly gay elected officials in the state. In no way is this a full list, especially at the local level, but rather some select examples. Down the line I’d like to highlight even more officials, as well as dig into some of the races I’m about to discuss at a more detailed level.

With that said, lets dive in.

Florida’s First Gay Mayor

The LGBT community in Florida saw its first election successes at the local level; with offices like city council or mayor. Florida’s first openly gay mayor was Richard Heyman, who was elected Mayor of Key West all the way back in 1983. Heyman was not only a groundbreaker in Florida, but he was one of the first openly gay mayors in the entire country.

Heyman, an openly gay business owner, was originally elected to the city council in 1979. His victory came as Key West was noted for becoming a major destination for LGBT Americans. Heyman himself was part of this migration, originally born in Ohio.

The 1983 election largely focused as a battle between newer residents vs the longtime “Conch” families that led the city and could trace back ancestry in the keys for generations. Heyman campaigned on cleaning up corruption in the city, which still had a large good-ol-boy network. His opponent, Richard Kerr, the candidate of the longtime families, alluded to Heyman’s sexuality in portraying him as an outsider.

Issue of “family” and “morality” were used against Heyman, but arguably had only modest effects. Kerr himself insisted he was seeking to win a chunk of the “gay vote.” What many longtime Conchs expressed fear about was a Heyman victory making the town a destination for more gay people to move in. Much of the prejudice was more about “outsider gays” rather than if a longtime Conch simply was gay. The dynamic here was so unique that I do want to do a more detailed research piece on this race in the future. Heyman would serve as Mayor twice and would sadly pass away from AIDs-related pneumonia in 1994.

Key West has long been a progressive “live and let live” town. This was most clearly seen in its easy rejection of the 2008 Same-Sex Marriage ban in Florida.

If you want to see more about politics in the Florida Keys, check out my article on Keys politics and Jimmy Buffet - an article I wrote after the longtime Key West resident and singer passed away.

Other Local Trailblazers

Years before the first openly gay state lawmakers would be elected in Florida, LGBT candidates still had their best runs at the local level. In 2000, Orlando’s Patty Sheehan was elected to the city council, making her the first openly gay Central Florida official.

Down in South Florida, Ft Lauderdale made history in 2003 when Dean Trantalis became the city’s first openly gay commissioner.

Trantalis’ victory came 10 years after the city’s first openly gay commission candidate lost amid a nasty and homophobic campaign. The Ft Lauderdale and Wilton Manors area had seen a massive growth in LGBT residents in recent years; with Wilton Manors electing gay officials several years earlier. The power of the “gay vote” was noted at the time in the local press coverage.

While Trantalis won, the incumbent Mayor, Jim Naugle, also won re-election. Naugle was far more conservative and was outright homophobic. His opponent in 2003, Tim Smith, won the areas Trantalis did. Naugle would serve as Mayor until 2009; winning largely as a populist and anti-developer candidate. His conservative politics increasingly put him outside of the city’s growing liberal views. In 2009, Jack Seiler was elected Mayor of the city. Seiler, who is straight, had once been elected Mayor in Wilton Manors with support from the LGBT community; ousting its homophobic mayor in 1998. Trantalis would serve on the city council off and on and in 2018 was easily elected Mayor in 2018 with 65% of the vote.

While South Florida is well known for having many LGBT elected officials today, those outside of Florida may not know that St Petersburg has also been a major site of gay residents and officials. The Pinellas County city has a vibrant LGBT population and has elected several out city commissioners. The first openly gay commissioner for St Peterburg was Steve Kornell, who was elected in 2009.

Kornell bested Angela Rouson, the wife of then State Representative, and current State Senator, Darryl Rouson. Angela was strong in the Black-majority communities that her husband represented in the State legislature, but Kornell dominated across the rest of the city.

One year later, the city of Gainesville would elect Craig Lowe as its first openly gay Mayor. Lowe, an incumbent commissioner, narrowly edged businessman Don Marsh. The campaign saw fliers go around claiming Lowe was part of the “gay agenda” - which the Marsh campaign denied was their doing.

While Gainesville is a very Democratic city, the non-partisan nature of the race and it being a spring contest led to a lopsided turnout dynamic. The University of Florida, located at the south end of the city and a major source of Democratic votes, had turnout below 5% . The closeness of the race was largely attributed to the turnout issue and not Lowe’s sexuality. The city rejected the 2008 same-sex marriage ban by 18 points back in 2008; when turnout was much stronger on the college campus.

First LGBT State Legislators

In 2012, Florida would finally elect its first openly gay state lawmakers. In fact, 2012 saw TWO openly gay men elected to the state house.

The first victory came in House District 113, a seat anchored in Miami-Beach and stretching into part of Miami itself. In an expensive and crowded four-way contest, David Richardson, a first-time candidate, prevailed with 33% of the vote.

Due to the heavily Democratic nature of the district, no Republican filed for the general. Richardson was hence elected in the Democratic primary; which was incidentally open to all voters.

In November of the same year, the Orland-area HD49 elected Joe Saunders as its state representative. Saunders, who before this worked for Equality Florida, became the first openly-gay man elected on a general election ballot in Florida. The race was heavily contested by both parties, with hundreds of thousands spent in the contest.

Saunders would lose re-election in 2014 as the GOP swept out several incumbents in Orlando - a product of atrocious turnout. However, in 2016, his former aid, Carlos Guillermo Smith, would easily retake the seat and become the state’s first openly-gay Hispanic state house member. In 2024, Smith was elected to the State Senate without any opposition, making him Florida’s 2nd gay state senator. I will cover who was FIRST in just a moment.

In 2018, Jennifer Webb would become Florida’s first openly lesbian state house member. That year, she flipped the GOP-held HD69; which covers part of St Petersburg and the coastal towns if Southwest Pinellas county.

Webb’s sexuality was no issue in the campaign; so much so many did not even realize she had made history with her victory until the race was called.

In 2020, Shevrin Jones became the first openly-gay state senator in Florida. Jones, who came out as gay while serving in the state house, was also Florida’s first openly-gay Black lawmaker. In 2020, he easily won the Democratic primary for SD35; a heavily Black seat. His opponents were former State Senator Daphne Campbell, former State House member Cynthia Stafford, incumbent State House member Barbara Watson, and incumbent Miami Gardens commissioner Erhabor Ighodaro.

The primary, which was tantamount to election in the seat, saw Jones face homophobic attacks; namely in the form of anonymous texts highlighting his sexuality. The district’s mix of Caribbean and non-Caribbean-Black voters; groups more socially conservative, did lead to some worrying Jones’ sexuality would cost him the race. In the end, however, Jones easily won the primary with 43%. He was forced into a new district in 2022 via redistricting, but easily prevailed there as well.

The same time Jones was winning his primary, Michele Rayner made history as the state’s first openly LGBT woman of color to be elected to the legislature. Rayner, a civil rights attorney, won the Black-access HD70; a sprawling district that united the Black communities of the Tampa Bay area.

Rayner’s narrow primary victory, based largely off winning in the Pinellas/St Pete area, led to her facing a primary challenge in 2022. However, she easily won over 50% in a 2022 primary race against former State House member Wengay Newton in a redrawn district. She is now running for the open State Senate seat, which will be up next year.

More to Come

As mentioned before, I would like to delve into even more groundbreaking LGBT politicians in Florida. If there is anyone you’d like to see covered, sound off in the comments below!