Florida Agenda

OLYMPIA, WASHINGTON – State Rep. Maureen Walsh (R-Walla Walla) recorded a video ad this week supporting Washington State marriage equality. The three-term Republican lawmaker is one of two GOP House members who voted in favor of the state’s same-sex marriage bill, which passed in February and now faces a voter referendum to affirm or reject the measure.

During debate on the legislation, Walsh delivered an impassioned speech about her gay daughter and her hopes to someday throw her a wedding. The video of the speech went viral, and scored millions of hits on YouTube.

NEW YORK, NY – New York City-based writer/director/producer Adam Goldman has unleashed a new Web-based series that he hopes will do for the Twenty-Tens what “Queer as Folk” did for the first half of the “Aughts.” The six-episode Web series tells the story about a gay man and his circle of friends, as they explore all facets of their lives and relationships, including their jobs, their families, and their sexual experiences.

The comedy uses Goldman’s own familiar Big Apple haunts as a backdrop for the series, which he described to the Huffington Post as “a story about big relationships, the ones that really define people, and what happens when they fall apart, and how that can change someone.” The series is financed through Kickstarter, a crowd-funding Web site for creative projects that has funded a diverse spectrum of media, including indie films, music, comics, journalistic endeavors, video games, and food-related projects.

Goldman, whose production shoots on location in the Five Boroughs, says he wants to tell stories that are relatable to him and his friends. “I wanted a character-driven comedy with heart about gay men,” he told the Huffington Post. “I love [the gay characters] Mitch and Cam on ‘Modern Family,’ but those aren’t my people. I don’t live in California and I don’t have a baby.”

Pastor Disapproves of Anti-Bullying Event to Commemorate Matthew Shepard Murder

By Cliff Dunn

MILFORD, CT – Across the U.S., religious and social conservatives have condemned the upcoming April 20 National Day of Silence, a commemoration of the murder of Wyoming college student Matthew Shepard and a day to draw awareness to the evils of bullying and homophobic violence

The American Family Association, Citizens for Community Values, Faith 2 Action, the Family Research Council, the Liberty Counsel, Mission America, and Save California are among the groups that have called for a national student walkout to protest what one Connecticut pastor calls a day to “[promote] vile, graphic, foul language, and child sex.

The Day of Silence was initiated in 1996 as a grassroots project of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). The annual event, held on one day in April, was created to protest the harassment and bullying of LGBT students and other children and teens that are perceived as being “different.” Since 1999, the event has also commemorated the death of Matthew Shepard, the gay University of Wyoming student who was tortured and murdered in October 1998.

According to GLSEN, more than 8,000 schools participate in the annual ‘DAY OF SILENCE’ commemoration, during which students take a day-long vow of silence to symbolize the silencing of LGBT students. GLSEN encourages students to obtain permission from their school before organizing the event.

Last week, Connecticut pastor James Loomer requested that the Milford Board of Education deny permission for students to organize the Day of Silence.

The area’s schools have participated in the event since 2005. His actions were applauded by Tony Perkins, the President of the Family Research Council, who said “we cannot allow these programs like the Day of Silence to come into our schools as a cover for the promotion of homosexuality. That’s what is happening with this so we appreciate Pastor Loomer and others who are drawing attention to this in communities across the country.”

Loomer has accused GLSEN of disseminating materials to children and teens that promote “promiscuity,” describing the group’s literature as “vile, graphic, promoting foul language, and child sex.” Last week, Loomer, the pastor of Milford Christian Church, told Board of Education members that he read an article about GLSEN and its list of “recommended reading” for students.

He reiterated his remarks on Perkins radio program, “Washington Watch Weekly.” “If parents came to know the inappropriateness of materials they’d be enraged,” said Loomer. “I brought this matter to the administration two years ago.” The pastor claimed that the recommended reading list was prepared for students as young as 7th-graders. “It’s revolting,” he said.

