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Gainesville to Host Summer Conference of the Florida GLBT Democratic Caucus
Local, National Speakers, Candidates and Elected Officials Meet July 18-19Fort Lauderdale - Continuing to move its meetings around the state to showcase the scope and breadth of local GLBT organizations, the Florida GLBT Democratic Caucus will hold its Summer Conference in Gainesville July 18 and 19. The Stonewall Democrats of Alachua County, a chapter of the Caucus, will host the conference, which will be held at the Hilton University of Florida Conference Center. The Summer Conference will set the stage for the August primary election and the November general election, and will bring together local and national speakers, candidates and elected officials. Among confirmed speakers are Gainesville Mayor Pegeen Hanrahan; Alachua County Sheriff Sadie Darnell; openly-gay Gainesville City Commissioner Craig Lowe; Florida Democratic Black Caucus President Lizzie Jenkins; Alachua County Commissioner Paula Delaney; and representatives of the Human Rights Campaign; Florida Red and Blue; Equality Florida; Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund; and the Florida ACLU LGBT Advocacy Project. The conference will feature two panel discussions: one focusing on women, African-Americans and unions; and one on transgender rights. The cost to attend for members of the State Caucus and/or the Stonewall Democrats of Alachua County is $50; non-members will be charged $75. Students with a valid ID will be charged $35 to attend. The conference fee includes continental breakfast and lunch on Saturday. A full conference schedule will be released next week. Wild Iris Books and Cafe, located at 802 W. University Ave., will host a welcoming reception on Friday, July 18, and the Human Rights Council of North Central Florida will host a cocktail reception at Pride Community Center of North Central Florida, located at 3131 NW 13th St., Suite 62 in the Liberty Center, on Saturday, July 19. For more information on the conference or to register please visit the Florida GLBT Democratic Caucus website at www.floridaGLBTdemocrats.org.
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Gay candidates focus on wider agenda at Democratic Caucus meeting
Democratic GLBT caucus talks strategyBy Anthony Man, Sun-Sentinel Political Writer WEST PALM BEACH - Gay Democrats gathered Saturday for a conference whose cost was subsidized by U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D- Delray Beach. Attendees heard from a slew of supportive Palm Beach County officials: state Sen. Dave Aronberg, D- Greenacres; state Rep. Susan Bucher, D- Royal Palm Beach; West Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel; and U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D- Boca Raton. Several local candidates stopped by. But there weren't any openly gay elected officials or candidates from Palm Beach County. Cross the county line into Broward and there are a half dozen openly gay elected officials in local governments, including the County Commission. Many more are running in this year's election, and a Broward district might send the first openly gay elected state legislator to Tallahassee. While Palm Beach County has many elected officials who seek and receive support of the gay community, it hasn't been nearly as conducive to the idea of electing an openly gay man or lesbian to office, said Kevin Muth of Boca Raton, treasurer of the Florida Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Democratic Caucus. "Palm Beach County is very different. The whole political climate is very different as opposed to Broward or Miami-Dade," Muth said. "There's a very deep closet in Palm Beach County." Saturday's gathering was a day of strategizing for the Democratic caucus members. Central themes were figuring out how to get more openly gay men and lesbians elected, how to target and motivate gay and lesbian voters and how to win policy victories in state and local governments. Candidates who've won election to offices said it's important to emphasize to voters - gay and straight - the policy ideas and experience the office-seekers have in other areas because gay-related issues aren't the most important aspects of the job. Broward County Commissioner Ken Keechl, the state's highest-ranking openly gay elected official, said the gay perspective has nothing to do with 99.9 percent of his decisions. "I don't view myself as a gay county commissioner, just as I don't view myself as a gay Democrat. I view myself as a county commissioner who happens to be gay and a Democrat who happens to be gay," he said. But Keechl, who was elected in 2006, did successfully sponsor an amendment to Broward's human rights ordinance to add discrimination protections for gay people. When Bryan Caletka was elected to the Davie Town Council, he said he was able to stop the practice of routinely stripping government contracts of language banning discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation. Like most of the gay elected officials who spoke Saturday during the winter meeting of the GLBT caucus, Caletka said gay activism wasn't what motivated him to run for office. He ran, he said, because his car and home were broken into and he couldn't convince the incumbent town councilwoman for his district that there was a crime problem that required an additional police presence. Caletka was outspent $75,000 to $8,000 but won 76 percent of the vote in the March 2006 election. Keechl said gay candidates are making strides. Four years ago, he said the same GLBT caucus might have one gay candidate. Looking around the room Saturday, he said he spotted 10. Mark LaFontaine, of Oakland Park, is hoping to become Florida's first openly gay state legislator. He is one of four candidates who have declared their intentions to run in the Democratic primary for the open state House seat in District 92, which encompasses Deerfield Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Lazy Lake, Oakland Park, Pompano Beach and Wilton Manors. Number-crunchers involved in his campaign estimate that 24 percent of the district's population is gay, the highest in the state. Gay issues weren't the only topic Saturday. As with almost any Democratic gathering, there was a dose of Republican-bashing, with President Bush and Gov. Charlie Crist as the targets. Caucus President Michael Albetta said Bush "sticks his head in the sand" as the country plunges into recession. And Crist, who vilified his Democratic opponent in 2006 for missing votes in Congress while campaigning, has been spending lots of time on the campaign trial with Republican presidential candidate John McCain. Albetta said Crist is "jockeying his position to be the next vice president of the United States" while "leaving this state in disrepair."
