Knee deep in his fourth election campaign (remember to vote on November 4!), Resnick is as eager to embrace change as he is to maintain what’s been working well since the city that was transformed from an impoverished town on the edge of the ghetto into a thriving gay metropolis, with a higher percentage of same-sex couples than any other place in the United States, except Provincetown, Massachusetts, according to the 2010 census.

Resnick is justifiably proud of what he’s accomplished over his years at the helm of the town of just over 12,000 people. But he seems even more excited by the future.

“There’s a $32 million project that’s being built just east of Dixie Highway and south of 26^th Street,” Resnick reports. “It’s going to be 172 high-end apartment rental complex called the Metropolitan. The private investment company developing the project is called Ascend.”

Few can argue with the positive improvements that the Metropolitan will bring to what was once a blighted area filled with rusting trailors. “There was litigation with the family that had to get resolved. The process took six years, and Ascend, to its credit, hung in through all that time when it could have easily gone elsewhere to invest its money.”

The land backs on to the Colohatchee Nature Center on NE 15^th Avenue, Wilton Manors’ dog walk park. “We’ll actual grant access to the park through the development,” Resnick says,  “the entrance of which is on NE 24^th Street. It breaks ground at the end of month.” Cue the shovel photo op.

Also in the Dixie Highway neighborhood, the well-used shortcut is about to get an upgrade. “We have a $1 million grant to improve Dixie Highway,” Resnick says, “which we received from the Broward Metropolitan and Planning Organization. “We are adding sidewalks, crosswalks, lighting, better drainage, adding bike lanes and making it safer for pedestrians, bikers and cars. The businesses on the street will see that they front on a much more attractive area.” This project is in the design phase now, with input requested from interested parties, and construction due to start mid-2015.

“Going north, we are working with the Department of Transportation (DOT) on the area known as Five Points, which is where Dixie Highway, 26^th Street and Wilton Drive come together, to be resurfaced, have better directional indications and refined traffic light pattern.

“We are also looking to develop a Business Improvement District, which would be for the businesses on Wilton Drive to access themselves so that there is money available to make improvements on the Drive. That will be on the agenda of our next commissioners meeting. It’s a process.”

Of course, parking is always an issue in Wilton Manors, and remains a problem. “We added 140 spots in the past year—one lot off of 26^th Street and more spots in Hagen Park. All the parking meter revenue goes into a special fund to purchase and add more parking.” That should take some burn off your next parking ticket.

There is, of course, a Gary Resnick who lives and thrives outside of the mayor’s office—including his successful career as a government lawyer with the law firm of Gray/Robinson.

And then there’s the little known home life of Mayor Resnick who’s just Gary to his partner Eric Bucher. They met in Alibi Bar 14 years ago (“the old fashioned way”, Resnick laughs). They live in their house on Jenada Isle with two rescued Golden Retrievers. Eric works in makeup in Boca Raton, and has quite a longer commute than his partner. “We love country music–and line dancing. That’s a tough one to master,” Resnick laughs. Yes, they’ve got the cowboy hats and boots.

While not involved directly in the five cases or the decision-making process, Florida has been in a holding pattern on the subject ever since August 21, when U.S. District Judge Robert L. Hinkle of Tallahassee ruled in favor of those same-sex couples seeking to marry by declaring the ban on same-sex marriage to be unconstitutional in the state. He then placed a stay on his ruling pending an appeal by the state’s Attorney General Pam Bondi, which came quickly placing the matter in the hands of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, where it still awaits a hearing.

Florida’s American Civil Liberties Union, headquartered in Miami, filed a motion with Judge Hinkle to lift his stay, effectively allowing marriages to begin in Florida immediately. In his original ruling, Hinkle attempted to place the subject of same-sex marriage in its proper context as to its importance. “The institution of marriage survived when bans on interracial marriage were struck down, and the institution will survive when bans on same-sex marriage are struck down. … Those who enter opposite-sex marriages are harmed not at all when others, including these plaintiffs, are given the liberty to choose their own life partners and are shown the respect that comes with formal marriage.”

