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 stand behind (and with) the Atlanta-based chicken joint, and its corporate policies that favor “the biblical definition of the family unit,” as company president Dan Cathy put it this month.

Those traditionalists, long suspicious of Hollywood-types and other liberal elites, were anything but put off by Cathy’s recent remarks that the fast-food giant stands “guilty as charged” of its backing—backed up by political donations—for candidates and causes that are more inclined to view “marriage equality” as alternating nights doing the dishes than a civil right.

On the left, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino blocked Chick-fil-A’s plans to expand into Bean Town, saying that “You can’t have a business in the city of Boston that discriminates against the population. We’re an open city. We’re a city that’s at the forefront of inclusion.”

The Jim Henson Company, creators of the Muppets, recently cancelled a planned partnership with the chicken chain in protest. Dan Cathy, who is the son of company founder S. Truett Cathy, told the Baptist Press , “We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives,” throwing divorcees— gay and otherwise—under the bus, for added measure. “We don’t claim to be a Christian business,” Cathy said.

“But as an organization we can operate on biblical principles.” Those principles include closing its 1,600 restaurants on Sundays, and a management philosophy with a “focus on values rooted in the Bible.” Gay rights activists accuse Chickfil- A of promoting an anti-gay agenda, chiefly through political contributions.

A report by Equality Matters found that, from 2003 to 2009, the company donated more than $3 million to Christian groups that oppose gay rights. The report noted that $2 million of that was donated in 2010 alone. The company has consistently denied that it opposes LGBT rights. Last week, officials said that Chick-fil-A will “leave the policy debate over same-sex marriage to the government and political arena” and abstain from “proactively being engaged in the dialogue” on marriage equality.

Cathy remains unapologetic about Chick-fil-A’s stand in the public policy debate, and says that he and his company “intend to stay the course.” His father, Truett, 91, is no stage-prop villain. He has been honored for his philanthropy and good works (which include serving as a foster parent for over 30 years, and establishing the WinShape Foundation to serve homeless and foster children). The elder Cathy opened his first restaurant in 1946.

He has attended the same Baptist parish for over 50 years, and was honored in May with a degree from Liberty University, the intellectual cauldron of religious, social, and legal conservatism founded by Jerry Falwell. Last week, former and GOP presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee posted on his Facebook page that he was “incensed at the vitriolic assaults on the Chick-fil-A company.”

He said the Cathys are “a wonderful Christian family who are committed to operating the company with Biblical principles, and whose story is the true American success story,” that “is being smeared by vicious hate speech, and intolerant bigotry from the left.” Huckabee, who declared August 1 to be “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day,” defended traditionalists.

“Too often, those on the left make corporate statements to show support for same-sex marriage, abortion, or profanity, but if Christians affirm traditional values, we’re considered homophobic, fundamentalists, hatemongers, and intolerant,” he wrote.

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 TV Station Teams with Anti-Gay North Miami Pastor to Halt Strip Club”), Impact Miami church Pastor Jack Hakimian has been accused by members of the LGBT community of incendiary and homophobic remarks during his sermons, and of using selective Biblical scholarship in choosing language for his worship services and sermons.

Hakimian’s sermons have included such subjects as “Gays and Sex Addicts Can Change and Should Change,” and “Pedophiles Use the Same Argument as Homosexuals and the Weed Smoking Community.” On Facebook, he has posted, “I want to make clear that I disagree based on the scriptures that you can actively be gay and still call yourself a Christian.” For its Sunday church services, Impact Miami rents space inside North Miami Senior High School.

The ministry pays the school district $1,428 monthly to use the space. Although the district rents space to other groups—including faith-based organizations—officials say there are rules that govern the behavior of those organizations while operating on schools’ property. A school spokesman called the content of some of Hakimian’s sermonly subject matter “disturbing and appalling.”

Going one better, Miami-Dade Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho called Hakimian’s past remarks “contrary to School Board policy, as well as the basic principles of humanity, and I have asked for immediate legal review to seek the termination of the contract that is involved.”

For his part, the pastor is crying foul, claiming that he doesn’t preach hate, and that officials are trampling upon his right to free speech and assembly. “They don’t want to go there,” Hakimian told WPLG Local 10. “How do you manage people’s voices and opinions?”

Superintendent Carvalho responded, saying that, “Notwithstanding legal challenges, I cannot allow the circumstances to trump common sense and decency. I am making this decision not on the basis of policy or politics, but as a rejection of prejudice and intolerance.”

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 For Equality in 1995, and helped successfully enact and defend passage of Broward County’s Human Rights Ordinance, which prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation. Trantalis kicks off his campaign tomorrow at 6:30 p.m., during an event at ArtServe, on East Sunrise Boulevard.

