Florida Agenda

GREENWELL SPRINGS, LA – This weekend, GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum reaffirmed his plan to bring back the Pentagon’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT) policy if he is elected in November.

On Sunday, the former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania was a guest of Tony Perkins, the head of the Family Research Council, a conservative and anti-LGBT rights organization, at Louisiana’s Greenwell Springs Baptist Church.

Perkins, who favors restoring DADT repeal, said the Obama administration “has systematically used this military for social experimentation” through “overturning the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy and forcing open homosexuality on the military.” He then asked Santorum if he would “reverse” Obama’s decision.

Santorum said the repeal of DADT was “not in the best interest of our men and women in uniform.” He pledged to restore DADT, but added that it “doesn’t mean that people who are gays and lesbians can’t serve” in the armed services.

Also on Sunday, Perkins warned LGBT activists against politicizing the verdict in the Tyler Clementi bullying suicide case. “Unfortunately, some prohomosexual activists would exploit the personal tragedies of these families to promote a political agenda,” he said.

“Some have even laid blame not on the actual bullies but on Christian churches and conservative politicians.”

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

The approach of Valentine’s Day and the treble victories of Rick Santorum in Republican primaries this week bear more than a passing relationship to one another, as well as to some other things of LGBT interest this week, than might first be apparent. Although couples of every stripe, political and socio-economic, gay and straight (and BTQ, too), will exchange the gee-gaws of lovers on Feb. 14, there’s no first-hand evidence of what exactly they will be commemorating on that day.
The name “Valentinus” isn’t even mentioned in the earliest lists of Roman martyrs compiled in the 4th Century A.D. The first “Feast of St. Valentine” was celebrated in 496 by Pope Gelasius I, who named

“Valentine” as one of those “… whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose acts are known only to God.” Even the Holy Father didn’t quite know what we are honoring.
Fast forward to this Valentine’s Day, and we find that love is in the air as the self-described One Million Moms (an affiliate of the American Family Association) pressure retailer JC Penney to fire its new spokesperson, Ellen DeGeneres–an action so contemptible that even Bill O’Reilly called it “McCarthyism,” saying that One Million Moms is behaving in an un-American fashion to “actively push for a private company to fire an American citizen based on her lifestyle. That’s just wrong.”

Of course it is, as is all bigotry hidden behind a veneer of “religious freedom” and “freedom of speech,” both of which I personally revere. But a scoundrel is a scoundrel, and a bigot is a bigot, even if he is pretending to  be somebody’s “Mom.” (DeGeneres’ unruffled response this week: “My haters are  my motivators.”)

Last week in this publication, Nick Stone opined as a gay Republican on the reasons why he supports a Mitt Romney presidential candidacy (and in this issue, Marc Paige offers his own thoughts on why Stone and Romney are full of … it). I spent a number of years “living among the Mormons,” and found that any xenophobia that I thought existed concerning their culture and my own was both misplaced and wholly a product of my own imagination. In the main, they are, individually and collectively, men and women of goodwill, straight, gay, bi, and questioning, Republican and—well, mostly Republican, but willing to hear an honest “gentile” out on issues of mutual import.

Ironically, the LDS Church-owned KSL-TV in Salt Lake City (an NBC affiliate) carries Ellen DeGeneres’ program every weekday, and its news programs ran a story last month that praised the comedian for a $100,000 grant her program made to an elementary school located in Utah County, Utah, home of Brigham Young University and the most conservative spot in the most conservative place on the planet. Talk about the lamb and the lion.

When I listen to gay Republicans extol upon the lonely existence of the queer conservative, I sympathize with their contention that they are not “one issue voters” focusing solely on marriage equality or the plight of LGBT armed service members. And there are plenty of gay-bashing registered Democrats to be sure. But I have a hard time reconciling the Mitt Romney of 1994, who said “I am more convinced than ever before that as we seek to establish full equality for America’s gay and lesbian citizens, I will provide more effective leadership than my opponent” (who happened to be Ted Kennedy), with the Mitt Romney of yesterday, who, after the federal appeals panel’s ruling that California’s Proposition 8 is offensive to the Constitution, offered helpfully “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.”

Ron Paul, usually a paragon of principle, has danced around the marriage equality question with all the skills of Rudolf Nureyev (gay), Tommy Tune (gay, too), or Alvin Ailey (also gay). One side of Paul’s mouth speaks fluent “libertarian” (“I am supportive of all voluntary associations and people can call it whatever they want.”). The other side does a mean imitation of Mussolini, as authoritarian as any Leather Daddy in wielding the whip of the Federal Government to make the states bend to a narrow—and dare I say it? bigoted)—You’re-Not-Admitted-to-Our-Club mean spiritedness. It is as sour as is his default facial expression (“I supported the Defense of Marriage Act, which used Congress’ constitutional authority to define what other states have to recognize under the Full Faith and Credit Clause, to ensure that no state would be forced to recognize a same sex marriage license issued in another state.”).

Like Paul, Rick Santorum–who swept the Minnesota and Colorado GOP caucuses and the non-binding Missouri primary this Tuesday–has an appeal to those who are inclined to dislike (or worse) LGBT persons. Unlike Paul, who at least has the courtesy—and one supposes, the guts–to agonize about his conflicting views, Hamlet-like, in the public arena, Santorum has no such love for
the subtleties of human behavior— or, apparently, human love. He compares “consensual sex within your home” to “bigamy,” “polygamy,” “incest,” and “adultery.” Now isn’t that romantic?

“Love, American Style: Truer than the Red, White and Blue. Love, American Style: That’s me and you.”

Cliff Dunn - Editor

Cliff Dunn is the Editor of Florida Agenda. He can be reached at Editor@FloridaAgenda.com.

