The upcoming national elections are a dead-serious choice for all gay people who want a job-producing economy that insures middle class affluence and upward mobility. Since Barack Obama’s historic election that promised “Hope and Change,” we have witnessed nightmarish results that create despair and a sense of futility for much of the gay community.

Gas prices have doubled and unemployment rates are up three percent; leaving millions of gay people almost helpless. Median incomes—if you even have a job—have dropped $3,000 to 5,000 per worker.

According to the Sun Sentinel, unemployment in Broward is over 8 percent; in Palm Beach County, it is over 10 percent.

Home foreclosures are at an all time high—which is devastating to a Florida gay community that historically distinguishes itself by improving dilapidated neighborhoods, and excelling in interior design and landscape architecture.

Gay newspapers and Websites relentlessly inveigle their readers into believing it is all George W. Bush’s fault, and focus on the mirage of hyper-homophobia in our culture. This is unethical journalistic rhetoric, and probably leads to an epidemic of depression among many gay people. Since 2010, I witness many “out and open” gay people and couples working as volunteers for such Republican candidates as Broward Sheriff Al Lamberti, congressional candidates Karen Harrington and Allen West, state Senate candidate Ellyn Bogdanoff, Scott Herman—a gay, disabled veteran running for state representative—and both Connie Mack and Marco Rubio as U.S. Senators.

In 2010, exit polls revealed that nearly 50 percent of gay voters voted Republican, slightly more than for Democrats. Now that’s “Hope and Change” we need to recognize and appreciate if we truly celebrate diversity.

To our economy’s detriment, Obama gambled over $5 trillion of borrowed money from China, Japan, and Saudi Arabia, only to achieve a recovery that is the weakest in U.S. history. He promotes class warfare and excessive government dependence that in no way compares to the tremendous economic expansions ignited by John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton, all of whom aggressively reduced taxes on income and in vestment. Barack Obama lost his luster because of little insight into how to make America competitive in a global economy. Our chief competitor during this century, China, signed 25 free trade pacts with other nations, and another 10 are in the works. Meanwhile, the U.S. signed only three.

Obama’s foreign policy is spinning horrifically out of control, with the wave of murderous terrorist attacks and violent demonstrations erupting across the Arab/Islamic world—a severe setback to the region’s democratic movements that tried to establish pluralistic opportunities for Arab gay people.

Mitt Romney offers a plan that will reinvigorate our economy and create at least 12 million new jobs in the next four years. He will save our deeply troubled Medicare and Social Security programs for our gay senior citizens. And he will stop the thoughtless foreign borrowing that has enchained every American into debt and despair for generations. Romney will help our entrepreneurial class create more jobs, and taxpayers.

Gay Americans are exceptionally capable and patriotic workers: They deserve the best America they can get in return for their dreams and ambitions. Let’s vote for Mitt Romney, along with Connie Mack for the U.S. Senate, and all other reform Republican candidates in Florida.

Sandy Steen is Vice President of the Broward Log Cabin Republicans and a former Mayor of Wilton Manors.

It has been a dozen years, and three presidential elections, since a contentious 5-to-4 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court handed the presidency to George W. Bush. The 2012 general election cycle is shaping up to be a squeaker, with a razor thin margin possible for deciding the next Occupant of 1400 Pennsylvania Avenue. As is typical in many cases of much-needed reform, meaningful change has been paralyzed—for going on a decade, now— by the familiar nemesis to democracy: Partisan politics.

In state after state, efforts to tackle some of the more flawed elements of elections—voter identification and the accompanying fraud—have stalled over questions of whether honest efforts are in reality disguised attempts to prevent the disadvantaged and minorities from voting. The laudatory labors of a 2005 bipartisan commission led by former President Jimmy Carter (Democrat) and former Secretary of State James Baker (Republican) found that in Florida alone, 140,000 voters were also registered in four other states—46,000 of them in New York City. (Among these, 1,700 had registered for absentee ballots in their other state-of-record, with no subsequent investigation.)

