Offering one bright spot for LGBTQ Floridians in today’s grim political news landscape, former Orlando-area representative Carlos Guillermo Smith, a local champion of equal rights issues, has filed to run for the Florida Senate in 2024. Smith, the first openly gay Hispanic person elected to the Florida Legislature back in 2016, filed his candidacy with the Florida Division of Elections on Friday, which was first reported by the Orlando Sentinel the same day.