Florida Lawmaker Comes Out, Says He's Now 'Living My Truth'

Shevrin Jones, a Democrat from Broward County in south Florida, had been quietly coming out to colleagues in the legislature as he was going through a divorce from his wife a few years ago, the Miami Herald reports. Now he’s come out publicly by letting Equality Florida list him as one of its endorsed LGBTQ candidates.

When Equality Florida asked his permission, “I said I don’t know if that’s the way I want to have a coming-out party,” Jones told the Herald. “Then I was like, ‘You know what, go ahead. It’s fine.’”

Jones said the death of his older brother last year inspired him to open his closet door wider. “My brother died at the age of 34,” said Jones, who is that age now. “I was like, that could have been me. I could drop dead living behind the scenes of something that could have helped someone else. I started living my truth just a little bit more.”

Jones, who now lives with a male partner in Hollywood, Fla., said he’s not worried that coming out will hurt his political career. “Mark my words: Now that I’m living my truth, if I am never elected again, I’m OK with that,” he told the Herald. “Because there are so many people right now who are in office, in places of high stature, who are not living truthful lives and they sleep with that lie on a daily basis. If me living my truth is a reason to vote against me or vote me out, then I’m OK with that.”

https://www.advocate.com/politicians/2018/8/24/florida-lawmaker-comes-out-says-hes-now-living-my-truth