ORLANDO, Fla. — In a brief moment between gunshots at Pulse nightclub in 2016, Ricardo Negron managed to run through a back door and escape the horror inside.

Before that night, the nightclub was a place where he felt like he belonged.

“It was like a little piece of being back home, because it was music in Spanish,” Negron said. 

Inclusion is important to Negron, which is why he is glad that President Joe Biden recently signed an executive order to fight discrimination against LGBTQ people when it comes to health care, housing, and education.

“It’s uplifting," Negron said. "It’s hopeful." 

Equality Florida is a political advocacy group working to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer residents. Spokesperson Brandon Wolf said that for the past four years, the LGBTQ community has had to fight for basic civil rights. 

“It has been a battle for survival for the LGBTQ community," Wolf said. "And it cannot be overstated how important it is to have allies in the fight in the highest positions of power in this country." 

Wolf, also a Pulse survivor, walked out of the nightclub alone that night in June 2016, having lost his two best friends in the shooting.

His goal now is to advocate for a world where the friends he lost would be proud to live in.

To fulfill the promise he made to them, the Equality Act has to pass, Wolf said. 

“We can keep our foot on the gas. We cannot let up,” he said. “It cannot just be a handful of executive orders that we celebrate. We have to be talking about sweeping and broad and comprehensive non-discrimination protections.” 

White House officials tell Spectrum News that Biden is prioritizing LGBTQ rights as human rights and that he is the country's most pro-equality president. Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that the Biden administration is working diligently to make the Equality Act happen. 

“He believes in his heart that all Americans, all human beings, deserve equity. And so, this is what he is fighting for,” Jean-Pierre said. “And like I said, he has put that at the center of every plan, every policy, every executive order he has put forward.” 

On Negron’s forearm is a tattoo in Spanish that reads: “When hate is loose, one loves in self defense.” He said the hatred of that lone gunman almost 5 years ago fuels his desire to see equality for all.

“But we're really hopeful to see that we can finally make it so that it’s not just an executive order but that it actually becomes the law of the land,” Negron said.