Rightwingwatch.org reported this week that “Loomer’s campaign is based on material from rabidly antigay activist Linda Harvey of Mission America, along with debunked claims that [GLSEN] distributes pornographic material to children.” The Web site also noted that “the school board’s own legal counsel and the American Civil Liberties Union [agree] that students have a right to participate in the Day of Silence during non-instructional time.”

Tracy Casey, the Chairwoman of the Milford Board of Education, declined to prohibit the event, citing the board’s attorney who determined that the Day of Silence is protected by the First Amendment. Casey said that no “inappropriate literature” was distributed by GLSEN, and that she had asked the Milford Superintendent of Schools, Elizabeth Feser, to oversee the Day of Silence. The board chair stated that the school system’s top priority is the welfare of the district’s students.

“Rainmaker” alleged to have Bilked Million$ from Wilton Manors Residents

By RORY BARBAROSA

MIAMI – The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has released a list of charges against a Broward County man accused of running a Ponzi scheme that bilked as much as $11 million from gay victims, many of them retirees living in Wilton Manors. Federal authorities arrested fugitive George Elia— who had moved from Florida to Cyprus after his alleged scam was revealed— on March 27 as he arrived in Las Vegas, Nevada on a flight from London.

FBI agents arrested Elia on criminal charges of wire fraud stemming from alleged false claims he made to his investors about his track record as a daytrader, and his doctoring of statements to reflect inflated profits. In reality, his trading resulted in marginal gains or losses. The SEC’s complaint says that Elia violated antifraud sections of securities laws and that he aided and abetted these violations by companies of which he was in charge. He faces a maximum 20 years in prison.

In addition to the criminal charges against him, the SEC sued Elia and his company, International Consultants & Investment Group (ICIG), along with other businesses connected to him— 212 Entertainment Club, Inc. and Elia Realty—as relief defendants in federal civil court, alleging “affinity fraud,” a legal term for investment frauds that prey upon certain groups, including the members of religious or ethnic communities, language minorities, and the elderly, as well as LGBT individuals. The perpetrators of affinity scams frequently are—or pretend to be—members of that group.

CYPRUS, GREECE, THE CITY TO WHICH ELIA ABRUPTLY MOVED HIS BELONGINGS

Several of Elia’s alleged victims say that they were introduced to the daytrader by Wilton Manors resident Jim Ellis, although no charges have been filed against him. Elia is said to have met with prospective clients over dinner at expensive restaurants in and around Wilton Manors and Fort Lauderdale. Authorities say that investors were referred to Elia by “word of mouth,” and by relatives and friends of the alleged victims. A large number of these are members of Wilton Manors’ LGBT community.

The 19-page complaint filed by the SEC in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida alleges that “From March 2005 to January 2012, defendants George Elia and his company, International Consultants & Investment Group Ltd. Corp. (‘International Consultants’), orchestrated a Ponzi scheme in which Elia raised approximately $11 million from approximately 25 investors.”

“Elia’s scheme was, in part, an affinity fraud: a number of the investors were members of the gay community in Wilton Manors, Florida,” the complaint continues. “Elia falsely told investors he had a long track record of day trading stocks and exchange traded funds to yield annual returns as high as 26 percent, and that his trading on behalf of investors was paying quarterly returns of up to 20 percent.”

“However, in fact, Elia’s trading resulted in losses or only marginal gains in limited time periods. Further, he misappropriated millions of dollars of investor funds, so any percentage returns he claimed could not have provided enough profits to pay all investors the returns he claimed. Elia transferred the funds to entities he controlled, including relief defendants 212 Entertainment Club Inc., and Elia Realty Inc. He also used some of the funds to pay personal expenses such as mortgage and car payments, and to pay an associate to introduce him to potential investors to sustain his Ponzi scheme.”

The SEC civil complaint, which was filed in federal court before Elia’s arrest, notes that 67-year-old Elia “until recently resided in Oakland Park, Florida, but is believed to now reside in Cyprus. Elia has never been registered with the [Securities and Exchange] Commission in any capacity.” It also says that Elia’s company, ICIG “has never been registered with the Commission as an investment adviser.” These last two are serious charges in a compliance-heavy industry such as stock trading and other forms of investments with regulatory oversight.