The Florida ACLU expects Bondi’s office to respond to its move (they have 17 days to do so), though they have asked the attorney general not to oppose the request. But even if Bondi should oppose the request, it is likely that the issue of same-sex marriage with be a hot-topic affecting the November 4 election vote—an election in which both boni and her boss, Florida Governor Rick Scott, are up for reelection.

“It’s about time to suck it up and recognize the historical inevitability of equality,” ACL of Florida Executive Director Howard Simon told the Miami Herald on Monday with a nod in Pam Bondi’s direction.

After the single debate that Bondi had with her Democratic challenger George Sheldon, she was asked to comment on the same-sex issue. “There are other cases in other states. The sixth circuit is still out there pending so we’re going to see what they do in the sixth circuit, we’re going to be looking at those other cases, we’re going to be reviewing everything in Florida to see what to do next. And again, it just came out less than three hours ago, but this is a tremendous win for the plaintiffs in this case,” Bondi told the Miami Herald. (The U.S. Court of Appeals for the  Sixth Circuit covers the states of Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee, and is currently ruling on six different same-sex marriage cases.)

“Today’s decision by the Supreme Court leaves in force five favorable marriage rulings reached in three federal appellate courts, ensuring the freedom to marry for millions more Americans around the country. The Court’s letting stand these victories means that gay couples will soon share in the freedom to marry in 30 states, representing 60 percent of the American people,” Evan Wolfson, president of Freedom to Marry, told the Miami Herald. “But we are one country, with one Constitution, and the Court’s delay in affirming the freedom to marry nationwide prolongs the patchwork of state-to-state discrimination and the harms and indignity that the denial of marriage still inflicts on too many couples in too many places. As waves of freedom to marry litigation continue to surge, we will continue to press the urgency and make the case that America — all of America — is ready for the freedom to marry, and the Supreme Court should finish the job.”

Ken Keechl has been with his partner Ted Adcock for so long (they are approaching their 20^th anniversary) that’s it is hard to imagine one without the other.  Theirs has been a happily-ever-after relationship we all would love to claim if we could.

But when they first met, it was not Ken Keechel the politician that Ted Adcock courted. It was a lonely, handsome thirtysomething gay man who was still feeling the loss of his first lover from AIDS a year and a half earlier.

“I went to the hospital day after day, and slowly watched him die a painful, long death,” Keechl told the Agenda. “At first, I wasn’t even allowed in the hospital room.” (It turns out to be one of the reasons Keechl fought so hard to expand the domestic partnership ordinances.) “Unfortunately, while the doctors were doing everything they could to save my partner’s life, it was too late. It was during the time when AZT was the only treatment, and the drug cocktail we use today was experimental. He just slipped away,” the lawyer/politician says, and you can feel the love in the room. “I still have his photograph next to my bed.”

Yet to know Ken Keechl is to know a man who is a dedicated public servant who happens to be gay. A man who cares, genuinely cares about the environment, and is a fiscally conservative democrat who hates to spend a penny of taxpayers money without knowing that we will see the benefits in the county.

He’s been there before—running District 4, when it was a slightly smaller den. Recently expanded due to remapping, it is no less of a challenge to the tiger that is Keechl with the mane of blond hair and the toothy grin. He wants you to like him, but even more, he wants to do good for his county.

Offered the chance to run for the Senate and the House, he turned down both to return for a run at the District, which he last powered in 2010. It was during his tenure that the airport expansion got greenlighted.  And the move to enlarge Port Everglades as well.

Each project comes with its own stories, ones that are laced with environmentally sensitive mandates. (The mangrove strand that sat in the way of the port expansion is a great example. Keechl fought and was victorious in getting the port to add twice as many acres in new mangroves to one end of the strand in exchange for voting to destroy a smaller portion in the name of progress. “With the enlarging of the Panama Canal, allowing bigger vessels to sail up our coast, I didn’t want them going right past Fort Lauderdale and heading to North or South Carolina. We had to dig deeper and wider channels, but not if it meant that we destroyed our fragile eco system.”

It is more than a talking point for Keechl, whose Republican opponent doesn’t believe in climate change. “That is a huge issue in the years ahead…perhaps even the biggest issue. We cannot hope to save Broward County if we cannot save the earth.”

The Agenda endorses Ken Keechl, and with him all the energy that a man who loves his work brings to the job.   The people of District 4, gay and straight, can do no better.