The Carter-Baker Commission suggested reforms that included impartial administration of elections, and uniform photo ID rules, but little was done once the partisans had picked clean the bones of bipartisanship. Experts say that although there have been election irregularities in the past—like rules that excluded immigrants or African-Americans from voting—things have gotten worse since the 2000 election.X

Unlike nearly every other nation with free elections, ours is administered by partisan officials who are elected as candidates of their parties. (It was in this spirit that our seventh president, Andrew Jackson, said, “If there’s a job that can’t be done by a Democrat, let’s get rid of the job.”) Traditionally, Republicans call for tightening of voter ID regulations (which goes hand-in-glove with their support for immigration restrictions), while Democrats want ease of access to polls (and more broad-minded rules on immigration).

Each typically looks with suspicion at the motives of the other, especially in matters of election reform. According to Pew research, in 2008, 2.2 million votes were lost because of voter registration difficulties. Those are votes both parties are eager to net.

The actual mechanics of voting systems could also stand freshening up. According to the authors of a study released last week by the Brennan Center for Justice, at New York University School of Law, during the combined 2008 and 2010 general elections, nearly 400,000 absentee or provisional ballots were rejected because of technical mistakes made by voters on the ballot forms or envelopes. The report, “Better Designs, Better Elections,” adds that the lost votes were mostly found among minority and low-income voters, along with the disabled and the elderly.

Board Members at Large include pioneering LGBT business leader Roger Handevidt, activists Sonia Mitchell, Shawn Manning, Megan Wright, Richard Cimoch, and Tiffany Smith, and LGBT publishing executives Scott Holland and John Fugate. Rounding out the board are co-chair and vice president Marc Sharphorn, secretary Rocky Bowell, treasurer Tim Towey, and board member emeritus Miss Vickie Keller.

In addition to its incoming board, the organization announced the recipients for its 2012 grants, which are given to local charitable and service organizations that serve the needs of South Florida’s LGBT community. Said Pride South Florida’s Hansen, “Each year, we try and give out as much as possible, while holding enough back to organize and operate the following year’s event. This year we had many interested in our grants, but just $12,000 to hand out.”

Hansen notes that although not every organization that applied for a grant was a beneficiary, most applicants walked away happy. “In that process, there were some that received a full grant of $1,500 and others that we had to split the grant in order to make sure those we felt were worth got something, instead of being left behind with nothing,” he added. This year’s Pride South Florida grant presentation ceremony will be held on Saturday, June 23 at 12 p.m., at the South Florida Gilda’s Club office, located at 119 Rose Drive, Fort Lauderdale.

The organizations that will receive this year’s Pride One of Broward County Grants—totaling $12,000— are: the Brian Neal Fitness and Health Foundation; the Fort Lauderdale Gay Men’s Chorus; Red Hispana; the Pride Wind Ensemble; the Names Project of South Florida; SAGE of South Florida; KP Productions; ARROW [Area Resource and Referral Organization for Women], the Lambda Men’s Brotherhood, And H.O.M.E.S., Inc.

Even as he struggles to convince mainstream conservatives that he is the logical standard-bearer to take on President Barack Obama in November, Mitt Romney’s triumph last month over the remaining GOP contenders in the Florida presidential primary has the blessing of the nation’s largest LGBT Republican organization.
“Having Gingrich out there reminding voters that Romney has stated support for gay rights will … play well in Florida,” said Clarke Cooper, executive director of the 22,000-member Log Cabin Republicans at the time of last month’s primary.

Romney’s victory over challengers Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, and Ron Paul followed a contentious Sunshine State campaign in which the candidates made every effort to paint themselves as the natural successor to the Ronald Reagan, while utilizing every means at their individual and collective disposals to break the late president’s so-called Eleventh Commandment: “Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.”