While the U.S. Attorney’s office builds its criminal case against Elia and any possible co-conspirators, the SEC civil suit will seek to recoup moneys that Elia may have achieved through fraudulent means. The SEC’s documents charge that “Elia transferred the funds…in amounts of several hundred or several thousand dollars, sometimes more than once a day, indicating that the transfers were not in exchange for goods or services…”

Florida Family Association: Gays Have Corrupted the “Star Wars” Universe TAMPA – Fans of the “Stars Wars” film franchise may be surprised to learn that the “Old Republic” is still threatened—not by the evil Lords of the Sith but by members of the religious right who are expressing their anger at the creator of “Star Wars: The Old Republic,” because the makers of the popular online video game plan to allow players the option of simulating same-sex intimacy.

In an alert sent to members and posted online last week, the Tampa-based Florida Family Association (FFA) suggested that the game designers could engineer a simulated “Darth VaPaula, a (mock) transgender version of Darth Vader–RuPaul, for kids to choose as their action player.”

David Caton, the president of FFA, expressed dismay for the mere existence of gay and transgendered characters in the fictional Star Wars universe, which was originally created in the 1977 film, “Star Wars: A New Hope,” a movie that spawned a multi-billion dollar international film, software, fashion, and multimedia franchise.

“There were no LGBT characters in any of the ‘Star Wars’ movies,” objected Caton, whose previous targets include the cartoon “Family Guy,” and a successful campaign to scare sponsors from the reality series “All- American Muslim.”

Of BioWare’s game, the FFA alert claimed that “LGBT activists are demanding that the makers of Star Wars video games add LGBT characters for kids to select as their action figure when playing the games.”

The “Star Wars: The Old Republic” video game is one of a genre known as Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPG), in which players who have logged into a virtual gaming universe based upon the Star Wars films and other media, assume the role of characters who interact with other players and the artificial environment of the game’s “world.” The virtual characters are heavily customized, with options to choose species, gender—male or female only—and other features.

The FFA warning states that “Children and teens, who never thought anyway but heterosexual, are now given a choice to be lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender in their game player.”

In fact, character “romances in “The Old Republic” are only initiated at the player’s option, and at present, only heterosexual relationships are available. BioWare officials have said that they will add same-sex relationship options in the future, which sparked outrage on the part of the religious right.

“If BioWare, the maker of ‘Star Wars’ video games, adds LGBT characters for kids to select as their action figure,” added Caton in the FFA alert, “it could be something like Darth RuPaula, a combination of Darth Vader, one of the most popular ‘Star Wars’ characters, and RuPaul, the renown transgender cross dresser,” although his characterization of the performer is incorrect, as RuPaul is a drag entertainer, not a transgendered individual. FFA’s alert also claimed that “An overwhelming percentage of the 1.7 million games sold are being used by children who do not need to be introduced to this propaganda.”

This contradicts research conducted over the past ten years, which shows that the average age of an MMORPG player is in the mid-20s, and that approximately 75% are 18 years or older. Experts say that such games are neither marketed to nor designed for children, as they require a credit card to pay the monthly fee.

This is only the most recent in a string of attacks by the political and religious right against BioWare: Right Wing Watch reported that the American Decency Association condemned the software designer for pandering to “homosexual extremists.”

And in January, the president of the Family Research Council slammed BioWare after it was announced that a same-sex intimacy option would soon be available for characters. In a weekly radio address titled “Rebel Fleet Surrenders to Gay Empire,” Tony Perkins said that “the biggest threat to the empire may be homosexual activists.”

By ROBERT ELIAS DEATON

There’s a wonderful place just west of Málaga, on the Southern coast of Spain, called Torremolinos that we first learned about from Audrey Hepburn. I would love to say A.H. and I were fab friends, but such was not the case.

