Daniel Sohn at the Orange County Convention Center. (Photo by Somelillan Entertainment, LLC)
ORLANDO | The Pride Chamber, Central Florida’s LGBTQ+ business association, has named Daniel Sohn as its new president and chief executive officer. Sohn replaces Kellie Parkin, who stepped down from the position last year to become the executive director for the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce in New York.
Sohn comes to The Pride Chamber with an extensive resume of executive leadership roles including as the national president of the U.S. Business Consortium, president and CEO of Antioch Chamber of Commerce, president and CEO of Antioch Convention & Visitors Bureau, CEO of Imperial Valley Regional Chamber of Commerce, CEO of El Centro Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Bureau and executive director of South Florida Non-Profit Chamber of Commerce.
“I love the chamber world. It’s been good to me and I’ve worked hard to be good to it,” Sohn says. “I’ve always been a small business advocate and an economic development advocate.”
Along with serving the business community, Sohn has also worked in the political filed, serving as a Haverhill, Florida city councilmember where he made history as the first openly LGBTQ+ person elected in the city’s history and the first out bisexual person elected to public office in the state of Florida.
A South Florida native, Sohn has been splitting his time between Florida and California, where he was nominated by California Gov. Gavin Newsom and appointed by President Joe Biden to serve as a governing board member representing the state of California to the nations’ Selective Service System.
Sohn is taking the reins of The Pride Chamber a critical time in Florida, both economically and politically. Last month, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the largest slate of anti-LGBTQ+ bills in a single legislative session in the state’s history, prompting several civil rights organizations to issue travel advisories to Florida, with the Human Rights Campaign taking it a step further declaring a state of emergency.
“I have been a longtime supporter of HRC and Equality Florida, and no one will ever get me to work against them. I stand with them,” Sohn says. “We all certainly understand those that feel it is unsafe to remain in Florida but those of us that are here should stand and fight, should encourage our community businesses to stay open, to welcome all, to feel free to — especially in Orlando — fly your Pride flag outside of your stores, businesses and homes. You are safe here.”
The Pride Chamber is currently Florida’s largest LGBTQ+ business association, something the doesn’t happen by chance or overnight, Sohn states.
“It takes a lot of hardworking people to build that foundation and build that community that comes together to say, we want to support LGBT business owners. We want to support this community because we want them to feel a part of this community,” he says.
But it isn’t just the LGBTQ+ business owners that are going to sustain the community. Sohn says that being mindful about recognizing allies in the chamber is significant.
“I subscribe to the belief that what we do together is what makes us the whole that we are,” he says. “So I believe that allyship is important in building partnerships and coalitions with community members going forward in the work that we already do to together.”
Sohn adds that The Pride Chamber will soon by launching a corporate equality council made up of corporate entities with 500 or more employees who are committed to supporting the LGBTQ+ community with significant dollars.
“That means committing to hiring LGBT employees from this area, from this region, and/or implementing DEI from top to bottom, bottom to top, within their organization and in their missions,” Sohn says. “If there is going to be a safe place for you to visit, move, spend your money, live, work, play and own a business, it’s going to be Orange County. It’s going to be Central Florida. But we aren’t going to be able to do it alone.”
Learn more about The Pride Chamber by going to ThePrideChamber.org.
