In this world, there are noble individuals who give freely of their time, talents and personal resources to the overall betterment of society. Then there are those who begrudge the good others do, serving their own selfish goals as they bully their way through life, contributing little, if anything, to society.

Norm Kent, publisher of the South Florida Gay News, falls into this latter category.

Mr. Kent’s goal is clear and incontrovertible. In his own words (SFGN, May 8, 2013), he wants his newspaper “to be the ONLY media resource South Florida needs”.  To achieve this monopoly and anoint himself the king of LGBT media in South Florida, it appears Mr. Kent will take whatever steps are necessary to discredit the integrity of competitors and malign the characters of those who stand in his way.

His latest crusade to destroy the work of the Brian Neal Fitness and Health Foundation (BNFHF), a fledgling non-profit which aims to provide wellness services to the underprivileged living with HIV, is a perfect example.

You see, the BNFHF was founded by Bobby Blair, publisher of the Florida Agenda and Guy Magazine, and his life partner, Brian Neal, a fitness coach. When Mr. Kent began digging for dirt on the Foundation as a way to discredit the couple, Blair walked into his office with his characteristic “nothing to hide” attitude and, in good faith, laid down all the foundation’s bank statements and financial records.

Apparently bitterly disappointed that he could not find a shred of evidence of outrageous salaries being paid or misappropriated funds, Mr. Kent zeroed in on the fact that Brian Neal paid himself by withdrawing cash at ATMs rather than writing himself checks. The grand sum: $3,546.96 salary for 27 months’ hard work as the head of a non-profit! That’s a little over $125 per month in compensation.

To add to the sensationalism of the story, Mr. Kent found it necessary to reveal in his story the “dirty” detail that the foundation’s namesake visited gay strip joints owned by contributors to, and supporters of, his foundation and, gasp!, that Neal was involved in a DUI last year.

Shame on you, Mr. Kent.

Despite the fact that Blair gave Mr. Kent proof that Felix DeBruin, former executive director of BNFHF was terminated, the South Florida Gay News publisher persisted in publishing a headline that read: “Executive Director DeBruin leaves amidst turmoil.” What turmoil? The fact is the foundation has added programs, expanded its services and is set to help a record number of needy individuals in the second half of 2013. Kent had the facts but chose to ignore them in favor of an inaccurate and irresponsible headline that it seems he hoped would be more damaging.

Shame on you, Mr. Kent.

Not satisfied with his first sensational story on June 19th, Mr. Kent returned the following week with another apparently malice-driven article that did little more than re-hash the same old material. In this attempt to mislead the public and cast a shadow on the validity of the BNFHF, Mr. Kent points out that $40,000 was raised in community funds but only $11,000 was used for purchasing gym memberships – implying that $29,000 had vanished.

What he deliberately failed to reveal is that every penny was accounted for! The financials in his possession clearly show the other monies were paid to other gym locations, service providers, infrastructure, rent for space at the Pride Center, an online nutrition tracking program and hard copy workbooks for participants – to name a few of the expenses covered by a shoe-string budget. Again, Mr. Kent had all the financials and all the facts at his fingertips but chose to ignore them.

Shame on you, Mr. Kent.

In this second article, the SFGN publisher again found it necessary to underscore Brian Neal’s DUI last year. We are left to wonder why Mr. Kent is shining a spotlight on this misstep by a young man who has given so much of himself to our community, bearing in mind that as an attorney Mr. Kent has made a living defending drug abusers, prostitutes and DUI offenders and minimizing the actions of his clients in courts of law. Indeed, a vocal advocate of marijuana use, Mr. Kent serves as the president of NORML, a lobbying organization for the legalization of marijuana and stopping the arrests of pot smokers. See the hypocrisy? The home of Bobby Blair and Brian Neal has never been raided by Police for illegal drugs. Mr. Kent can’t say the same thing.

All this, of course, is coming from a man, an attorney, who in 2002 had his law license suspended and was put on probation by the Florida Bar after he plead guilty to serious charges of financial impropriety in connection with his handling of a client’s trust account. Disgraceful and unethical behavior.

Shame on you, Mr. Kent.

Now, Mr. Kent is terribly concerned about the funds raised by hard work for a great cause. Mind you, not one dollar of those funds was donated by him. In fact, despite his gloating in just about every editorial about the success of his publications, and the sale of his previous newspaper a few years back for a handsome sum in the high six figures, we are left to wonder what Mr. Kent has done lately for the LGBT community on which he has built his financially successful bullying empire.

Whereas we at the Florida Agenda prefer to highlight the good and positive work of people in our community, Mr. Kent, historically, seems to take a special delight in tearing down people and community organizations, conveniently ignoring the facts when they don’t service his interests. Whereas Publisher Bobby Blair has repeatedly expressed concern about the survival of small LGBT businesses in our community, especially on Wilton Drive, and has bent over backwards to help promote them, Mr. Kent reportedly bullies businesses into advertising only with his newspaper and has jacked up advertising rates to make them the most expensive in town.

Shame on you, Mr. Kent.

On that note, since high and mighty Mr. Kent is so good at demanding financials and other documentation from local non-profits and community groups, we’d like him to produce some of his own. He is charging local businesses what many consider exorbitant advertising rates for his “nationally-distributed” magazine, The Mirror. Mr. Kent, we challenge you to produce print bills and shipping records showing exactly how many copies of your “national” magazine are distributed outside of metro Fort Lauderdale.

At a time when there is so much to celebrate as gay Americans, when the LGBT media has such an onerous responsibility to further the cause of our equality, when so many of the achievements and victories of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people are going widely unreported, it is a crying shame and disgrace that an apparently bitter, mean-spirited individual with the power of the press would rather cast aspersions and malign the character of good people.

Shame, shame, shame on you, Mr. Kent.

For a related article to this commentary, go to:
http://floridaagenda.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=19641&action=edit&message=6

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