By Phoebe Moses

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL – Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum, campaigning on Sunday, Jan. 22 in Broward County, received the endorsement of former Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle.

During a campaign stop in Coral Springs, the former six-term mayor introduced Santorum, saying that conservatives “really only have one choice.”

Naugle’s remarks and endorsement came a day after Santorum, a former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania, placed third in the South Carolina GOP presidential primary. Santorum finished behind fellow GOP contenders Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney.

Naugle, who was Fort Lauderdale’s longest-serving mayor, said of Santorum: “When you look at the candidate we’re here to support today, his unwavering support for the unborn, his unwavering support for the Second Amendment. He’s the only candidate left standing that has a position  on repealing ‘Obamacare’ that makes  any sense.”

Although a life-long Democrat, Naugle endorsed numerous Republican candidates during his eighteen years as mayor. He also earned the criticism of LGBT rights activists for controversial positions he took as the city’s chief executive.

In 2007, Naugle said that the city needed to purchase single-occupancy public toilets in Fort Lauderdale’s Holiday Park in order to “reduce homosexual sex in bathrooms.” The mayor first claimed that his orders to city police to arrest gay men accused of having sex in the park’s restrooms was intended to protect the city’s children, but he later said his purpose was to reduce the risk of HIV transmission. Fort Lauderdale Police reported four incidents of male sex acts in public restrooms during the period between November 2005 and November 2007.

Naugle said at the time: “We don’t have men and women having sex together in bathrooms–at least we don’t have reports of that. It’s men having sex with men, and I feel it’s necessary for an elected official to tell it like it is. I don’t subscribe to political correctness.”

In 2007, Naugle opposed the Stonewall Library & Archives, citing pornographic materials among the library’s collections. Stonewall Executive Director Jack Rutland countered that the three titles the mayor found objectionable were contained among the library’s non-circulating archive of 7000 titles, which were maintained for historical and research purposes only. In spite of Naugle’s fierce opposition, Fort Lauderdale city commissioners approved the library’s occupation of a city-owned building. That summer, the Broward Tourism Development Council expelled Naugle because of his positions concerning LGBT rights.

Naugle’s support for the Boy Scouts of America’s ban on gay troop leaders prompted the nine members of the Broward County Commission to unanimously sign a letter that called the county “safe, unbiased and gay friendly.”

After his public battles over gay rights, Naugle explained his choice of verbiage to describe LGBT issues: “I use the word homosexual. Most of them aren’t gay; they’re unhappy.”

Photo: Former City Commissioner Anthony Niedwicki and his partner Waymon at a  “Flush Naugle” Campaign Event in 2008.

D. W. Schultz: Santorum Scheme Doesn’t Work For Us

By Rory Barbarossa

Member of Congress and Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz says that Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum is “un-American” for his promise to invalidate same-sex marriages that are already on the books through a federal marriage amendment.

Wasserman Schultz, who represents Florida’s 20th Congressional District in the U.S. House, said during an interview at the Des Moines Convention Center on Tuesday, Jan.

3, the day of the Iowa Republican presidential caucus, that Santorum’s scheme “would be un-American, undemocratic, and entirely inappropriate and unacceptable.”

The four-term House member was responding to an earlier comment made by Santorum, who told NBC News’ Chuck Todd that existing same-sex marriages “would be invalid” if an amendment to the U.S. Constitutional was passed that bans marriage equality. Santorum–who narrowly lost to GOP opponent Mitt Romney in Iowa, the nation’s first statewide candidate contest– supports such an amendment.

Speaking of the district she has represented since 2005, Wasserman Schultz said “I represent as a member of Congress one of the largest, most vibrant, gay communities in the entire country. I’m a supporter of same-sex marriage and believe that we need to make sure that we stand up for equality for everyone.”

Asked by  reporter for the Washington Blade what message gay Americans should take away from the Iowa caucus results, Wasserman Schultz replied, “Iowa has been a forerunner when it comes to the civil rights of Americans. So many of the civil rights advances, including same-sex marriage, have begun in Iowa.”

“I think Iowans will continue to uphold the liberty that all Americans believe in, for all Americans, she added.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) was in Iowa During the Republican Primary Caucus on Tuesday

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ORLANDO, FL – At the recent Fox News/YouTube Republican Debate held in Orlando, the audience booed a video submitted by Stephen Hill, a soldier serving in Iraq concerning the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

In the question directed at former Senator Rick Santorum, Hill asked: “Do you plan to circumvent the progress that has been made for gay and lesbian soldiers in the military?”

The audience at the debate then booed the military man.

Santorum answered: “Any type of sexual activity has absolutely no place in the military. And the fact that they are making it a point to include it as a provision within the military – that we are going to recognize a group of people and give them a special privilege, I think tries to inject social policy into the military and the military’s job is to defend our country. We need to give the military, which is all volunteer, the ability to do so in a way that is most efficient and protective of our men and women in uniform and I believe this undermines that ability.”

Debate panelist Megyn Kelly asked a followed up question: “So, what would you do with soldiers like Stephen Hill now he’s out?

What would you do as president?”

Santorum responded: “What we’re doing right now is playing social experimentation with our military right now, and that’s tragic. Going forward we would reinstitute that policy….”

Neither Santorum, any of the other candidates, nor the debate panel addressed the disrespect the audience gave to Hill.

The next day on Fox News, Santorum did say: “I condemn the people who booed that gay soldier. That soldier is serving our country.

I thank him for his service to our country. I’m sure he is doing an excellent job. I hope he is safe.

I hope he returns safely, and does his mission well. I have to admit I seriously did not hear those boos. Had I heard them, I certainly would have commented on them.”