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Loading ...2 gay candidates run for Ft. Lauderdale mayor
02.09.2009 3:10pm EST
(Ft. Lauderdale, Florida) Ft. Lauderdale voters go to the polls Tuesday to elect a new city government – ending nearly two decades of divisive anti-gay rhetoric by Mayor Jim Naugle – in an election that could see the city’s first gay mayor.
Naugle is not seeking re-election. Four candidates are vying for the job. Naugle is supporting Jack Seiler for mayor and Romney Rogers for City Commission.In the days leading up to the election the Dolphin Democrats, the county’s LGBT Democratic Party club, took out ads in local gay and alternative newspapers making certain the LGBT community knew who Naugle was backing.
Club president Justin Flippen predicted that Naugle’s support would damage a candidate’s chances with gay and lesbian voters. But Naugle said he wasn’t concerned, noting he had been elected “eight consecutive times, and all by wide margins.”
“I’m positive beyond the shadow of a doubt that if I were on the ballot this Tuesday, I would be elected by a very wide margin,” he told The Sun-Sentinel newspaper.
Two of the four candidates running for mayor are openly gay. Dean Trantalis is a lawyer and businessman. He was elected to the City Commission in 2003 and has served as Deputy Mayor. Earl Rynerson is a businessman and although openly gay is running on a conservative platform.
In 2007, Naugle created a stir when he claimed that gay sex is rampant in public washrooms on the beach and called for the city to spend a quarter-million dollars on a replacement toilet that he said would end the problem.
The remarks angered the city’s gay community which launched a “flush Naugle” campaign to flood his office email with “virtual toilet paper” and the police department said there had been only one arrest at the toilet on the stretch of beach known for its gay sunbathers.
Naugle announced he would issue an apology, but instead turned it into another broadside against the gay community.
The conservative Democrat said he was apologizing for what he claimed was underestimating the problem and that the county had the highest rate of new HIV/AIDS cases involving men having sex with men in the country.
Naugle then suggested the county tourism office should rethink its ad campaigns that welcome gays to the area.
Last year nearly one million gay and lesbian visitors to Broward County, spending more than one-billion dollars in the county.
Sorry Max. Many of us prefer our “so called” Red States. I moved from Ohio to Georgia. I could think of no other state to live other than maybe Florida.
As you avoid Florida, I avoid California. I only go there as I must for work. I make every opportunity to spend as little time there as possible. And now, there is Prop 8 that I can use as reason for boycotting.
I maintain that visibility is far more effective than boycotts. I refuse to surrender some of the most beautiful places within this country.
I still say boycott the states that are not gay friendly. It’s not about supporting gay people in states that discriminate, it’s about supporting states that don’t discriminate.
If a state get billions of dollars in vacation revenue, and discriminates against the people who are spending it, why continue to bankroll them, duh!
Boycotts work, I remember Anita Bryant the spokeswoman for Florida orange juice, when she spoke out against gay people, calling us unchristian names, telling the news we recruited children, we shouldn’t be allowed to teach in public schools, etc, we boycotted Florida orange juice, she was fired after a week, never bounced back, her husband divorced her, and was basically never heard from again.
I say bring our money to Massachusetts, or any other state that embraces us. There may not be many states as yet, but money talks, let Florida get all it’s revenue from the religious right, the only thing they spend, is their time praying that all gay people go to hell.
Jim Naugle is a Pleistocenic pus-filled pimple on the posterior of the body politic.
Sam,
You forgot Connecticut. The 2nd gay marriage state and also a neighbor of Massachusetts. It too recognized gay relationships in the legal marriage format.
makes me want to see more of CT my birthstate as well as MA. I have been to Provincetown any number of times and I like to see more of both MA and CT.
Not interested in the severe sunburn state of Florida.
And yes, I realize that boycotting your own country is way more difficult, because you have to essentially stop paying income taxes and so forth, but the point holds for other countries you visit. Do you consider what stances they have on gay rights? If not, why are states that different?
We need to support our gay communities no matter their geographic location. Do everything you can to not give the state itself money (and if you spend the money in the specific gay community, odds are good that only a very small portion of that will go back to the state in sales tax), yes, but please don’t avoid the gay communities in the anti-gay states. They need our help most of all. I think sometimes those of us who live in more gay-friendly areas forget how hard it can be for those who are oppressed.
Trace,
Yes, I have been all over Florida. From Key West to Jacksonville. My parents live in Boca Raton and I used to fly there 2-3 times a year to visit them. But no more. They understand my point of view and they will be flying to CA to visit me from now on… until FL gets rid of that discriminatory amendment.
