President Obama’s annual State of the Union address aired Tuesday night. It’s customary for the president, the first lady and congresspeople to invite guests to the address, and Florida viewers may have recognize a few names and faces. The guests ran the gamut from former political prisoners to activists.
ALAN AND JUDY GROSS
The president invited aid contractor and recently freed Cuban political prisoner Alan Gross and his wife, Judy, to Tuesday evening’s address.
Gross, who was arrested in 2009 on espionage charges, served five years of a 15-year prison sentence before being released in December. His release served as part of a greater effort by the Cuban and American governments to improve diplomatic and economic relations.
ROSA MARIA PAYÁ
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio invited Cuban activist Rosa Maria Payá to the presidential address.
Rosa María Payá is the daughter of Cuban dissident Oswaldo Payá. In 2012, Oswaldo was killed in a car accident, and his daughter has alleged that the fatal crashwas orchestrated by the Castro regime. The Cuban and Spanish governments have declined to perform an independent investigation of the accident.
JEFF AND TODD DELMAY
Jeff and Todd Delmay are the first gay men to marry in Florida. They were invited by Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
The Delmays are one of the six same-sex couples who sued Miami-Dade County in 2014 in order to obtain the right to marry. They were married in downtown Miami on January 5th, a day ahead of the rest of the state.
NICOLE HERNANDEZ HAMMER
First lady Michelle Obama invited Boca Raton sea-level rise researcher Nicole Hernandez Hammer to the State of the Union address.
Hernandez Hammer, formerly a researcher at Florida Atlantic University, currently works for the non-profit Moms Clean Air Force, an organization dedicated to combating climate change.