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Challenger seeks to unseat Snipes at elections office
(Adriane Reesey is a member of the Dolphin Democrats)Anthony Mann, Sun-Sentinel Broward Politics Blog January 8, 2008
Citing concerns over a lack of community involvement and glitches in some Broward elections, Democratic activist Adriane Reesey is challenging Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes' re-election. Reesey and Snipes, who plans to seek re-election, will face off in the Aug. 26 Democratic primary. "My concern is basic. It's not that I want to vilify my opponent. It's not that I wish to take a low road and point out all of the issues that have been encountered in the office, because we're all aware of those," Reesey said.
Instead, she said she wants to concentrate on "the lack of involvement by people in the process. It's the bedrock of our democracy. I know that sounds corny." She said she wants to do something to make people enthusiastic about voting and improve the low level of participation. "This position is to me an extremely important one because the supervisor can inspire people," she said. "People are disgusted. And they say that I don't want to vote because my vote isn't going to count. That's not true. Everyone's vote does count." Snipes acknowledged that there have been occasional glitches during her tenure but she said the office has been transformed. "There are challenges that you're always attempting to overcome. No elections are perfect. It's just like life. Nothing is perfect," she said. "I hope the voters will say Dr. Snipes came in, she's done an outstanding job in bringing stability back to the office, and bringing credibility back to the process, and we'd like to continue that." Snipes said expanded community outreach is one of her greatest accomplishments as supervisor. "We're writing the book on that. We have done some outstanding things on community outreach, and we're just getting better and better." Examples: - High school voter registration drives, including training students in the schools to conduct the drives. "That has caught on really, really well." - Staying open late into the night on days when voter registration applications are due before elections, to allow as many people to get signed up as possible. - Operation of the "election connection" mobile unit throughout the county for activities such as voter registration. The election connection had 2,000 public contacts in one year, she said. Reesey, who's been active in the Dolphin Democrats gay and lesbian political club - she was given the organization's Humanitarian of the Year award in 2007 - had contemplated running for state Legislature. But she decided to seek the elections post after what she described as an epiphany. A student at ITT Technical Institute, where Reesey teaches criminal justice, responded to one of her instructor’s frequent pitches to register to vote and get involved by suggesting Reesey should get an election-related job if she was so interested in promoting voting. Reesey, 48, lives in Fort Lauderdale. For the last year and a half she's been a community outreach specialist to the gay and lesbian community, women's groups and veterans for the Broward Sheriff's Office. She wouldn't say whether the Supervisor of Elections Office under Snipes is well run. "That's a tough one," she said. "Have they had snafus? Have they had elections that are free of glitches? No. But human beings are human beings. And they are fallible." Then-Gov. Jeb Bush named Snipes, a former school principal and area supervisor for the Broward School District, to the job in 2003 after he removed then-Supervisor Miriam Oliphant following a series of elections problems and charges of administrative missteps. Snipes was elected to a four-year term in 2004. Snipes, 64, said she plans to do what she did four years ago: "Juggle two things, a campaign and an election." The office has 81 employees and the supervisor's job pays $141,845. So far, no Republicans have indicated an interest in the race.