Photo of Ken Keechl by Big Dewitte.

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL– Greater Fort Lauderdale, the city with the highest concentration of same-sex couple households in the U.S. according to the U.S. Cencus, beat out worldwide competition to be named “Destination of the Year” by the 2014 ManAboutWorld Editors’ Choice Awards, recognizing the very best in gay travel.

“Gay-popular since the ‘70s, Fort Lauderdale is still on the rise while other gay destinations are mainstreaming. With its white sand gay beach, 16 exclusively gay guesthouses (the most of any destination), and a nightlife scene that’s busy seven nights a week, Fort Lauderdale is one of the few places where you don’t have to rely on a phone App to hook up. And while it wins our hearts with its sun, sand, surf and fun, it’s also home to the Stonewall Museum, one of the only permanent spaces in the U.S. devoted to exhibitions relating to LGBT history and culture, and the world’s first AIDS museum,” according to ManAboutWorld editor, Ed Salvato.

“Not content to rest on gay assets, the county’s tourism promotion board sets industry standards. The county has worked tirelessly in the last year to bring new gay events and many meetings to Greater Fort Lauderdale, and to support the advancement of LGBT rights in Florida and around the world. In July, it became the first Convention and Visitors Bureau in the country to call for a repeal of its states’ gay marriage ban. It is currently conducting the first survey of transgendered travelers, showing sensitivity to all segments of the LGBT travel market,” according to ManAboutWorld.

Since 1995, the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau (GFLCVB) has been pushing to build the city as the ultimate gay travel destination when it allocated a $35,000 gay marketing budget to create its first dedicated LGBT ad campaign. The GFLCVB also became the first Convention & Visitors Bureau with an LGBT-centric vacation planner and the first LGBT website on a CVB homepage.

“We have been out, proud and proactively welcoming LGBT visitors since 1995, and this recognition only further motivates us to keep on bringing more targeted LGBT events to our warm, welcoming and diverse destination,” said Nicki E. Grossman, president of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau.

The GFLCVB was applauded by ManAboutWorld for setting industry standards, becoming in July 2014 the first CVB in the country to support a repeal of its state’s gay marriage ban. In another first, the CVB commissioned the first ever survey of transgender travelers, soon to be released, furthering its efforts to best cater to all segments of the LGBT market.

Gay Days, a vacation celebration for the LGBT community, will take place for the first time in Greater Fort Lauderdale in 2014, plus the Southern Comfort Transgender Conference has signed on with the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau to bring its 2015, 2016 and 2017 events to South Florida.

“With approximately 1.3 million LGBT travelers spending $1.4 billion a year, we continue to proudly welcome lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender travelers, events, meetings, businesses and conferences,” said Richard Gray, managing director for the LGBT market at the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau. “We are excited to share our sunshine with even more of the LGBT community and to continue to better understand all the needs and interests of this important travel market.”

The ManAboutWorld Editors’ Choice Awards recognize the best in gay travel that reflect the publication’s values of transformative travel through authentic and personal experiences of different peoples, places and cultures. The magazine was created in 2012 by Billy Kolber, after having spent more than 12 years at OUT&ABOUT, which he also founded.

Otis Blue, an employee of TGI Fridays restaurant, failed to report to work on Tuesday and Wednesday of last week, worried co-workers notified police. When no immediate action was taken to locate Blue, 35, a call was placed by a neighbor early Thursday morning erroneously claiming to hear screaming coming from a home at 1222 North Flagler Drive.

Blue had previously lived in the stone-fronted townhouse at that location with his lover, 40-year-old Maurice Goodman. Arriving at the residence, police encountered Goodman’s current roommate, William Cerda, who led them upstairs to Goodman’s bedroom. Smelling a foul odor, the police demanded that Goodman open the bedroom door, and discovered the decaying body of Blue lying in a pool of blood under covers on the bed. He had apparently been dead for several days judging from the smell and condition of the dried blood on the walls and floor.

According to police spokeswoman Det. Deanna Greenlaw, Blue and Goodman “were both involved in a domestic relationship.” That relationship has allegedly gone sour in the past few weeks, with Blue moving out of the house.

