Nearly 10 years after surviving the mass shooting at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub, activist Brandon Wolf is returning to Florida to take on what he calls growing anti-LGBTQ+ extremism. Wolf, a gun violence prevention advocate and former national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign, has left Washington, D.C., to rejoin Equality Florida as senior director of communications strategy. In an interview with The Advocate, Wolf said now is the right time to return to his home state ahead of the 10th anniversary of the Pulse massacre, where 49 people — most of them queer and Latino — were killed on June 12, 2016. Wolf survived the attack by hiding in a bathroom.
He said the tragedy changed the course of his life and inspired him to fight for future generations of LGBTQ+ people. He said, “If we’re going to beat the Donald Trumps of the world, the right-wing zealots of the world, we’re going to have to beat them at ground zero.” Wolf also delivered a pointed message to Ron DeSantis. “We’re still in Florida. We’re still here. We’re still queer. It’s still our state, too…I hope he goes to bed every night knowing that he failed at his attempts to erase LGBTQ Floridians.” Wolf said Equality Florida will continue advocating for queer rights alongside reproductive, immigration, and voting rights efforts, adding that there cannot be a free Florida if some people are not free.