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Barney Frank endorses LaFontaine in state House race
By PHIL LAPADULA, Express Gay News
Thursday, November 15, 2007 U.S. Rep. Barney Frank has endorsed Broward activist Mark LaFontaine in the race for state House of Representatives in District 92. Frank, who is openly gay, noted LaFontaine's community activism in his endorsement.
"Mark LaFontaine has been an effective defender and fighter for LGBT equality on a number of fronts," Frank said in a statement. "He will be an effective state representative, not just for the LGBT community, but for the broader community as well."
LaFontaine is the only veteran in the race, having served in the U.S. Coast Guard. He currently serves as the national treasurer of American Veteran for Equal Rights and as president of the local Gold Coast chapter of AVER, which is the largest branch in the organization. He owns an accounting business in Oakland Park and serves on the board of Oakland Park Main Street, which guides the city's development. LaFontaine is also a member of the Fort Lauderdale Audit Committee, which oversees the city's finances.
"Rep. Frank knows how important my financial background will be in Tallahassee, especially considering the daunting fiscal issues Florida faces," LaFontaine said.
In the state House race, LaFontaine will be competing for the gay vote against another gay candidate, Wilton Manors City Commissioner Gary Resnick, and a gay-friendly candidate, Wilton Manors Mayor Scott Newton. Newton frequently attends gay events and he signed a welcoming letter that was sent to gay groups by the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau in the wake of Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle's anti-gay comments.
Florida House District 92 includes parts of Deerfield Beach, North Lauderdale, Oakland Park, Poinsetta Heights, Pompano Beach, Tamarac, Victoria Park and Wilton Manors.
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State Dems wrap up convention
By Bill Cotterell
FLORIDA CAPITOL BUREAU POLITICAL EDITOR LAKE BUENA VISTA - A constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in Florida is certain to get on the ballot but will lose at the polls if enough voters become worried about its impact on heterosexual couples, campaign strategists told delegates to the state Democratic Party convention Sunday. "This amendment really has to be the focal point for all Democrats in Florida for 2008," said Nadine Smith, executive director of Equality Florida, at a briefing on the amendment campaign. "The reason this will be on the ballot has nothing to do with protecting anyone's marriage and everything to do with turning out the most conservative voters in Florida." Later, about 3,000 party activists wound up a weekend convention with a spirited panel discussion of the 2008 outlook in what both parties concede is a key battleground state. Democrats were upbeat and optimistic, despite the absence of all but one presidential candidate - ex-Sen. Mike Gravel of Alaska - because of a national party edict that has stripped Florida of its 210 votes at next summer's presidential nominating convention. In addition to the Democratic National Committee penalty for Florida's Jan. 29 primary - a week ahead of the allowed date - major presidential contenders signed a pledge not to campaign in the state. The party's state executive committee formally adopted the list of eight candidates for the Jan. 29 ballot, ignoring a brief effort to add former Vice President Al Gore. Some "draft Gore" petitions and lapel buttons were sold in hallways outside the convention at a mammoth Walt Disney World resort hotel, but Sens. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., had the most supporters - judging from campaign materials distributed and signs waved in the convention audience. After a Saturday devoted to raw attacks on President Bush's policies and the GOP candidates to succeed him, as well as Florida Republican leaders who had their own convention in Orlando a week earlier, the Democrats spent Sunday discussing strategies. A panel discussion of campaign operatives chaired by Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink - the lone Democrat on the State Cabinet - followed a bagels-and-coffee workshop on defeating the gay-marriage ban that is headed for the 2008 ballot. "This is not a gay amendment," said Michael Albetta of Fort Lauderdale, president of the Florida Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Democratic Caucus. "We have to educate people that this has an impact on fairness and equality for all people." The amendment defines marriage as a heterosexual union and provides that "no other legal union that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof shall be valid or recognized." Albetta and Nadine Smith of Tampa, executive director of Equality Florida, said the "substantial equivalent" provision could affect tens of thousands of elderly couples who live together without marrying, for pension reasons or family considerations, as well as many non-traditional families. Efforts to reach John Stemberger, head of the Florida4marriage.org amendment campaign, for comment Sunday were unsuccessful. Derek Newton, campaign manager for Florida Red & Blue, said the bipartisan coalition fighting the amendment expects it to get on the ballot. He and Bill Vayens, secretary of the GLBT Democratic Caucus, said proponents have about 597,000 of the 611,009 voter signatures required by Feb. 1 to get the amendment on the ballot, but that opponents have a legal team ready to challenge duplicate signatures and some from people not registered to vote, if the margin is close. "There's an outside chance that it could be kept off the ballot," said Vayens. "But if they're at 597,000 now, we expect that they will have no trouble reaching 611,000 before the deadline." Once on the ballot, the amendment will require a 60-percent majority at the polls in November 2008. Smith told the Democratic delegates the amendment is a "wedge issue" that will help Republicans - even though Gov. Charlie Crist has stopped the state GOP's financial support of the campaign. The Florida Republican Party had given $300,000 to the amendment drive before Crist took office in January. Newton said the amendment almost certainly will get the required signatures and be on next year's ballot. He said polls indicate a very close race in a statewide referendum. "This amendment is closer to passing at 60 percent than it is to failing at 40 percent, right now," said Newton. "Voters in Florida are very confused about this issue."