After being taken into custody, Goodman allegedly admitted killing Blue by “hitting him in the head.” He was subsequently booked on one count of first degree murder and incarcerated in the Broward County main jail without bond.

The county medical examiner indicated that Blue died from multiple injuries caused by blunt force trauma.

Originally from Braddock, Pennsylvania, Blue had moved to south Florida several years ago after having met Goodman on-line. They remained a couple until several months ago. According to his friends, Blue was good-natured, and a talented singer. Blue was an only child, and his body will be returned to his mother Belinda in Braddock, a suburb of Pittsburgh, for burial.

Less than a half-mile from the Flagler Drive townhouse sits Middle River Terrace Park, a popular dog walking and picnic area, at the intersection of Northeast 7^th Avenue and Holly Heights Drive. It was there in the park that Fort Lauderdale police found the unconscious body of a 63-year-old man named Leon Williams, who was admitted to intensive care and placed on life support.

Police allege that fitness trainer and martial arts expert Marcus Estimar, 28, was approached by Williams in the park and asked him if he had a cigarette. After Estimar said that he did not, Williams is said to have made a sexual pass at Estimar, who became enraged at the move.

According to a police affidavit, Estimar has been charged with second-degree attempted murder and aggravated battery causing bodily harm or disability. He is being held in the Broward County main jail on a $255,000 bond.

Estimar, who had been arrested Aug. 25 on an unrelated charge, was implicated in the attempted murder and the charges against him altered.  In a Sept. 5 sworn statement, Estimar told detectives that Williams had asked him for a cigarette and after Estimar said no, Williams made sexual advances toward him, according to the affidavit. Williams then took a swing at Estimar and missed, he told detectives. That’s when, Estimar said, he “took it a little overboard.”

“I literally beat the hell out of the guy,” Estimar told detectives. “I would not stop punching him. The first hit knocked him down, and I went on him.”

According to the affidavit, Estimar punched Williams 15 to 20 times in the face and kicked him several times before he went off to meet a client for personal training.

Williams has been moved into hospice care and is not expected to live much longer, at which time the charges against Estimar will allegedly be changed to second-degree murder.

Estimar has an extensive criminal record, including a June 2014 Grand Theft Auto charge as well as a November 2013 charge for Unlawful Sexual Activity. His first arrest came at age 17 for illegal possession of tobacco. Though living in Fort Lauderdale at the time of his arrest, Estimar was originally from Deerfield Beach.

In Brassner’s lawsuit, Brassner v. Lade, she alleges that four years ago, Lade cheated on her and then disappeared from her life. Despite hiring a private investigator to locate Lade, Brassner was unsuccessful and has no idea in which state Lade may now be living.

When Brassner, an art dealer who has lived in Florida for the past fourteen years, attempted to get the state of Vermont to dissolve her civil union with Lade, she was told by Vermont that Lade had to provide a signed affidavit from Lade, affirming her knowledge of a pending divorce action. With Lade’s location unknown, such an affidavit was impossible to provide. It was then that Brassner decided to sue Lade for divorce in Broward County.

With help from her attorney Nancy Brodzki, Brassner filed for divorce in September 2013. Eventually the case was assigned to the Broward County Circuit Court under Judge Dale Cohen, but since Florida does not recognize same-sex marriages or civil unions from other states, Cohen announced that he would need time to determine the constitutionality of the ban on recognizing same-sex marriage and civil unions.

Last August 4, Cohen declared in favor of granting the divorce, but placed a hold on the decision for 30 days pending appeal. In announcing his decision, Cohen, by default, also ruled on the constitutionality of banning same-sex marriage.

“To discriminate based on sexual orientation, to deny families equality, to stigmatize children and spouses, to hold some couples less worthy of legal benefits than others based on their sexual orientation is against all that this country holds dear, as it denies equal citizenship. Marriage is a well recognized fundamental right; all people should be entitled to enjoy its benefits., Cohen wrote.”

“This Court finds that Florida’s ban on same-sex marriage violates the guarantees of due process and equal protection under the laws,” Cohen ruled. “Florida’s prohibition on same-sex marriage denies some citizens, based on their sexual orientation, the fundamental right to marry, and does so without a legitimate state purpose. This Court finds these laws are unconstitutional and grants the Petitioner’s Motion For Declaratory Relief, declaring Florida’s ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional.”

