Matt Chen of the Broward Republican Executive Committee wants Broward’s LGBT voters to support GOP candidates. The Republican Party has a long history of getting citizens to vote against their own interests.

One of the main issues the Republican Party has cynically used to manipulate voters is LGBT rights. Over the past three decades, the GOP has had much success in ominously yelling “homosexual agenda” in crowded churches, getting many working poor and those lacking health insurance to support them.

Chen and his allies at Log Cabin Republicans want Florida LGBT voters to believe that the GOP is no longer anti-gay, and to help re-elect Florida’s GOP candidates for Governor and Attorney General. Yet this year, both Rick Scott and Pam Bondi tried to get a federal judge to throw out the lawsuit challenging Florida’s ban on same-sex marriage. Just this past May, Bondi said in court documents that Florida recognition of gay marriages performed in other states would “impose significant public harm”!

The fact is that in 2014 LGBT equality continues to be anathema to the majority of Republicans running for office, while Democratic office holders remain the driving political force behind advancing LGBT non-discrimination legislation and marriage equality.

Marc Paige

Fort Lauderdale, FL

While I have been critical of the Agenda‘s emotional enslavement to anti-American Far Left ideologies and proliferating exaggerated images of suffocating GOP homophobia; I am compelled to tip my hat to you, Sir, for publishing the Matt Chen’s illuminating commentary on the Gay-friendly Broward and Dade GOP and endorsing Governor Rick Scott.

Your inclusion of the Log Cabin Republican viewpoint demonstrates the character to search for the truth.

The Republican Party of Broward, Dade and West Palm Beach has given us multiple places at their table, and leadership positions long ago.

I’m sure all Gay Republicans and conservative GLBT Independents, who represent nearly 40 percent of the South Florida GLBT voters, are very appreciative of your paper finally giving us a place at the table, Mr. Hack.

Sincerely,

Louis LaHue

Boynton Beach, Fl

Editor’s note: While the Agenda has a long history of supporting many candidates from the Democratic Party, it is totally comfortable publishing any views in opposition to its own. It’s called Freedom of the Press. We support it and under this editorship, always will.

For more information see http://briannealfitness.org/

This community free walk meets each Saturday at 8:30am at Richardson Park 1937 Wilton Drive Wilton Manors FL   We walk one hour and three miles.

Louie LaHue
Boynton Beach , Florida

Editor’s note: Governor Rick Scott states that he has created 580,000 in private sector jobs since taking office, not 630,000. His July 2010 campaign promise to create 700,000 jobs in seven years came just after non-partisan economists at the state legislature’s Office of Economic and Demographic Research projected that Florida’s long-term job growth for July 2010-June 2018 would be slightly over one million, regardless of government intervention.  To allow for this calculation, Scott promised to create 700,000 jobs in addition to those projected by the economists. While Gov. Scott has brought sizeable business growth to the state, his private sector job tally would need to total 850,000 at this point in his term to fulfill his actual campaign promise. Those facts aside, the front page article concerned U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s apprehension that Scott’s influence on voting procedures since his election has negatively impacted the ease of voting in Florida. If proven accurate, there is nothing disingenuous about the concern or the article. Agenda stands behind its facts as written.

City Hall was stunned two weeks ago when a local attorney entered its meeting Chambers and declared in a thunderous and accusing manner that I had somehow violated an ethical code by not disclosing that I was going to make money off a deal should his client’s hotel project on the beach not be approved that night. And as a result, he demanded that I should recuse myself from voting on the project.

This was no ordinary lawyer. His name is William Scherer, a Republican stalwart who’s never shown any love towards the gay community, and, might I add, best buds with my former political opponent, Charlotte Rodstrom. Our Commission meeting stopped dead in its tracks, a recess was called, and everyone was trying to figure out what the heck he was talking about.

