(Photo courtesy Ed Lally)
The Good Page features positive LGBTQ+ news in Central Florida and Tampa Bay, uplifting and inspiring stories highlighting locals in our community. Here, we check in with longtime advocate Ed Lally.
For nearly five decades, he has been one of those rare community figures whose presence becomes part of a region’s civic DNA. His story isn’t a straight line so much as a long, steady arc of showing up, stepping in and refusing to let anyone in Tampa Bay’s LGBTQ+ community feel alone in the fight for dignity.
Lally arrived in Florida in 1979, at a time when being openly gay could cost you your job, your safety and your future. “We hardly had any rights at all,” he recalls, but that reality didn’t intimidate him. It activated him.
His volunteer work with Equality Florida began almost as soon as the organization formed. What started as lending a hand became a seven‑year tenure as a development officer, helping fuel the campaigns that reshaped the state’s legal landscape.
He watched domestic partnership protections take root, saw adoption bans fall and stood witness to the moment same‑sex marriage became law in 2015. Through it all, he admired the organization’s discipline and impact.
But before Equality Florida, there was the Tampa AIDS Network. In 1986, when Lally joined the board, the crisis was devastating the community. Friends were dying. Resources were scarce. Clinical trials were out of reach.
“What I learned is that when people come together and put a process together to help people, it just makes a huge difference,” he says. That belief — that collective action saves lives — became the foundation of everything he would do next.
His work continued with the Human Rights Campaign’s Federal Club and the Tampa International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, now TIGLFF. Through every chapter, advocacy became less of a choice and more of a calling.
When asked if there was a moment he knew it would always be part of his life, he doesn’t hesitate. He remembers the AIDS epidemic.
“Our friends were dying,” he explains. That grief became a promise: he would not sit on the sidelines again.
Today, his work continues through Voter Action Pinellas, where he serves on the board as a volunteer fundraiser and one of the organization’s most dedicated organizers. They knew his proven fundraising skills would be useful to the work ahead.
With over 200 volunteers, the mission is straightforward: give voters the information they need to participate fully in democracy. The urgency, he says, is impossible to ignore.
“This right‑wing of the Republican Party is taking away women’s rights, they’re taking away gay rights. They’re taking away rights from Black and brown people. They’re trying to erase Black history.” His response is to work harder.
Voter Action Pinellas researches every race on the ballot, including judicial and municipal seats that often go overlooked. They analyze amendments, track candidates’ positions and send sample ballots to voters so they can walk into the booth informed and confident.
The results are tangible. Personal outreach, Lally says, is what moves people. Friends talking to friends. Neighbors talking to neighbors. Volunteers using the Reach app to identify their own networks and become advocates within them.
“When they hear from someone they know about the importance of voting, then they’re fired up,” he advises. The organization has already tripled its reach and aims to touch more than 210,000 voters by November.
Collaboration is part of the strategy. Voter Action Pinellas partners with local groups, women’s organizations and participates in events like St Pete Pride and Winter Pride, setting up booths and meeting voters where they already are.
The long‑term vision is even bigger. “We hope to grow the organization over the whole state,” he advises. “If we could have this machine working across the whole state, the voter turnout would be so dramatic. It would be hard to lose a race.”
For those who want to get involved but don’t know where to begin, his advice is simple: start local. “Look for a political organization in your community, research it and see if it fits with what you can do,” he says. Passion will point the way.
Nearly 40 years after he began, Lally is still showing up — for equality, for democracy, for the people who need someone in their corner. His work is a reminder that progress is built by those who refuse to stop fighting for it.
Learn more about Voter Action Pinellas at VoterActionPinellas.org.
Interested in being featured in The Good Page? Email Editor-in-Chief Ryan Williams-Jent at Ryan@WatermarkOutNews.com in Tampa Bay or Central Florida Bureau Chief Bellanee Plaza at Bellanee@WatermarkOutNews.com in Central Florida.
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