Even though she was not a party to the lawsuit, Florida state attorney general Pam Bondi requested that Judge Cohen continue his stay on his ruling. At press time, Cohen had no response and planned on holding a hearing to confirm the divorce of Brassner from Lade at 1:30 p.m. today.

For her part, Brassner has moved on and plans on marrying her current girlfriend, Jennifer Feagin, and has stated she would love to have the ceremony in Florida, when the ban against same-sex marriage in this state is lifted. In the meanwhile, Brassner has received her divorce in a state where she could not have been married.

In theory, when Cohen decided in favor of Brassner, he also ruled in favor of same-sex marriage, leaving it up to county clerk Howard Forman whether or not to begin issuing marriage licenses. He suggested that he would announce a decision within days.

“I’m researching it as quickly as I can. We’ve been researching it for months,” Forman said in a statement last week. “Florida’s changing a lot and we’re vetting the issue as hard as we can.”

Arguments were being made by the states of Wisconsin and Indiana before a three-judge panel comprised of Judges Richard Posner, Ann Claire Williams and David Hamilton hearing both cases. Posner is a Reagan appointee. Williams was originally appointed to a lower court by Reagan and later appointed by Clinton to the circuit. Hamilton was the first judicial appointment that Obama made.

The state of Indiana was represented in court by that state’s attorney general Thomas Fischer who attempted to argue that marriage was needed for heterosexual couples to lessen the number of children born to unwed couples. “”All this is a reflection of biology,” Fisher said. “Men and women make babies, same-sex couples do not… we have to have a mechanism to regulate that, and marriage is that mechanism.”

The fact that same-sex couples by themselves cannot produce biological babies, according to the state of Indiana, suggests that there is no need to have a mechanism in place to home them responsible. On that point alone, same-sex couples are “too responsible” to be held hostage by children born of a “moment of passion.” Heterosexuals are not.

Judge Posner, in particular, was not buying into the fact that Indiana, which allows gays to adopt children and raise them as their own, should by law deny these same gay parents the right to marry. He asked how the state would be harmed by such allowing same-sex marriage to be legal.

Posner also lampoon Fischer’s contention that legally married heterosexual couples were models of normality to be followed by law. “That’s ridiculous, if you don’t mind my saying. You have some 80-year-old cousins who are allowed to get married and you say that that is a model for family formation,” Posner ridiculed.

When questioned about evidence, Fischer suggested that “it is self-evident.”

“I regard it as absurd,” Posner countered.

At one point, Posner ran through a list of psychological strains on unmarried same-sex couples, including having to struggle to grasp why their schoolmates’ parents were married and theirs weren’t.

“What horrible stuff,” Posner said. What benefits to society in barring gay marriage, he asked, “outweighs that kind of damage to children?”

Lawyers representing both states, along with attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal, a national group working for gay rights, were allotted 20 minutes each to argue their case.

When it was Wisconsin’s turn to argue its case, the result was no less devastating for state attorney general Timothy Samuelson, who repeated used the word “tradition” as a reasoning why heterosexual couples had marriage rights and homeosexuals coupled did not.

“”It was tradition to not allow blacks and whites to marry — a tradition that got swept away,” Posner said, reminding the AG of the decision brought forth under Loving vs. Virginia, the landmark civil rights case decided in 1967 allowing blacks and whites to marry. Prohibition of same-sex marriage, he said, is “a tradition of hate … and savage discrimination.”

Often, the both states’ attorneys general seemed at a loss to answer questions about their own argument’s lack of specific evidence, making the uphill battle each was facing seem far more unobtainable.

As Samuelson struggled to offer a specific reason for how gay marriage bans benefit society, he suddenly noted a yellow courtroom light signaling his allotted time was up.

“It won’t save you,” Williams told him, prompting laughter in court.     Samuleson smiled, and said: “it was worth a try.”