Here in CA we are waiting for the Supreme court to rule on the validity of Prop 8. I’m almost sure it’s going to be overturned. But even if it’s not, which would be unfortunate, gay and lesbian couples will still get about 95% of the state benefits that married couples get, through the domestic partnership registry.
For now, my partner and I have decided to boycott all the states that decided to blatantly discriminate against us. We will be visiting places that recognize gay/lesbian relationships through same-sex marriages (CT, MA), Civil Unions (VT, NH, NJ) or domestic partnerships (ME, CA, OR, WA and HI). And also NY because they recognize same-sex marriage performed in other jurisdictions.
As for gays/lesbians in Florida, or any other flaming red State, I say: Run! Run as fast as you can from there and don’t ever look back!
I’m pretty sure that those states would lose a lot of revenue if gays/lesbians and their friends and families moved out and/or stopped visiting. Maybe they would think twice before passing discriminatory legislation and constitutional amendments.
People should never be allowed to vote on civil rights. Good thing we have the courts to make it right and defend us from the tirany of the majority.
Connecticut also has full and equal marriage for same sex opposite sex couples. Further, you don’t need to be a resident nor does “marriage” need to be legal in your homestate, as it has been in Mass…..
Ft. Lauderdale, FL, I hope you can finally elect a mayor of some morals, class and talent, with an open mind. You deserve better than that idiot (Naugle) you’ve had for too long. Don’t you get tired of being embarassed by him and his type? Good Luck!
Um, for those who boycott states, do you boycott countries as well? The US on the federal level isn’t exactly gay-friendly either.
Anyway, I think it’s a bit absurd to boycott entire states or countries. Even your most anti-gay of states has gay areas that you can visit and support with your dollars. Those people are often in the most need of our support to survive, because they’re living in a climate where people would just love it if their gay-owned/friendly stores went out of business and the ‘fags’ became paupers. Assuming you stay in that gay community when you visit, the amount of sales tax the state is going to get from your time there is likely to be very small. The local community will benefit tremendously though, both from local sales tax and the stuff you purchase.
Um, for those who boycott states, do you boycott countries as well? The US on the federal level isn’t exactly gay-friendly either.
Anyway, I think it’s a bit absurd to boycott entire states or countries. Even your most anti-gay states have gay areas that you can visit and support with your dollars. Those people are often in the most need of our support to survive, because they’re living in a climate where people would just love it if their gay-owned/friendly stores went out of business and the evil fags became paupers. . Assuming you stay in one of those gay communities when you visit, then the amount of sales tax the state is going to get from your time there is likely to be very small. The local community will benefit tremendously though, both from local sales tax and whatever you buy.
If your going to boycott Florida then your going to have to boycott the 48 other states that don’t recognize gay marriage, in fact you’d have to boycott the whole United States because the federal government doesn’t recognize same-sex marriage or civil unions.
I think gay people should boycott any state that discriminates, and should visit a state like Massachusetts, the only state in our country that recognizes the equal civil rights of gay people. The cape cod beaches are second to none, and showing our support to a state that refused to put discrimination into it’s constitution would be great, while at the same time showing other states, and the president where our moneys will be spent, in places who fully include us and everyone else.
Max,
Have you been to Florida?
Tampa/St. Pete – Orlando – Ft. Lauderdale – Key West – and dozens of smaller cities?
These cities have thriving and vibrant gay communities.
My question to you is why you would want to harm the gay men and women of the area? I would propose that more gay men and women should visit.
“Last year nearly one million gay and lesbian visitors to Broward County, spending more than one-billion dollars in the county.”
BOYCOTT FLORIDA NOW!!!
Why would any gay person want to spend money vacationing in Florida? They hate gays down there! We should not contribute to their economy! They passed an amendment last fall banning any kind of legal recognition to same-sex couples. That’s discrimination plain and simple. We should spend our money wherever we are welcome and not discriminated against!!!
Good riddance to an arch-enemy of the Ft. Lauderdale gay community.
Wonder what convinced him to not run again if he predicted that he would likely win again “by wide margins” if he were running for this Tuesday’s elections.
Strange, thought he had fun using the local and large gay community of Ft. Lauderdale area as a “political punching bag”.
Good riddance to a lying antigay tyrant,
(if the police say they don’t have the arrests to back up Naugle’s assertion of gays having “t-room” sex.
But I won’t come to Florida UNTIL Florida’s antigay marriage discrimination amendment is “tossed in the trash” (by vote, by court or by legislature, I don’t care how Floridians get rid of it) where it belongs.
If I help anywhere outside of MD, it will be in San Francisco. I don’t like the Florida sun, too hot and too intense.
If they can insert this amendment into the FL state constitution, they can also remove this amendment by whatever process that is required.