Here’s a little background: Sometime during the beginning of my campaign last fall to fill Charlotte’s seat after she quit to run for County Commission, the developer for a hotel called the Vintro came to the beach neighborhood board meeting (the CBA) to discuss their plans to build a hotel on a quarter acre lot they just purchased right behind the Casablanca Restaurant. Everything about it sent up red flags–the size of the lot, the location on such a busy corner, you name it, and I told them at the time that as-is, in my opinion, it may be difficult for them to get neighborhood approval. It was an interesting design and the developers were new to the area, so I offered them some suggestions on how to help them out. They looked at me with an unflinching gaze and said, “It’s either this or nothing.” Whatever, I still needed to win my race, and I thought nothing more of it.

Once elected in March of this year, some weeks had passed and I get a call from my former partner, Richard Smith, a realtor, letting me know that a mutual client was interested in that same parcel to convert the historic home that was  on the property to a restaurant. I told him that I had no information on the intentions of the developer, and if the client was interested, he would have to call the developers attorney directly because I could not be involved.  I gave him the name of the attorney, a Scott Backman, and that was the last I heard from Richard for a while.

Apparently, from papers that have been shown to me, Richard did make contact with the attorney and Richard prepared a letter-of-intent (LOI) on behalf of his client in order to submit it to the developer to see if there was any interest in selling the property. My his own admission, Richard mistakenly used a form that I had once prepared for him on a different project which still had my name on it as the closing agent. I don’t know exactly when I discovered his error, but as soon as I saw it, I immediately told him to remove my name because I could have no involvement with the transaction. He said he would and we left it at that.

The developer is now accusing me of talking against his project so that I could do a real estate closing if Richard’s buyer decided to buy the property. The claim is that I was planning this even before the election, back when I first met this developer, which is before this client ever expressed an interest in the property. In any case, buyer or no buyer, the design and the site plan of the hotel had problems.

Apparently  the developer had been talking with Richard all summer long about putting a deal together to sell the property, and in an actual contract offer that was submitted to the developer, my name was nowhere to be found on any of the documents.

Not in my wildest dreams would I have ever thought this would be an issue.

Mr. Backman met with me several times during the year and each time, it was congenial, I spoke about how we might still save the deal if his clients would just acquire some additional land around the site, but he said his clients refused. Never did he disclose to me that he was working with Richard nor that he thought that I might have been working behind his back to squeeze his clients out. In fact, a couple of times when Richard would ask if there was any progress on the hotel moving forward for approval, I kept telling him to move on and find another location for his client because I believed the developer was set on getting it built on the original site.

A disclosure of this nature is not normally contemplated when we as commissioners are asked to disclose our communications with the principal parties. Being so far removed in time and in person from those who were directly involved in the project, there really was nothing to disclose.

Nevertheless, at the Commission meeting, I agreed that, in order to avoid even the appearance of an impropriety, I would recuse myself. I not only did not vote, I did not even participate in the discussion.

Despite all the blustery accusations made by Scherer and having now succeeded in denying me my right to vote, the hotel was still defeated–unanimously. The developer had not one vote in his favor. So what attorney worth his salt would ever ask for a vote from a governing body unless he had all his votes counted and was assured  success. What was really going on here? Why was knocking out my vote so important?

One reason is possibly because the developer knew he was going to lose, so he was looking for some way to justify a basis for an appeal. Whatever the Commission wouldn’t give him, maybe a court would. It’s a common tactic and Scherer is no stranger to it because he sued me once before as a Commissioner and personally when another project of his client’s was turned down back in 2005. Scherer lost. He just doesn’t like me.

The strategy becomes more apparent when you realize that he has been plotting this scenario for months. For example, over the past year, he sent two young associates ( his own children, no less) to my agenda review meetings.  When I asked their names, they sheepishly revealed who they were but also confessed that they did not live in the district but were there to “learn about city government.” Really? You sent them to me so that I could mentor them? Spies in our midst. Go figure.

What now concerns me about what has since occurred is that the news media have taken some of these facts, made up some of their own, and have tried and convicted me across three counties all knowing that I recused myself and there was no other goal but that intended by Mr. Scherer. Of course, it still didn’t stop him from filing an ethics complaint against me, but that’s all part of his show to his client for the fact that his efforts at success went down in flames.