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30 Years After Anita Bryant's Crusade
The Shepard Broad Law Center at Nova Southeastern University is pleased to announce this year's Goodwin lecture series, which is entitled: 30 Years After Anita Bryant's Crusade: The Continuing Role of Morality in the Development of Legal Rights for Sexual Minorities. With the controversies surrounding the mayor of Fort Lauderdale this past summer, this lecture series is very relevant and timely. The lectures are open to the public and take place at the law center on the Davie Campus. We have a great group of speakers this year, including the first openly gay Episcopalian Bishop, Gene Robinson. Our first speaker is Suzanne Goldberg, who will discuss how the U.S. Supreme Court addresses and has addressed sexual orientation issues. Her public presentation is on Thursday October 11, 6-7 pm. Professor Goldberg spent nearly a decade as a leading attorney on lesbian and gay rights issues with Lambda Legal Defense. While at Lambda, she served as counsel in a wide range of cases in employment, immigration, and family law, as well as two cases that eventually became cornerstone gay rights victories before the US Supreme Court, including Romer v. Evans and Lawrence v. Texas. She currently is a law professor at Columbia Law School. The remaining schedule includes: Thursday October 25, 6-7: David Mixner, Author and Political Activist who worked with Bill Clinton. Tuesday November 6, 6-7: Matt Foreman, Executive Director of the National Lesbian and Gay Task Force Tuesday November 27, 6-7: Rev. Gene Robinson, the First Openly Gay Episcopalian Bishop We hope that you can make this very exciting lecture series. If you have any questions, please contact Anthony Niedwiecki at niedwieckia@nsu.law.nova.edu or at (954) 262-6206. A map and directions to the law center can be found at http://www.nova.edu/cwis/campusmaps/maincampus.html
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Quiet couple was called to action
 BY STEVE ROTHAUS, Miami Herald Waymon Hudson and Anthony Niedwiecki used to lead a private life in Oakland Park. Now they're leading the campaign against Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle. Hudson and Niedwiecki, a couple for nearly six years, say their lives changed May 1 when a skycap broadcast an anti-gay Bible message over an airport loudspeaker. ''We heard over the PA system that a man who lies with a man as he would a woman will be subject to death,'' said Niedwiecki, 40, a Nova Southeastern University associate law professor who was returning with Hudson from a trip to Chicago. ''It frightened me,'' said Hudson, 28, a JetBlue flight attendant and personal trainer. ''When someone says you should be put to death at 1 a.m. in a deserted airport, it perks your ears up.'' A contractor quickly fired the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport skycap. GETTING ACTIVE Four months later, Hudson has become one of Broward's most vocal gay activists and Niedwiecki is mulling a 2009 run for Oakland Park city commission. They came forward after Naugle said he wants to stop gay men from having sex in public places, like restrooms. ''The mayor likes to refer to Anthony and me as militant homosexual activists,'' Hudson said. ``I don't like the homosexual part, but I'm not offended by that. When it comes to defending my rights and fighting back from bigotry, I am militant, as we all should be.'' Quite a switch for a man who worked five years as a Walt Disney World performer. Hudson, who grew up in Orlando, majored in musical theater and business at New York University. In New York, Hudson met Niedwiecki, who was then living in Philadelphia, on Gay Pride Day. ''Bad gay fiction,'' Hudson said. ``That was it. We were just meant to be.'' Niedwiecki grew up outside Detroit. He attended Tulane Law School and earned an advanced degree from Temple University in Philadelphia. He later landed a teaching job at Temple. Hudson moved to Philadelphia and they lived together there until Niedwiecki got the Nova teaching assignment. The airport incident turned them into instant local celebrities. ''A woman came up to me [in Publix] and asked if she had seen me on the news,'' Hudson said. ``I said possibly. She looked at me right in the face and said, `You two deserve what that man said to you.' ''The next day I was at the gym,'' Hudson said. 