(Photo via Mira Tanna’s website)
ORLANDO | Mira Tanna says she is running a people-powered campaign for Orlando City Council in District 3 ahead of the Nov. 4 election.
Since 2018, she has served as the City of Orlando’s grants manager, coordinating $275M in grants activity. She has won millions in funding to improve water quality, efforts to make schools safer and protections from flooding and natural disasters.
Tanna says that as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, she feels strongly about civil rights and having an affirming and welcoming environment. She describes herself as somebody who’s bisexual but has been married to a man for decades that often doesn’t come out.
“People make assumptions about my sexual orientation just because they see the picture of me and my husband and my kids,” she notes. “They should know that personally, I identify as part of the community.”
Tanna says she’s running for city council to make sure that City Hall works for everyone. She wants to make Orlando more equitable, sustainable and culturally vibrant.
With 11 years in civil rights work, one of the lenses Tanna looks through is equity when she reflects on local government. She has worked to educate people on sexual orientation and gender identity protections, which she notes are not laws on the federal level.
“But on the local level, we do have protections and actually in Orlando, when I became Fair Lending Manager here of Community Legal Services, I took the first complaint nationally from a same-sex couple discriminated against in an FHA mortgage,” Tanna explains. “It was significant because the Obama administration at that time had just redefined what sex discrimination was to include same-sex couples, and we were the first case nationally.”
Tanna has educated over 10,000 people about their responsibilities and their rights under the Fair Housing Act so that they could recognize discrimination and know when to file a complaint.
Before moving to Orlando in 2011, Tanna lived in St. Louis, Missouri, and started a coalition against redlining practices, including discriminatory treatment against African American neighborhoods. To date, the coalition has won over $3 billion worth of community benefits for the formerly redlined communities.
One of Mira’s priorities will be to make the community more walkable, bikeable and transit-friendly, while reducing traffic congestion and spurring economic development. As a public transit user, Tanna takes the Lynx bus to City Hall for work each day,
“I believe really strongly in a leadership that not only uses fancy words, but actually backs it up with action,” Tanna says.
In total, five candidates are running for Orlando City Council District 3: Samuel Chambers, Roger Chapin, Chris Durant, Kimberly Kiss and Mira Tanna.
Residents of Districts 1, 3 and 5 can vote early at the Orange County Supervisor of Elections Office on Kaley Street, now through Sunday, Nov. 2.
The early voting hours are:
Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Saturday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Sunday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Election Day is Nov. 4, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. To check your registration and get election reminders, visit Vote.org.
For more information on Mira Tanna, visit MiraTanna.com.
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