What Scherer doesn’t realize is that I am no shrinking violet. I chose to serve elected office to empower our community and achieve goals that were being ignored. People all over town have come to my side, whether we have agreed on issues or not. This experience has only strengthened my resolve.

Now it’s time to get back to work.

I enjoyed the Debbie Wasserman Schultz article in Issue 205. The story reminded me of the time my sister told me about my five year old nephew, Mathew. Mathew has never known me, his uncle Jay, without also knowing his uncle Jay’s ‘best friend’ Ron. One day, Mathew asked his mother, my sister Karen, “Is Ron a member of our family?” Mathew was trying to understand how his uncle’s friend Ron fit into the family. Mathew, apparently, knew Ron was a ‘special’ friend to his Uncle Jay.

Ron always attended family gatherings, but at five years old, this was in 1987, Mathew was confused about his uncle’s relationship with this other man. Karen simply answered her son, “Yes, Ron is a member of our family.” Ron and I visited my sister’s family in 1992. We spent a week together. We all had a wonderful time. Mathew, now 10 years old, with a 6 year old brother Jason accepted Ron and I without blinking an eye. I am the oldest sibling, with four sisters and two brothers. Every member of my family, from my grandparents to my youngest nephew and niece, accept Ron and I as members of the family.

Also, Ron has a niece he is very close to, Elena. We met Elena’s fiance, Danny, in the 1989. Ron was the best man at Elena and Danny’s wedding, actually giving Elena’s hand in marriage to Danny. When their first child was born, Elena called us to tell us Danny and she had chosen to name their first child, Ronald James Tang. I immediately started to cry.

Ron and I met in March 1984, we married in Massachusetts in 2004 and honeymooned in Paris. We look forward to our 30th anniversary in 2014.

Thank you for the Florida Agenda and for the story reminding me of how fortunate I am to have a loving family. We moved to Florida from Boston, in 2006, and have found South Florida much different, less tolerant than Massachusetts, where we lived most of our lives. Your newspaper gives us hope: even here in Florida there are people who realize we all need each other.

Sincerely,

Jay

Blair was one of the first top-ranked players to be developed at the famed Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy near Bradenton, Florida.  Bollettieri provided a full scholarship and covered all expenses for Mr. Blair from 1980-1983.   In 1983, Blair received a full scholarship to the University of Arkansas, a top-ten ranked Division 1 tennis program.  He was the #6 seed in the 1984 US Olympic trials held at The National Tennis Center home of the US Open Tennis Championships in Queens, NY.  Blair was also a member of the 1986 US Junior Davis Cup College Team and participated in Russia as a member of the American team in the US Goodwill Games.

Blair became All American in 1986 and was ranked among the top-five Division One singles players in the United States. He counts career wins over several former top-10 players in the world including Wimbledon Champion Pat Cash, French Open Finalist Mikael Pernfors, Karl Novacek, Emillio Sanchez and grand slam doubles champion Rick Leach.  He also had career victories over several top ranked ATP tour professionals such as Todd Witsken, Jorge Lozano, Luke Jensen, Robbie Weiss, Jim Grabb, Fransisco Roig, Karl Novacek, Emillio Sanchez, Derek Tarr, Brad Pearce, Steve Devries, Shelby Cannon, Chris Pridham, Christo Van Rensburg and others.

Upon retiring from tennis in March 1988, Blair launched the United States Rookie Professional Tennis Team at the 1988 NCAA Tennis Championships in Athens, Georgia.  The team provided coaching, mentoring and a structured team environment for top-ranked American tennis players for their rookie year on the professional tennis tour from 1988 until US Open Tennis Championships of 1990.

In 1990, Blair was hired to be head coach for Billie Jean King for the World Team Tennis Franchise Wellington Aces for the 1990 & 1991 season. In 1992, Blair was hired as head coach and general manager of the World Team Tennis Franchise Tampa Bay Action.

