Press Release:
#LOVEFORALL CAMPAIGN BRINGS STATEMENT OF INCLUSIVITY TO BUSINESSES, SCHOOLS AND HOMES ACROSS THE COUNTRY
ORLANDO, Fla. (July 15, 2023) – Thousands of colorful signs embracing the country’s diversity have popped up inside windows, classrooms and near cash registers of local businesses, schools and homes across the United States since August, 2018.
The #LoveForAll "mini-movement" began the summer of 2018 when Raquel Giorgio, an Orlando resident of 29 years, and her family went on vacation to Asheville, N.C. Giorgio noticed signs welcoming people of all backgrounds and beliefs posted in the windows of various businesses across the city. Shop owners started displaying these signs two years prior to encourage tourism following the passage of the controversial House Bill 2 in North Carolina, which requires certain public bathrooms to be designated for use by males or females based on their biological sex.
“The signs in Asheville moved me,” Giorgio said. “Love is the only weapon we can use to fight hate and these signs represented all the values I was raised with and am trying so hard to instill in my daughter. We need to celebrate diversity, not let it divide us.”
Giorgio reimagined the signs, with help from friends, and launched a similar campaign, #LoveForAll (formerly #OrlandoForAll), one week after returning from vacation. She relies heavily on donations and support from friends and strangers-who-have-become-friends to bring love first to Central Florida and now all over the country. In December of 2018, Giorgio and #LoveForAll received a grant from the Orlando chapter of the Awesome Foundation to continue to produce posters and spread love. In October of 2022, Giorgio received the 2022 Taz Grout S.H.I.N.E. Good Neighbor Award in Miami, Fla.
“My signs may not solve all the problems in the world right now,” Giorgio said. “But they’re a tiny step in the right direction at a time when everyone is so divided and angry. I feel compelled to do something. My hope is to promote love and inclusivity one sign at a time and start a conversation that might one day help to bridge the gap that exists right now in this country. I want to be very clear that these signs aren’t politically motivated. Love is so much bigger than politics. And who doesn’t love love?”
When the campaign launched in August of 2018, Giorgio placed signs in various small businesses across Central Florida traveling door to door. Orlando-area schools also started to post signs on their campuses, including Edgewater High School, College Park Middle School, Howard Middle School, and Rollins College.
The movement sparked interest on social media nationwide. Since November 2018, Giorgio began to send signs through the mail to those who requested them all over the United States and in several other countries. There are hundreds of thousands of them displayed around the world and Giorgio hopes they help to open the hearts and minds of whoever sees them.
Contact Raquel Giorgio at InsistOnLoveForAll@gmail.com for more information about the #LoveForAll initiative. One-hundred percent of proceeds from orders and donations received are used to print and ship additional signs.