She was, however, a world traveler and among her many finds in her gallivants was discovering the sleepy fishing village of Torremolinos in the early 50s. While we were a little young to hear about the experience directly, legend has it that Audrey spread the word among her Hollywood buds and soon Torremolinos was sleepy no more. By the early 1960s, it was already a Mecca of homosexuality, centered around Spain’s first gay bar, a place called Toni’s—this at a time when the Franco regime would routinely prosecute homosexuals by burning them at the stake or something like that. Lately, of course, Spain has turned the corner of acceptance and is one of ten countries around the world to legalize same-sex marriage. In many ways, they’ve come full circle, since back in the Roman days, playing around with the boy was de rigueur.

In any case, these days Torremolinos has regained its hot-as-a-tamale reputation as the place to see and be seen. In particular, we highly recommend the Japanese-themed La Luna Blanca Hotel (Pasaje del Cerrillo 2) for the economy minded traveler. If Daddy’s footing the bill, try the Gay Beach Studios that fronts directly on the Paseo Maritimo where boys in thongs frolic as if there’s no tomorrow. Both places have free wifi and on-site food and clubs, but where Torremolinos is concerned, there’s no shortage of either within a ten-minute walk.

The hottest dance club in town is called Home (Calle Casablanca 15) for a very good reason. When you see the masses of exposed flesh on the dance floor, you’ll want to move in. During the day and for early evening sunsets, the El Gato Lounge (Paseo Maritimo 1), located next to the Gay Beach Studios, combines convenience with some of the best Mojito specials in town. Those looking for a little play with your music should head to Parthenon (Nogalera), with its two dance floors and an enormous dark room where groping hands are a given.

When your stomach rumbles, you’ve got endless choices ranging from cheap eats to elegant. While most of the restaurants on the Costa del Sol feature Spanish cuisine, you can still find Italian, Chinese, and even Thai food if you wander the back streets and get lost among the locals.

For an absolutely incredible dining experience, we always recommend the Spanish Garden (Avenida Salvador Allende) and have never had anything but positive feedback. A three-course prix fix menu will set you back about 12 euros, with a Pork Wellington dish that is first on anyone’s list. When you’re counting pesetas, find your way to The Carvery (Calle Saltillo) where they slice chicken, pork, lamb and beef, and heap it high. Nothing fancy, but for size queens, the huge portions make up for the ambience. When thinking gay baths, look no further than Sauna Miguel (Carlota Alessandri 166).

The place is clean and fun, with an age range that will please everyone chicken hawks to silver daddies. Glory holes, Jacuzzis, sauna, steam, plunge pool, and enough mini-cabins to turn you into a door-to-door salesman. They may not know from Audrey Hepburn, but believe us when we say the customers at Sauna Miguel are very fast learners. Olé.

CHICAGO, IL – A kiss by two gay men briefly interrupted a rally in support of Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum on Friday night held at a Christian school in the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights.

While Santorum addressed the crowd at Christian Liberty Academy, two men in the back of the auditorium stood up and started yelling, “Mic check, Mr. Santorum!” in the fashion of the Occupy movement. Once they had the assembly’s attention, the couple castigated the former Pennsylvania senator for his stance on LGBT rights.

“This will never be an equal country for families –” they began, but feeling the crowd of 2,000 people’s attention slipping away, the two men—identified in the Palatine Patch, a local newspaper, as Timothy Tross and Ben Clifford- -embraced in a prolonged kiss that lasted for at least five seconds.

Thus provoked, the crowd began to chant “USA! USA!” as security escorted the men out of the facility.

Tross said their kiss was neither a symbolic gesture nor a pure display of affection. “I don’t think the message should be about what my sexuality is.

It’s the message that [Santorum] is saying about sexuality that matters.”

By CLIFF DUNN

BAGHDAD, IRAQ – A city that was once rocked by the shock and awe of artillery shells and roadside bombs has been transformed into a gauntlet of intimidation and death for Iraq’s gay and “alternative” teens and young men, with a recent wave of murders and terror directed at Baghdad’s gay men as well as teenagers who wear fashion styles associated with emo, goth, and other alternative scenes.