Romney’s adoption of hardball tactics may have helped propel him to victory in Florida, just ten days after a steep loss to Gingrich in South Carolina. The former House speaker’s victory raised questions about the former Massachusetts governor’s viability as a national contender. Gingrich’s stumble paved the way for former Pennsylvania senator Santorum to claim the  far-right of the playing field, a position which propelled him to triple wins last week in the Colorado and Minnesota GOP caucuses
and the non-binding Missouri Republican primary.

In December, Gingrich signed a pledge to uphold the Iowa Family Leader’s “Marriage Vow.” In a lengthy screed, the twice-divorced former Georgia congressman promised that, if elected “President, I will vigorously enforce the Defense of Marriage Act, which was enacted under my leadership as Speaker of the House, and ensure compliance with its provisions, especially in the military. I will also aggressively defend the constitutionality of DOMA in federal and state courts. I will support sending a federal constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman to the states for ratification. I will also oppose any judicial, bureaucratic, or legislative effort to define marriage in any manner other than as between one man and one woman. I will support all efforts to reform promptly any uneconomic or anti-marriage aspects of welfare and tax policy. I also pledge to uphold the institution of marriage through personal fidelity to my spouse and respect for the marital bonds of others.”

During a conference call last month for supporters of the Religious Right, Gingrich–whose marital history includes three marriages and an acknowledged record of infidelity–compared marriage equality to paganism: “It’s pretty simple: marriage is between a man and a woman. This is a historic doctrine driven deep into the Bible, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, and it’s a perfect example of what I mean by the rise of paganism. The effort to create alternatives to marriage between a man and a woman are perfectly natural pagan behaviors, but they are a fundamental violation of our civilization.”

In August 2005, Romney—then Governor of Massachusetts—told MSNBC’s Chris Matthews with regards to marriage equality in his state, “I hope that people will be able to decide that neither civil union, nor same-sex marriage is legal in Massachusetts.”

Fast forward six years to August 2011, when Romney intoned during the Iowa Republican debate “I believe we should have a federal amendment in the constitution that defines marriage as a relationship between a man and woman.”

Just before the Florida primary, officers of the Log Cabin Republicans held a caucus in which Romney beat Gingrich by a vote of 26 to 4.

The group’s Cooper noted that Florida has come long way since Broward County passed its contentious Human Rights Ordinance in 1995, which extends to persons, based on their sexual orientation, protection from discrimination in housing, employment, and public accommodations. “Overall, the general populous in the Sunshine State has become increasingly supportive of gay-rights related positions such as employment non-discrimination and the freedom to marry,” Cooper said.

“Any candidate attempting to use gays as a dividing rod in the 2012 election is bucking public trends of inclusion and will find themselves unable to win a general election. Politics is about addition and the long term gains are made through building coalitions, not employing wedge issues,” Cooper noted.

For his part, Romney continues to try and navigate the treacherous political waters between espousing fairness and equal protection for LGBT Americans, while not alienating “values” voters who turn out disproportionately during primary season, and who clearly turned out for Santorum in Colorado, Minnesota, and Missouri.

Romney said during a debate with Santorum that while governor of Massachusetts he appointed an openly-gay member to his cabinet as well as gay judges.

He qualified his progressive executive model, adding that “at the same time, from the very beginning in 1994, I said to the gay community, I do not favor same-sex marriage. I oppose same-sex marriage and that has been my view.” Then Romney seemingly qualified his qualifier: “If people are looking for someone who will discriminate against gays or will in any way try and suggest that people–that have different sexual orientation don’t have full rights
in this country, they won’t find that in me.”

The debate’s moderator asked Romney, “When was the last time you stood up and spoke out for increasing gay rights?” The candidate replied, “Right now,” although he did not list any particulars. This same Romney announced last week after California’s Proposition 8 ruling that, “Today, unelected judges cast aside the will of the people of California who voted to protect traditional marriage. This decision does not end this fight.”

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