How do you identify? I identify as Pansexual.

How do you identify? Gay Hispanic Male.

How do you identify? Queer.

South Florida is home to tens of thousands LGBTQ folks looking for love – sometimes in all the wrong places. So we decided for this Valentine’s Day to let our readers nominate themselves, or others, so we could choose and highlight a few of them.

In 1987, I visited the island of Hawaii for the very first time. My mother and I decided to join other family members on the vacation of a lifetime. Hawaii had always been my mother’s dream vacation, so she was eager to go. Being 7 years old at the time, I don’t remember much about that trip with a few exceptions. One notably was having to wrap a hula skirt around my neck because I was too short for it to go around my waist.

The unassuming duplex sits nestled along an unassuming tree lined street in an unassuming neighborhood in Fort Lauderdale. From the outside, it blends in with its surroundings. Take a step inside, and you feel love, compassion and, most of all, hope.