The Florida panhandle is the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Florida. It is a salient roughly 200 miles (320 km) long, bordered by Alabama on the north and the west, Georgia on the north, and the Gulf of Mexico to the south. Its eastern boundary is arbitrarily defined. It is defined by its southern culture and rural geography relative to the rest of Florida, as well as closer cultural links to French-influenced Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Its major communities include Pensacola, Navarre, Destin, Panama City Beach, and Tallahassee.
Scott Bundgaard is a Republican politician who served in the Arizona House of Representatives and in the Arizona State Senate. Bundgaard was elected in 2010 as Majority Leader of the Arizona State Senate, and later served as Vice-Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.
Daryl D. Metcalfe is an American politician who served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. Metcalfe is a member of the Republican Party and represented the 12th legislative district from 1999 until 2023.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals in the U.S. state of Alabama have federal protections, but still face legal challenges and discrimination on the state level that is not experienced by non-LGBT residents. LGBT rights in Alabama—a Republican Party stronghold located in both the Deep South and greater Bible Belt—are severely limited in comparison to other states. As one of the most socially conservative states in the U.S., Alabama is one of the only two states along with neighboring Mississippi where opposition to same-sex marriage outnumbers support.
Cam Ward is an American politician who served as a Republican member of the Alabama Senate, representing District 14 from 2010 to 2020. He previously represented District 49 of the Alabama House of Representatives from 2002 to 2010.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in the U.S. state of Florida have federal protections, but many face legal difficulties on the state level that are not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Same-sex sexual activity became legal in the state after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Lawrence v. Texas on June 26, 2003, although the state legislature has not repealed its sodomy law. Same-sex marriage has been legal in the state since January 6, 2015. Discrimination on account of sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing and public accommodations is outlawed following the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County. In addition, several cities and counties, comprising about 55 percent of Florida's population, have enacted anti-discrimination ordinances. These include Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa, Orlando, St. Petersburg, Tallahassee and West Palm Beach, among others. Conversion therapy is also banned in a number of cities in the state, mainly in Palm Beach County and the Miami metropolitan area. In September 2023, Lake Worth Beach, Florida became an official "LGBT sanctuary city" to protect and defend LGBT rights.
A model act, also called a model law or a piece of model legislation, is a suggested example for a law, drafted centrally to be disseminated and suggested for enactment in multiple independent legislatures. The motivation classically has been the hope of fostering more legal uniformity among jurisdictions, and better practice in legislative wording, than would otherwise occur; another motivation sometimes has been lobbying disguised under such ideals. Model laws can be intended to be enacted verbatim, to be enacted after minor modification, or to serve more as general guides for the legislatures.
Reuben Foster is an American football linebacker for the Houston Roughnecks of the United Football League (UFL). A consensus All-American in high school, Foster was regarded as the best linebacker prospect of his class before committing to Alabama, where he played from 2013 to 2016. In his final season there he was awarded the Butkus Award, which is given to the nation's best linebacker.
Randolph Bracy III is an American politician who is a member of the Florida Senate from the 11th district. Bracy's district includes parts of central and northwest Orange County. Bracy is the first African American to serve as Chair of the Criminal Justice Committee. As a member of the State Senate, Bracy pushed for the establishment of Juneteenth as a state holiday.
A six-week abortion ban, also called a "fetal heartbeat bill" by proponents, is a law in the United States which makes abortion illegal as early as six weeks gestational age, which is when proponents claim that a "fetal heartbeat" can be detected. Medical and reproductive health experts, including the American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, say that the reference to a fetal heartbeat is medically inaccurate and misleading because a conceptus is not called a fetus until eight weeks after fertilization, as well as that at four weeks after fertilization, the embryo has no heart, only a group of cells which will become a heart. Medical professionals advise that a true fetal heartbeat cannot be detected until around 17 to 20 weeks of gestation when the chambers of the heart have become sufficiently developed.
Dar'shun Nicole Kendrick is an American attorney and a member of the Georgia House of Representatives, representing the 95th district; she previously represented the 94th and 93rd districts. She is a member of the Democratic Party.
Gerald H. Allen is a Republican lawmaker in the Alabama Senate. He previously served in the Alabama House of Representatives.
Cannabis in Alabama is illegal for recreational use. First-time possession of personal amounts is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in prison, a fine of up to $6000, and a mandatory six months driver's license suspension. Repeat offenses and possession with intent to sell are felonies.
A bathroom bill is the common name for legislation or a statute that denies access to public toilets by gender or transgender identity. Bathroom bills affect access to sex-segregated public facilities for an individual based on a determination of their sex as defined in some specific way, such as their sex as assigned at birth, their sex as listed on their birth certificate, or the sex that corresponds to their gender identity. A bathroom bill can either be inclusive or exclusive of transgender individuals, depending on the aforementioned definition of their sex.
Juandalynn Deleathia "Lee Lee" Givan is an American lawyer and politician. She serves as a Democratic member of the Alabama House of Representatives, where she represents Jefferson County.
Anna Vishkaee Eskamani is an American politician who is the member of the Florida House of Representatives from the 42nd district, encompassing parts of Orlando along with Maitland, Winter Park, Eatonville, Edgewood, and Belle Isle. She is the first Iranian American elected to any public office in Florida. Eskamani is a member of the Democratic Party and supports abortion rights, increased gun control, increasing expenditures on public education, and strengthening environmental regulations.
Anthony Frank Sabatini is an American attorney and politician who served as a member of the Florida House of Representatives from the 32nd district from 2018 to 2022. He was a candidate in the 2022 United States House of Representatives elections in Florida for Florida's 7th congressional district, losing the Republican primary to Cory Mills.
Paul Novotny is an American politician serving in the Minnesota House of Representatives since 2020. A member of the Republican Party of Minnesota, Novotny represents District 30B in east-central Minnesota, which includes the cities of Elk River and Otsego and parts of Anoka, Sherburne, and Wright Counties.
Toni Hasenbeck is an American politician who has served in the Oklahoma House of Representatives from the 65th district since 2018.
Aaron Coleman is an American politician. A Democrat, he represented District 37 in the Kansas House of Representatives from 2021 to 2023. The district covers the Turner neighborhood and parts of the Argentine and Armourdale neighborhoods of Kansas City in Wyandotte County, Kansas. He was elected to the Kansas House of Representatives at the age of 20. Coleman previously ran a write-in campaign for governor of Kansas in 2018 and ran for the Kansas City Board of Utilities in 2019.