Earl Rynerson, a former candidate for Fort Lauderdale mayor himself, was represented as well, his billboard truck proclaiming “Marriage Equality for All” circling the block in front and rear of the church lambasting Jack Seiler’s vote against same-sex marriage during a commissioners’ meeting last June. The billboard could have included Rogers’ picture as well, since he too joined Seiler in voting against a non-binding measure endorsing same-sex marriage that Trantalis had brought to the commission floor.       While the measure passed with a 3-2 vote, Seiler and Rogers’ nay votes offended many in a town which makes tens of millions a year on the gay tourist dollar.

Yet, no one at the event deserved to be on that mobile billboard more than Pastor Thompson himself. In the face of recent court victories in the state defeating Florida’s ban on same-sex marriage on constitutional grounds, it could reasonably be expected that the leader of a Baptist church whose slogan is “Where EVERYONE Is Welcomed and Loved” might make room for those in the LGBT community who care to get legally betrothed. Not so.

Just over two years ago, the clergyman wrote a sermon in which he called the efforts by gays to legally marry in the United States, “a war against the Biblical model of marriage and family.” He said that it was “a very similar battle” to the Serbian attempts at ethnic cleansing. Ethnic cleansing?

According to Thompson, “We have been told by the opposition that we are not to engage in the conflict…we are merely to observe. However, in the life of every true follower of Christ, there must be a sense of personal, biblical and moral accountability to act when we see an opponent dedicated to destroying a God-directed biblical pattern for marriage. A failure to engage rejects everything we know about TRUTH from the spoken word. Make no mistake, the family unit is under attack; the definition of biblical marriage is under attack. As a result there must be a biblical response; a response that deals only in defense of biblical truth and not in the personal attacks of others who would disagree with a biblical position.”

While no one should deny Pastor Thompson’s right to preach any sermon he wants, and hold any opinion about same-sex marriage he cares to, to compare the LGBT community’s campaign to gain legal status to be married anywhere in the United States to Serbian attempts at ethnic cleansing is not only unholy, but morally reprehensible.

According to the United Nations Security Council’s report on the subject by experts investigating the atrocities, ethnic cleansing was carried out in the former Yugoslavia “by means of murder, torture, arbitrary arrest and detention, extra-judicial executions, rape and sexual assaults, confinement of civilian population in ghetto areas, forcible removal, displacement and deportation of civilian population, deliberate military attacks or threats of attacks on civilians and civilian areas, and wanton destruction of property. Those practices constitute crimes against humanity and can be assimilated to specific war crimes. Furthermore, such acts could also fall within the meaning of the Genocide Convention.”

To equate the rights of two people in love who are trying to join together in matrimony to war crimes that include murder, torture and imprisonment goes beyond opinion and logic. It is offensive to the moral responsibilities of his parishioners in general, and to the entire LGBT community in particular—some of whom attend First Baptist Church.

Thompson further suggests, “The image of God is both revealed in the male and female and is reflected in a godly union between a man and woman. In this union, we find the creative power of God and the life-giving power of God. His moral nature is perfectly expressed. This is only possible in a heterosexual union.”

Yet what of the gay man with his gay husband; the lesbian woman with her lesbian wife? Surely, they too were created by God—yes, in his image. Or, are we just God’s mistake. But indeed God doesn’t make mistakes. Even Pastor Thompson knows that much.

We’ve all heard a lot about the race to select the gubernatorial nominee of the Democratic party—Charlie Crist or Nan Rich. (Nan you’ll remember as the former Florida state senator; Charlie as the former Republican governor.)

While incumbent governor Rick Scott is running for reelection, it may surprise you to know that he’s not the only Republican candidate on the ballot. Elizabeth Cuevas-Neunder, founder of the Puerto Rican Chamber of Commerce of Florida, is running against Scott, as is Yinka Adeshina, whose creditials are unknown.

Third party candidates include Adrian Wyllie (Libertarian) and unaffiliated candidates Joe Allen, Glenn Burkett and Farid Khavari.

Florida is one of the few remaining states (there’s 12 in all) that utilize a closed primary process. That means you must be a registered party member to vote in your party’s primary.

So, the candidates are poised for victory or defeat, their campaign signs sprouting around town like weeds, and the polling sites are ready to accept ballots. The only thing missing is YOU. That is correct.