The murders, which the Iraqi press has dubbed the “emo killings,” reportedly began just two weeks ago, when security officials found the bodies of six young men whose skulls had been crushed by cement blocks.

Since then, contradictions in the reporting have made it difficult to determine the exact number of victims, with Reuters reporting a death toll of 14 or more—based upon data supplied by Baghdad security and hospital officials—and the New York-based International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, said that a “new surge of anti-gay violence” has resulted in nearly 40 gay men being kidnapped, tortured, and murdered, although no evidence has been provided to support that number.

The violence highlights—at a time when the country is attempting to show that it can control its own internal security— ongoing attacks and intimidation against minority ethnic groups, religious sects, and vulnerable groups, including gays.

The targets of the violence have been associated with the western “emo” style of fashion and music, although it has received a uniquely Iraqi twist, which includes Goth, punk, and other elements. “Emo” originated in the 1980s during the American hardcore punk movement, and was original known as “emotional hardcore.”

Musically, emo is characterized by melodic musicianship and expressive, often confessional lyrics. In Western youth culture, the term refers to appearance and musical preference, but carries no suggestion of a person’s sexual orientation.

The emo style gained popularity among Iraqi youths as a sign of greater cultural and social freedom following years of oppression under Saddam Hussein and the subsequent violence and warfare which followed his overthrow. Emo, however, is hugely unpopular among the nation’s social and religious conservatives, who equate it with effeminacy and homosexuality. In addition, there are elements of the Iraqi government who consider the style as western decadence and a public menace.

In a March 8 statement, the Iraq interior ministry denied that the killings were related to the emo phenomenon, or that they were anti-gay in motivation, but rather had been committed for “revenge, or social, criminal, political or cultural reasons.”

That contradicts a Feb. 13 statement on the ministry Web site, in which officials describe emos as “devil worshippers” whose signature nose rings, skull-print t-shirts, and dark clothing are marks of Satan. That statement said, chillingly, that police “have official approval to eliminate them as soon as possible, because the dimensions of the community began to take another course, and is now threatening danger.”

In addition, since February threatening fliers have begun to appear in Baghdad’s Shiite neighborhoods. One leaflet, which was scanned and posted online, identifies dozens of gay men by their names, addressing individuals it refers to as “Mohammed the Flower,” “Allawi the Bra,” and others.

“Your fate will be death if you don’t quit doing this,” warns the text on one flier. “Punishment will be tougher and tougher, you gays. Don’t be like the people of Lot,” a reference to the biblical figure associated with Sodom and Gomorrah.

Another leaflet specifically warns emo youths to reform their musical and style choices, including cutting their hair and eschewing certain dark and tight-fitting clothing. “God’s punishment will be come down upon you,” the flier vows. Human rights groups lay responsibility for the anti-gay and anti-emo violence on Shiite militias and radical religious groups.

Last week, the leader of one of the most prominent of these groups, Moktada al-Sadr of the Mahdi Army, told the Iraqi news channel Al Sumaria that emo teens are “unnatural,” but that they should be dealt with by legal methods, and denied responsibility for the violence or threats.

Some religious leaders have condemned the violence. Mohammed al-Yaqoubi, a Shiite cleric, decried the bloodshed and said that emo teens should be given “advice, guidance, and knowledge.”

In the meantime, Baghdad’s evenings ring with the Muslim call to prayer heard alongside threats of violence and neighbors chanting “Block! Block! Block!” a reference to the use of cement blocks as weapons against the city’s defenseless gays and emo teens.

Frightened youths, who have posted the threatening fliers online, have also identified at least one of the victims of the homophobic, homicidal violence.

Saif Raad Asmar Abboudi, 20, was beaten to death with a brick on Feb. 17. Police have not identified a suspect, according to a report by Iraqi LGBT, a Londonbased advocacy group. In photos circulated by Iraqi LGBT youths, Abboudi appears in one wearing a white jacket, dark aviator sunglasses, and perfectly-styled hair. In another, his bloody and distorted face stares upward from the bed of a police truck.

