Felipe Sousa-Lazaballet is a pioneer in the intersectionality of immigrant/LGBTQ rights with an incredible journey in his fight for equity and you’d be hard pressed to ever meet another like this remarkable human! All of Felipe’s life he’s been crushing barriers placed before him as a gay immigrant soaking in the knowledge of those who came before him and advocating for those who will come after through a treacherous but victorious trail of dreams.
I’ve had the privilege of knowing Felipe as a friend and colleague for several years now and yet in every conversation we have, more layers of his journey are uncovered and continue revealing how remarkable he truly is. This full circle story begins in 2001, as a young middle schooler who couldn’t speak a word of English, who hugged his mother, sister and other loved ones goodbye, leaving his poor neighborhood in Brazil and boarding a flight to America for a better life in hopes and dream of becoming a teacher.
To the plane full of other passengers, he was an excited boy coming to visit Orlando, the reality was that he was a scared boy coming on a tourist visa to stay with his sister for as long as possible.
As he traveled alone arriving at the immigration desk in Miami he remembered the important advice his mother gave him: “Just remember to say you’re going to Disney World”; except when Felipe arrived they tried to question him in English and when that didn’t work, Spanish, and when that didn’t work because he only spoke Portuguese he remembered his mother’s advice and blurted out “Mickey Mouse!” and they smiled and let him through. Those two words and a pathway of advocacy would lead Felipe from Miami to Washington D.C. to New York City and finally to his home here in Orlando, where “Mickey Mouse” lives.
Except by the time Felipe arrived to his new home here, this was a different Orlando. One now known, in recent times, not for Mickey Mouse but for one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history that affected hundreds of LGBTQ+ folks, mostly people of color and from all walks of life. It was a different Orlando and one that needed Felipe in it.
One of the remarkable aspects of Felipe that I have had the joy of experiencing as I have gotten to know him more and more is his energy. You don’t leave a conversation with Felipe without feeling better than you did going in and it most often ends with the words “Big Hugs” except you can really feel it. It’s like he can hug you with his words. Even in 2020 through Zoom, his passion and empathy is palpable.
palpable. When the opportunity opened for a position with the City of Orlando as Manager of Collaborative Partnerships, focusing on the long term recovery from the Pulse tragedy he knew this was where he was meant to be and in January 2017 he took the role and moved here to help continue the healing in our community.
Fast forward three years and Felipe is now the Inclusion, Diversity and Equity Senior Specialist for the Office of Multicultural Affairs for the City of Orlando. In this capacity he proposes policy recommendations, programs, advocates for best practices on LGBTQ issues, immigrant and refugee affairs, as well as outreach in the Muslim, Brazilian Arab American communities to encourage greater participation in city services.
Felipe joined the board of the One Orlando Alliance in January of 2018 and his work ethic, lived experience and insight have added incredible value to our community-based grassroots, nonprofit. If you have spent more than five minutes with this remarkable human, then you are learning the difference between equality and equity because of Felipe’s passion, it becomes a part of your every day thinking.
y thinking. I have had the pleasure of learning from and working along side Felipe to create real change in the LGBTQ+ community and beyond, with the knowledge that there is much more work to be done. Felipe has made such an impact that when I knew it was time for a new Board Chair for the organization I have loved serving these past four years, he was the successor that we all knew would take the Alliance to the next level.
It is you Felipe, that is the remarkable teacher you aspired to be nearly 20 years ago as you deplaned and fearfully blurted out “Mickey Mouse.” It is you who embody the word solidarity. It is you that makes Orlando feel like a place to belong and thrive to so many. It is you, who defines remarkable. We love you. Big Hugs always.
To view the full list of Watermark’s Most Remarkable People of 2020, click here.