In a non-Presidential campaign year, primary elections are slow draws. In some counties across the state, a good turn-out is ten percent.  Split among party lines, Republicans are more likely to vote in primaries than Democrats because of the essential make-up of the party themselves. Republicans are more-often older, wealthier, whiter, more likely to be homeowners, more educated … and more ideological. Democrats are younger, more likely to need government assistance, ethnically mixed, home renters, with a strong loyalty to causes. Independents are an assorted lot. Determined not to be pigeon-holed, they gravitate between candidates, investigating the options and deciding items on an issue-by-issue basis. Because of the closed primary process, they often feel disenfranchised by the candidate selection process.

Getting ANY of you to vote in primaries, however, has been increasing difficult, which is especially frustrating for the candidates who devote so much energy and cash to their campaigns. Local primaries are particularly important in that their outcomes determine available services, taxes, operating hours, and contracts.

Additionally, citizen-initiated statewide ballot measures are not included in primary elections, and are always a major driving factor in traditional November elections, leaving voting in August a little like having dinner but skipping dessert.

The primary election. It’s all about involvement in your community and your representatives. As an LGBT community, how can we ever expect to be taken seriously by politicians if we approach elections with blasé disinterest?

Curtis Gans, director of the Center for the Study of the American Electorate, wrote a study that found much of the failure to vote has less to do with convenience than with increasingly negative campaigns.

Gans believes attack ads that lead voters to believe they have a choice between “bad and awful” has contributed to low voter turnout, as has a decline in faith in government, new voters who grew up in households where their parents didn’t vote, and technology that has, “made grazing the Internet a substitute for reading the news.”

As we said, Tuesday is the Florida primary, Let me repeat that. Primary. Next Tuesday. August 26^th. Vote. Please.

You remember Pam Bondi, the very same attorney general who upset so many law-abiding and frugal Floridians several months back when the first court case went against the state of Florida’s ban on same-sex marriage. While many other states’ attorneys general decided that fighting such an uphill and futile battle was not worth either the time or the money, Bondi reported that it was her duty to defend the voters’ decision in 2008 to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

No content with merely fighting the same-sex marriage ruling on its own merits, Bondi is the woman who added: “Florida’s marriage laws … have a close, direct and rational relationship to society’s legitimate interest in increasing the likelihood that children will be born to and raised by the mothers and fathers who produced them in stable and enduring family units.”

Before we point out that all the defendants that have brought a case against the state of Florida has been in years-old stable relationships, many have adopted or surrogate children, and all put Bondi’s childless, two-divorce record to shame, it bears repeating what else Bondi said in her initial filing: …disrupting Florida’s existing marriage laws would impose significant public harm.”  

            When critics accused her of wasting tax payers money with no regard for our tight budgetary regulations, she said it was her “responsibility” and she really no choice but to pursue the litigation, filing an immediate appeal in the case decided in Monroe county. She later did the same in a case that went against the state in Miami-Dade county and just last week in Broward County.  She appealed them all—staying any issuance of marriage licenses, while the court system played out to its all-but-predictable conclusion.

Then, last week, the light bulb went on in Pam Bondi’s mind. She finally got the message that with each appeal coasting an estimated $250,000—and with her appeals beginning to stack up with more, many more, on the way, that perhaps the taxpayers who elected here in 2010, and are slated to vote on her reelection come this November, may not be liking her free-spending ways.

So, rather than admit any errors of judgment or lunacy in office, Bondi announced in a filing before the 3^rd Circuit court that “Neither this Court nor the Florida Supreme Court can decide this federal issue with finality,” Bondi wrote in her filing. “The United States Supreme Court, however, has the final word on the United States Constitution.” Dah, ya think?

Now Bondi wants to skip the entire due process of law in her state—a due process that only last week was her “responsibility” to enforce, to skip all the steps and legal appearances that such appeals require, and toss it up to the U.S Supreme Court who may or may not decide to even accept the case. Really?

Did someone finally explain to our attorney general that all these senseless appeals were costing more money then the state has appropriated, or did someone finally break through that bubble to alert her that her chances of getting reelected based on this unpopular behavior are drying up like shriveled grapes in an abandoned vineyard.

You can’t have it both ways, Pam Bondi. Either you are charged with following state law or you are not. Or perhaps you just think that you are now above the law and can just hocus-pocus us into believing whatever you say. Just how stupid do you think we are?