Alabama’s first openly gay lawmaker to lead LGBTQ coalition
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) – Alabama’s first openly gay lawmaker will head an LGBTQ coalition in Florida after her retirement this year.
Democratic Rep. Patricia Todd from Birmingham has accepted a job as executive director of One Orlando Alliance, a coalition of LGBTQ organizations formed after the 2016 PULSE gay nightclub shooting.
Todd said “only an experience like this would take me away from Alabama.”
Todd has served 12 years in Alabama’s House. She helped pass a law to allow marijuana medication for seizures and unsuccessfully pushed to add sexual orientation as a protected category under a hate crime law. Her colleagues gave her a standing ovation at the end of this year’s session.
Todd retires in November, when her term ends. She will move with her wife to Orlando in a couple months.
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