'A large-size note that had `fag' scrawled across it was stuck in my windshield. At that point I started to take side roads going home. It was a weird way to live. A few days later, a woman came up to me and spit in my face in the grocery store, with her 6-year-old son in hand. I said to her, 'What a great lesson to teach your son.' '' GOING FULL-OUT Hudson has taken a leave from JetBlue and turned full-time gay activist. ''It wakes you up -- that even in a modern cosmopolitan community there is hate and we've come a long way, but we have a way to go. We can't be complacent,'' said Hudson, 28, who with Niedwiecki started a gay-rights group called Fight OUT Loud. ''Waymon and Anthony's group does more hate crime and political action stuff,'' said Jeff Black, a founder of another Broward gay-rights group, UNITE Fort Lauderdale, which specializes in ``community service and community building.'' Five weeks after the airport incident, Fight OUT Loud took on its first cause: two 14-year-old Portland, Ore., lesbians kicked off a public bus June 8 for kissing. ''The bus driver called them sickos,'' Niedwiecki said. ``We worked with the mothers, worked with the girls. Waymon had several conversations with the mayor's office.'' In mid-June, the Portland transit department apologized to the girls. THEN CAME NAUGLE Then, an incident much closer to home: Naugle said the city should buy a $250,000 self-cleaning, locking toilet to stop men from having sex in public restrooms at the beach. ''The mayor thing happened and that quite honestly consumed our lives,'' Niedwiecki said. ``Fighting bigotry and hate in this city seems to be a full-time job.'' Fight OUT Loud has a mailing list of 2,200 and recently applied for nonprofit tax status. It and other gay groups have held several anti-Naugle rallies in Fort Lauderdale. Hudson and Niedwiecki give out bumper stickers that read ``Save Fort Lauderdale. Dump Naugle.'' No problem, says the mayor. ``It's free speech.'' Naugle has had several close encounters with Niedwiecki. ''I tried to have a conversation the other night at the meeting,'' Naugle said. ``Anthony was very confrontational. I tried to answer him. He kept interrupting me and I finally gave up.'' FOSTER PARENTS Two years ago, Hudson and Niedwiecki became foster parents to Franke Alexandre, a teen born with HIV. Alexandre had been one of five siblings raised by foster parents Steven Lofton and Roger Croteau, a couple who with Rosie O'Donnell's help unsuccessfully fought Florida's gay adoption ban. (State law doesn't prohibit gay people from being foster parents.) When the Lofton-Croteau family moved to Oregon, Florida demanded Alexandre return or he'd lose his medical coverage and college assistance. ''I was moving from one friend's house to another,'' recalls Alexandre, who lived with Lofton and Croteau from the age of 8 months. ``The change, the big move, was mentally stressful.'' Niedwiecki is a friend of Alexandre's guardian ad litem. He and Hudson offered to become the teen's new foster family. ''I was accepted into Anthony and Waymon's household,'' Alexandre said. ``My grades got better, more A's and B's than C's and D's. I was just beginning to get back on my feet. I would never have done it without them. They did whatever they could to help me get through school successfully and find the right college.'' Alexandre, 19, now lives on Florida's west coast and attends St. Petersburg College. ''I couldn't have learned a lot of lessons if I hadn't been living with Anthony and Waymon,'' he said. ``I love them dearly. They are family as much to me as I am family to them. A good couple of guys.'' (Anthony and Waymon are members of the Florida GLBT Democratic Caucus)
Gays divided over Florida primary dispute
LOU CHIBBARO JR, DC Blade
Friday, August 31, 2007 Gay Democratic activists in Florida appear to be backing a decision by the Florida Democratic Party to defy national party leaders and refuse to reverse a decision to choose national convention delegates at the state's presidential primary on Jan. 29.
By siding with their state party, Florida gay Democrats are at odds with most of the gay members of the Democratic National Committee and its Rules and Bylaws panel, which has threatened to strip Florida of all 240 of its delegates to the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver.