“I am eager to return to public service,” he said. “My focus will be to revive our neighborhoods, especially those emerging communities that are most at risk from crime and neglect,” he added. “We need to redirect our resources to helping those most in need.”

By Joe Harris

The pastor of a North Carolina Baptist congregation this month denounced homosexuality, and called for the extermination of all gays and lesbians, through the construction of an electrified fence, and waiting for them to die. A video posted on YouTube this week shows the sermon from Sunday, May 13, at Providence Road Baptist Church, in which the pastor of the Maiden, North Carolinabased parish, Charles Worley, tells his congregation, “I figured a way to get rid of all the lesbians and queers.

Build a great, big, large fence — 150- or 100-mile long — put all the lesbians in there, do the same thing for the queers and the homosexuals, and have that fence electrified so they can’t get out.” “In a few years they’ll die. Do you know why? They can’t reproduce,” added Worley, who has served as pastor of Providence Road Baptist since 1976. The minister also condemned President Obama’s endorsement of marriage equality and support for reproductive rights, saying that he couldn’t vote for “a baby killer and a homosexual lover,” adding that “It makes me pukin’ sick to think about—I don’t even know whether y’all can say this in the pulpit or not—can you imagine kissing some man?”

During a 1978 sermon, Worley also preached about violence against LGBT persons, protesting that, “We’re living in a day when it saddens my heart to think homosexuals can go around, bless God, and get the applause of a lot of people, lesbians and all the rest of it. Forty years ago they would’ve hung, bless God, from a white oak tree, wouldn’t they,” he asked, before adding, “Amen.” North Carolina has been at the center of LGBT rights-related news in May. Voters there amended the state constitution this month to define marriage as between a man and a woman, and another pastor suggested that parents beat their children for displaying homosexual characteristics.

“Dads, the second you see your son dropping the limp wrist, you walk over there and crack that wrist. Man up. Give him a good punch,” Bearean Baptist Church pastor J Sean Harris advised during a sermon. He later said that although he doesn’t advocate abuse, “effeminate behavior is ungodly.” Elsewhere in the Old South, despite bipartisan support for his nomination, a gay Virginia prosecutor’s judicial appointment was blocked last week by Republican members of Virginia’s House of Delegates. Tracy Thorne-Begland, a former U.S. Navy fighter pilot, lost his bid for the judicial vacancy by a vote of 33 to 31, with 10 abstentions.

The vote came as a shocker to Richmond pundits, who saw the broad bipartisan support for Thorne- Begland’s candidacy as a signpost of success. But after heavy lobbying from the Family Foundation, a socially conservative group which opposed his candidacy, and strongarming from conservative legislators, the May 15 vote—which was called by GOP House leaders after 1 a.m., when many lawmakers had already gone home—ended in defeat for the 45-year-old father of twins, who had disclosed his sexual orientation almost 20 years ago during an appearance on ABC’s “Nightline” to protest the military’s policies towards gay servicemembers. Following that disclosure, Thorne- Begland was honorably discharged from the Navy, after which he was reinstated by a federal court, and then re-discharged again under the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy.

He also served on the board of Equality Virginia, a gay rights nonprofit group. Conservative Republicans criticized Thorne-Begland’s biography, and pointed to it as a possible challenge to his impartiality on the bench. “It’s about a pattern of behavior that is just notorious for homosexual advocacy,” argued Delegate Bob Marshall, a Republican who opposed the nomination. “The fact that he defied his oath and could not have been candid on the application—that’s highly problematic, and it stays with you,” Marshall added.

By Joe Harris

President Barack Obama’s endorsement last week for marriage equality is only the most recent sign of a major shift in attitudes towards same-sex marriage more than 15 years ago, when the first indications appeared that American attitudes were changing towards gay marriage.

In 1996, the year President Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), barely a quarter of Americans—27 percent— said that same-sex matrimony should be legalized, a far cry from last year, when 53 percent voiced support for marriage equality. In the 2008 presidential election, Obama won 17 states which have passed laws that define marriage as the union of a man and a woman— including Colorado, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida, with a combined 82 electoral votes, nearly a third of the 270 needed to win the presidency; the Sunshine State alone bring over 10 percent of that total, with 29 electoral votes). Another 21 states have similar laws—including North Carolina, which Obama won in 2008 and which last week enshrined that law in the state constitution.

Unlike the presidential election years 2004 and 2008, when several states created laws or amendments to their state constitutions that banned all but male-female marriages, the issue is not likely to define statewide races or to motivate voters to cast their ballots for one party or another because of personal bias about marriage equality. Meanwhile, the fight over DOMA continues to work its way through the federal courts.

