Florida Agenda

By Joe Harris   In politics, as in fast food, one man’s chicken is another man’s “beef.” Case in point: While the list of people who are fleeing the Chick-fil-A coop is growing—mostly in urban, gay-friendly areas, by the way— there is a growing chorus of support from traditionalists and social and religious conservatives who [...]

A North Miami pastor whose “free speech” has been likened by some to “hate speech” finds himself in hot water with his landlord, the Miami Dade County Public Schools, who are deciding whether or not to renew his church’s rental agreement. As reported in our June 27, 2012 front page story (“Why, BIG BIRD—Why? Public [...]

By Joe Harris Longtime Fort Lauderdale legal advocate, human rights activist, and former City Commissioner Dean Trantalis filed his notice last week that he’ll seek the District II commission seat, being vacated by Charlotte Rodstrom. Trantalis has practiced law in Broward County, and lived in Fort Lauderdale, since 1982. He served as co-chair of Americans [...]

On Saturday, Internet giant Google launched its “Legalize Love” initiative, with a purpose, according to dot429.com, “of inspiring countries to legalize marriage for lesbian, gay, and bisexual people around the world.” Although initially targeting Poland and Singapore, Google plans to expand the campaign to every country where it conducts business—so pretty much everywhere, except perhaps [...]

By Joe Harris The first openly gay Republican presidential candidate announced last week that he would end his campaign for the nation’s highest office. Fred Karger, a former actor and political consultant, called his twoand- a-half year run for the White House “the experience of a lifetime.” “I am officially ending my historic campaign today, [...]

By Joe Harris   WASHINGTON, D.C. – Last week, the nation’s largest Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization endorsed marriage equality for all Americans. The National Council of La Raza (NCLR) announced in a story in the Washington Blade that the organization’s national board of directors has voted unanimously to support same sex marriage. Eric [...]

By Joe Harris Gay men’s hook up app Grindr is finding new life—sort of—as a modernday Paul Revere, sounding the clarion and alerting an otherwise torpid citizenry about matters of political import. Take the case last summer when gay men in Saratoga County, New York received Grindr notifications that Republican State Senator Roy McDonald and [...]

By Joe Harris As we mentioned here last week, the reelection effort for President Barack Obama includes a horde of A-List celebrities who have ponied-up in bringing their Tinseltown pals onboard the chief executive’s campaign donor bandwagon. Federal Election Commission (FEC) records indicate that those fundraising dynamos—called “bundlers” in the parlance of election slang—who list [...]

BY JOE HARRIS The endorsement last month of President Obama for same sex marriage has all the usual suspects up in arms— social and religious conservatives, Evangelical and Fundamentalist Christians, Muslims, and Jews, and traditionalists who are nervous about governmental intervention into an institution older than God (the word itself, I mean, which dates back [...]

BY JOE HARRIS   The endorsement last month of President Obama for same sex marriage has all the usual suspects up in arms— social and religious conservatives, Evangelical and Fundamentalist Christians, Muslims, and Jews, and traditionalists who are nervous about governmental intervention into an institution older than God (the word itself, I mean, which dates [...]