“I think he was killed because of the way he was dressed,” a former teacher of his told the Washington Post. “People used to call him Saif the bride.”

ST.PAUL, MN  – The Grace Community United Church of St. Paul says a “miracle” donation of $15,000 is keeping its doors open, after more than 70 percent of the congregation left the parish following its pastor’s endorsement of same-sex marriage.

The donation was a gift from the United Church of Christ in Dallas, a congregation consisting mostly of gay and lesbian members, in support of Grace Community’s pastor, Rev. Oliver White, who voted in 2005 to support the United Church of Christ’s endorsement of marriage equality. The minister says that his progressive interpretation of human rights has cost him and
his pulpit.

“Some young people maybe age 12 or so were walking by,” White recently told local station WCCO-TV. “I said why don’t you all come to Sunday school this Sunday, and their response was, ‘We heard you are a gay church and we can’t come here,’” White recalled.

The mostly African-American congregation is affiliated with the Congregationalist church movement, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs.
“We are not a gay church, we are church with a door that’s open to everybody,” White explained.

That sentiment cost White 150 members of his church, who said they could not support his belief that human rights and civil rights includes gay rights. “They take the bible very, very literally,” White noted of his former members.

In the midst of all the current political rhetoric, it can be difficult to identify the best candidates in terms of the issues relevant to the LGBT community, along with identifying the true supporters of same.  I personally think it is important to make a voting decision based upon a broader spectrum of issues than a candidate’s position on gay issues, but the trend today is to ask “what will you do for me?” before asking “what will you do for us/everyone?”

Since Hillary Rodham Clinton’s eloquent speech about gay rights last year before the U.N. High Commission on Human Rights, a leading issue at every level of elections, federal and state through county and local, is LGBT rights. Our own Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida’s 20th Congressional District, who also chairs the Democratic National Committee, has taken an aggressive stand against any politician seeking to suppress  gay rights.

That aside, who is the right person for whom you should cast your vote? Should you vote solely based on that candidate’s positions on gay marriage, or domestic partnerships, or gay adoption?  What if the Democratic candidate supports everything in the “gay agenda,” but wants to increase taxes?  What if the candidate marches in Pride parades in full-blown drag, but has no interest in healthcare reform?

While acknowledging the importance of the continuing fight for equality, intelligent adults need to understand our candidates’ positions, and research not only what they say they will do, but also what they have done in the past, and how they conduct themselves as people.  I don’t believe that it is possible for a person to truly separate who they are in their personal life from who they will be in their political life.  Knowing about a person’s life can help identify certain attributes that they will likely bring to bear in elected office.

In Fort Lauderdale, the non-partisan mayoral race includes Jack Seiler and Earl Rynerson.  Members of the LGBT community may recognize the fact that Rynerson is a gay man, but does that guarantee he will be the gay person’s politician?  First as mayor of Wilton Manors, and now as Fort Lauderdale’s incumbent mayor, Seiler twice advocated and passed domestic partnership ordinances. I remember the day he looked me in the eye and said, “A.J., I am fully committed to making this happen, and I will.”  He was true to his word.  Does this make him the gay person’s politician?

My feeling is that politicians are destined to act “politically.” Considerations of political survival and decisions that seem illogical or simply wrong are par for the course. The question we have to ask is how genuine are a candidate’s aspirations and political promises? Will he or she be brave enough to stand behind their convictions when it matters? There will never be a perfect president, governor, or mayor, but there will be those who bring integrity, good intentions, and a true understanding of our needs to their offices.

There never has been and never will be a “gay person’s politician.” There are simply politicians. It was Seiler who said that “good public policy always makes for good politics, but good politics seldom makes for good public policy.”

AJ Cross

AJ Cross is a social writer and regular contributor to Florida Agenda. He can be reached at CrossEyed@jumponmarkslist.com.