Under the law— passed by a Republican-majority Congress and signed reluctantly into law by Clinton, who faced reelection that year—no state or other U.S. political subdivision (overseas territory, possession, etc.) is required to recognize a same-sex marriage performed in another state. DOMA also codifies nonrecognition of gay marriages for federal purposes, which includes survivor benefits under Social Security, the filing of joint tax returns, as well as insurance and other benefits for federal employees.

In two Massachusetts court decisions and a California bankruptcy court ruling, Section 3 of DOMA, which deals with such matter, has been ruled unconstitutional. All three cases are currently under appeal. Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney raised the ire of LGBT advocates in February when he told attendants at the conservative CPAC convention, “When I am president,” Romney continued, “I will preserve the Defense of Marriage Act and I will fight for a federal amendment defining marriage as a relationship between one man and one woman.”

Romney is toeing a difficult line, trying hard to energize the GOP’s conservative base to support him in November while still attempting the political legerdemain necessary to hold onto centrist and independent voters, who are more concerned with bread and butter issues than denying a right of citizenship to their fellow countrymen and –women.

With the nod from Obama, the Democrat mandarins are rushing to voice their support for marriage equality. Although some of the party’s most eminent names—including former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, as well as Al Gore, John Kerry, Andrew Cuomo, and Howard Dean—have previously endorsed marriage equality, some earlier holdouts have begun to sing a different tune. Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), the Senate Majority Leader and the highestranking Latter Day Saint (Mormon) in U.S. government, said last week, “My personal belief is that marriage is between a man and a woman.

But in a civil society, I believe that people should be able to marry whomever they want, and it’s no business of mine if two men or two women want to get married.” And Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI), the President Pro Tempore of the Senate and, under the Constitution, third in line for the presidency, announced his own support last week for same-sex marriage .

By JOE HARRIS

PITTSBURGH, PA ? Although he publicly defended the hiring of Richard Grenell?the openly gay foreign policy spokesman hired by Republican Mitt Romney?s presidential campaign two weeks ago?he departure of the former Bush State Department aide sent a signal to the religious and social conservative wing of the Republican Party, who remain unconvinced of the presumptive nominee?s commitment to their principles in the public policy arena. While Romney called Grenell, who resigned on May 1, a ?capable individual? and said that he had wanted him to stay on his job, within hours the former Massachusetts governor was meeting behind closed doors with former rival Rick Santorum, who had won his conservative credentials early in the primary season.

LGBT rights groups say that Grenell?s appointment?nd sudden departure?underscore the discomfort with which the religious and social conservative elements of the Republican Party?s base feel towards a GOP ?big tent? that includes gay members. Grenell, who was hired in late April as the spokesman for Romney on matters of foreign policy and national security, previously served as communications director for the U.S. mission to the United Nations.

Grenell?s support for marriage equality earned him sharp rebukes from members of the religious right because of his sexual identity. ?Romney picks out & loud gay as a spokesman,? tweeted American Family Association (AFA) spokesman Bryan Fischer after Grenell?s appointment. Referring to Romney, Fischer added ?If personnel is policy, his message to the pro-family community: drop dead.? Later, appearing on CNN, Fischer declared that ?The homosexual agenda represents the single-greatest threat to religious liberty and freedom of association in America today.?

Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council (FRC) condemned Grenell?s political activism in seeking to classify ?sexual orientation? as a basic human right under the U.N. Charter, and speculated that a Grenell who was highly-placed in the State Department would in effect serve as a gay ?mole.? ?While past performance is not a guarantee of future results,? Perkins offered, ?there is strong evidence that Grenell would lobby for foreign policy more in line with the current administration than the last Republican one.?

Former FRC president Gary Bauer added, ?His appointment was disappointing because it comes at a time when the Romney campaign should be reaching out to the conservative base.

Instead, this appointment seems like a slap at the base.?

?It?s a little disconcerting to see a man just hired by the Romney campaign write passionately about how ?gays are going to win support for their political issues,?? posted Matthew J. Franck, Director of the William E. and Carol G. Simon Center on Religion and the Constitution at the Witherspoon Institute in Princeton, New Jersey, online at nationalreview.com.

Grenell, 45, graduated with a master?s degree from Harvard University?s John F. Kennedy School of Government. In 2001, he was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve as Director of Communications and Public Diplomacy for the United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations.

Following his resignation from the Romney campaign, Grenell said that felt his ability to perform his job was ?greatly diminished by the hyper-partisan discussion of personal issues.?