{"id":4177,"date":"2012-08-22T13:08:16","date_gmt":"2012-08-22T16:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.cos.ucf.edu\/?p=4177"},"modified":"2012-08-22T13:08:16","modified_gmt":"2012-08-22T16:08:16","slug":"ucf-alum-shares-his-story-about-being-first-openly-gay-legislator-in-the-history-of-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-alum-shares-his-story-about-being-first-openly-gay-legislator-in-the-history-of-florida\/","title":{"rendered":"UCF alum shares his story about being first openly gay legislator in the history of Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>David Richardson, a 55-year-old forensic accountant and political newcomer, says he\u2019s comfortable having made Florida history on election night.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am the first openly gay legislator in the history of Florida. And forever will be,&#8221; said Richardson, who defeated three other candidates to represent state House District 113 in Miami Beach.<\/p>\n<p>Richardson grew up in Orlando, earned biology and accounting undergraduate degrees at the University of Central Florida and a Master in Business Administration at the University of Tampa. After starting as a $10,000-a-year Pentagon auditor in Tampa, he joined what is now Ernst &amp; Young. In 1993, he started his own CPA practice. Business brought him to Miami Beach in 1995 and he became a permanent resident in 2001.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI often thought about getting involved in state government or helping some way. I decided this race would go to a newcomer and it was possible for me with my background to win,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I\u2019m a completely American dream story.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div>Read more about David Richardson from the Miami Herald\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/miamiherald.typepad.com\/gaysouthflorida\/2012\/08\/david-richardson-i-am-the-first-openly-gay-legislator-in-the-history-of-florida-and-forever-will-be.html\">here.<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>David Richardson, a 55-year-old forensic accountant and political newcomer, says he\u2019s comfortable having made Florida history on election night. \u201cI am the first openly gay legislator in the history of Florida. And forever will be,&#8221; said Richardson, who defeated three other candidates to represent state House District 113 in Miami Beach. Richardson grew up in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":4259,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[31,34,13,41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-news","category-biology-departments","category-news","category-shining-knights"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>UCF alum shares his story about being first openly gay legislator in the history of Florida - College of Sciences News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-alum-shares-his-story-about-being-first-openly-gay-legislator-in-the-history-of-florida\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UCF alum shares his story about being first openly gay legislator in the history of Florida - College of Sciences News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"David Richardson, a 55-year-old forensic accountant and political newcomer, says he\u2019s comfortable having made Florida history on election night. \u201cI am the first openly gay legislator in the history of Florida. And forever will be,&#8221; said Richardson, who defeated three other candidates to represent state House District 113 in Miami Beach. Richardson grew up in [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-alum-shares-his-story-about-being-first-openly-gay-legislator-in-the-history-of-florida\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"College of Sciences News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-08-22T16:08:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2012\/08\/Screen-Shot-2012-08-22-at-12.06.56-PM.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"214\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"330\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"jerriann.sullivan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"jerriann.sullivan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-alum-shares-his-story-about-being-first-openly-gay-legislator-in-the-history-of-florida\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-alum-shares-his-story-about-being-first-openly-gay-legislator-in-the-history-of-florida\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"jerriann.sullivan\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/a58d50998b0df974ea6fc70a24e37019\"},\"headline\":\"UCF alum shares his story about being first openly gay legislator in the history of Florida\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-08-22T16:08:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-alum-shares-his-story-about-being-first-openly-gay-legislator-in-the-history-of-florida\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":185,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-alum-shares-his-story-about-being-first-openly-gay-legislator-in-the-history-of-florida\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/29\\\/2012\\\/08\\\/Screen-Shot-2012-08-22-at-12.06.56-PM.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Alumni News\",\"Biology\",\"News\",\"Shining Knights\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-alum-shares-his-story-about-being-first-openly-gay-legislator-in-the-history-of-florida\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/ucf-alum-shares-his-story-about-being-first-openly-gay-legislator-in-the-history-of-florida\\\/\",\"name\":\"UCF alum shares his story about being first openly gay legislator in the history of Florida - 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