Pulse survivor Brandon Wolf returns to Equality Florida to confront anti-LGBTQ+ extremism

Brandon Wolf is back, "on the front lines," he said, "at ground zero, in my home state," just when Florida needs him most. And he tells The Advocate he’s bringing with him "the kryptonite to fascism [and] authoritarianism."The activist, gun violence prevention advocate, and survivor of the Pulse nightclub shooting nearly a decade ago has left the job of national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign in Washington, D.C., to rejoin Equality Florida. For more than four years, he managed media for the Tampa, Fla.-based organization and served as its press secretary. Now, he’s returned to Equality Florida as its senior director of communications strategy. In an exclusive interview on his first full day on the job, Wolf told The Advocate it is "the right time.""My time at HRC was beautiful," Wolf said, calling his experience an "incredible journey" and his team "remarkable" and "incredibly talented." "The thing that I said to them is what I'll say to you, which is, 'I'm not headed back to the front lines in spite of my time at HRC. I’m headed back there because of it,'" said Wolf. "It felt like the right time to be home and fighting alongside my colleagues in Florida."Related: Brandon Wolf, Pulse Survivor and Advocate, Joins Human Rights Campaign From Equality FloridReturning to PulseWolf said he felt the timing was also connected to the event that changed his life forever. The official announcement on Monday came less than a month before the 10th commemoration of the massacre at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando that killed 49 people, most of whom were LGBTQ+ and Latinos and Latinas. Wolf survived by hiding in a bathroom, and told The Advocate last year that he chose not to return for a private tour of the building before it was demolished to make way for a public memorial. But this time is different. Wolf told The Advocate he will be there on June 12 not only to represent Equality Florida but also as a survivor whose life until that day was on a very differen