That same year, Blair started the Bobby Blair Tennis Academy in Orlando, Florida, that coached some of the very best junior players in the United States. In 1996, he hit a pinnacle in coaching as he was hired as a USTA National coach for the best Boys 16 and Under players in the United States.

Around the same time, Blair began his real estate enterprise in Orlando, Florida, in which he specialized in the purchase, renovation and reselling of homes to help first time home buyers achieve the American dream of home ownership.  This led, in 1997, to his hiring by internationally acclaimed entrepreneur monthly Success Magazine to be the National Real Estate spokesperson for the publication, reaching out to real estate entrepreneurs across the world by providing a real estate seminar and workshop platform to educate potential real estate investors. Blair continues to coach and mentor entrepreneurs on the most up-to-date ways to invest in real estate.

In 2007, Blair purchased an LGBT men’s entertainment magazine in Fort Lauderdale, Florida with the intention to grow a national LGBT news and entertainment platform. In 2009, Blair launched the Florida Agenda, which today is one of the most well-known and respected LGBT newspapers in the United States.

In June 2012, Blair took over share and board control as CEO of Cybermesh International Corp., an OTC BB public company with stock symbol CYTL. His sole purpose for heading the publicly traded company is to create an LGBT international public media company. The company currently has plans to expand into the Philadelphia, New York, Los Angeles, San Diego and Palm Springs markets in 2014.

Blair is currently authoring his autobiography with writer Barry Buss. “I hope to be able to encourage and inspire the next generation of aspiring gay athletes in their journey,” Blair said. The memoir will be published later this year.

Bobby Blair, 48, resides in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with his life partner Brian Neal.

—-

The below is an exerpt from Bobby Blair’s upcoming untitled memoir, out on October 11 – National Coming Out Day. A press conference announcing the book will be held at this year’s U.S. Open over Labor Day Weekend in September.

Inspired by the web and print series “Thriving In South Florida With Bobby Blair”, “Dear Me” will be a new monthly column aiming to highlight members of the community who bravely step forward to share their life stories in hopes that it will inspire and guide fellow members of the community. It encourages the modern day “you” to write a letter to a teenage “you,” giving helpful advice gained through personal experience. If you or a friend have a story you’d like to share (even anonymously), we urge you to send it to editor@floridaagenda.com. Your story could change someone’s life forever.

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

Pride South Florida (PSF) would like to state the facts as they relate to recent articles published in the South Florida Gay News. PSF is in no way attempting to engage in a “conspiracy of silence”, nor is it hiding anything from the community it represents and depends on for support. The facts are as follows:
1. PSF received a form letter from the IRS following a recent audit covering the years 2010 & 2011.  The letter was a result of the IRS not receiving information that was sent to the auditor following a request made for same. A response is being pursued by PSF to the IRS to rectify the issue.
2. As this is an important and pending situation, PSF requested legal advice. Upon receiving a news media request for information on this matter, PSF was advised not to release anything until the matter is resolved.  This is what the media was told.
3. Regarding communication to the media, in order to maintain consistency and abide by the by-laws of the organization, the Board was reminded that only the Officers are to make statements to the media. The revised & adopted 4/23/13 state:
ARTICLE V – DUTIES OF THE OFFICERS
Section 1: President/Vice President

President/Vice President (aka Co-Chairs): …  The Co-Chairs will act as the
sole spokespersons for the Board, and will represent the Board to outside
organizations and the media…
PSF respectfully requests the community-at-large to understand they are
acting in good faith and with no malice of intent.  PSF will share the
outcome of this event when it is closed and final.
We thank you for your patience and understanding, along with your continued
support as we strive to maintain our good standing for and within the
community we represent.

Rocky Bowell & Marc Hansen
Co-Chairs
Pride South Florida Board of Directors

DBA: Pride South Florida producers of Fort Lauderdale Pride
Prideline: 954-561-2020
Fax: 888-406-0302

Pride One of Broward County, Inc.
PO Box 23686
Fort Lauderdale, Fl. 33307-3686
Web: www.pridesouthflorida.org