"The national party has to be serious about this," said Rick Stafford, chair of the DNC's Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Caucus. "If they are not, Michigan will jump in and other states will follow and we'll have chaos in the nominating process."
Stafford was echoing concerns by national party leaders that strict rules on the timing of primaries and caucuses were needed to retain a carefully crafted agreement reached by the DNC and all state parties, which allows Iowa and New Hampshire to continue holding the earliest contests.
If the DNC backs the Rules and Bylaws panel decision, among those likely to be barred from the convention are 25 or more gay delegates expected to be chosen in Florida under a party delegate selection plan aimed at reaching out to minorities, including gays.
The Rules and Bylaws Committee voted Aug. 25 to ban the Florida delegate contingent from being seated at the Denver convention unless the state party separates its delegate selection process from the Jan. 29 primary and adopts another system for selecting delegates at a later date, such as a party convention or state-wide caucuses.
The committee gave the Florida party 30 days to come up with an alternate plan before the ban on its delegates would take effect.
Ron Mills, a member of the GLBT Caucus of the Florida Democratic Party, noted that the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature moved the state's primary date to January 29, and Democratic lawmakers didn't have the votes to challenge the proposal. He said holding caucuses at a later date, as the DNC wants the state party to do, would cost as much as $8 million and result in far fewer people turning out than they would for a primary.
Presidential nominating caucuses are usually held in a single meeting place in a congressional district, which often covers several counties.
Advocates of primaries note that they are held in the same voter polling places as general elections and are more accessible to voters, which encourages a larger turnout.
"We are not going to disenfranchise our voters in a caucus," Mills said. "We are a primary state."
Mills and Michael Albetta, president of the GLBT Caucus of the Florida Democratic Party, said they believe any DNC ban on Florida's delegates from the 2008 convention would be reversed soon after the Democratic Party's presidential nominee is identified in February or early March. At least a dozen presidential primaries and caucuses are scheduled for Feb. 5, known as "Super Tuesday." Most political observers expect one of the candidates to win enough delegates that day to secure the nomination.
Traditionally, the presidential nominee consolidates enough support within the party to take over the party apparatus and leadership before the national party convention in July or August. Mills and Albetta said they were certain that the nominee would not want to risk alienating Florida's Democratic voters by barring the Democratic delegates from the convention.
Gay DNC member Gary Shays of California, who is a member of the Rules and Bylaws Committee, told the Washington Post it would be unfair to other states if the DNC made an exception for Florida.
"Rules are rules," the Post quoted him as saying. "California abided by them and Florida should as well."
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Stonewall festival honors Caucus President Michael Albetta
South Florida Sun-SentinelThree community leaders were given leadership awards at the Stonewall Street Festival and Parade gay pride event last week. The Dana Manchester Humanitarian Award was presented to Richard Rogers and Bill Mullins, said festival chairman Marc Hansen. The couple, who have been together for 46 years, have volunteered with several charitable efforts, including the Poverello Center. The Karl Clark Community Service Award went to Michael Albetta, Hansen said. Albetta is a political activist who serves as president of the Florida Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Democratic Caucus. The festival and parade are held every June, to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall uprising in New York City, which was the beginning of the modern gay rights movement.
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Statement of Michael Albetta, On Anti-Gay Remarks of Rep. Alan Hays
Michael Albetta, president of the Florida GLBT Democratic Caucus, issued the following statement today in response to Florida State Representative Dr. D. Alan Hays' (D-25) homophobic remarks regarding AIDS patients: "It's appalling that in 2007 Florida is still represented by elected officials with a complete ignorance toward its citizens. Rep. Hays' remarks disparage not only the large and increasingly visible GLBT population in Florida, but they also show a frightening propensity to assign morality to disease management. With few exceptions, not since the early days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1980s have public officials espoused such hurtful, ignorant, and just plain stupid thoughts." Earlier this week, HIV/AIDS advocates were in Tallahassee lobbying elected officials on behalf of individuals being served by Florida's Medicaid program. During one meeting, Rep. Hays told them, "I had a cousin who died of AIDS. He was queer as a three-dollar bill. He had that homosexual lifestyle and deserved what he got." The Florida GLBT Democratic Caucus, an arm of the Florida Democratic Party, represents the GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender) community with 15 chapters across the state.
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