Florida Agenda

On Saturday, Internet giant Google launched its “Legalize Love” initiative, with a purpose, according to dot429.com, “of inspiring countries to legalize marriage for lesbian, gay, and bisexual people around the world.” Although initially targeting Poland and Singapore, Google plans to expand the campaign to every country where it conducts business—so pretty much everywhere, except perhaps North Korea—focusing on areas with homophobic history, laws, and culture.

According to a company rep, “We want our employees who are gay or lesbian or transgender to have the same experience outside the office as they do in the office. It is obviously a very ambitious piece of work.” That spokesperson told dot429.

com, “Singapore wants to be a global financial center and world leader and we can push them on the fact that being a global center and a world leader means you have to treat all people the same, irrespective of their sexual orientation.”

The corporate dominoes are falling, ever falling, with Retail America focusing their efforts on the lucrative LGBT market, and its attractive buying power. JCPenney, which flexed its gay muscles when it hired openly gay Ellen DeGeneres as its spokeswoman, also debuted an ad in its May catalog featuring a lesbian couple, and followed up in June with a gay Fathers Day-themed campaign. (The JCP catalog is received monthly by 14 million consumers.) The retailer also sponsored a float in last month’s New York Gay Pride parade. Macy’s Inc. also has a long record of supporting LGBT rights and of advertising in gay media (including the Agenda).

Last month, discount giant Target began selling greeting cards marketed to same-sex couples, including such fare as a wedding card that reads “Mr. & Mr.” It was just two years ago that the retail chain was condemned by LGBT activists for contributing $150,000 to conservative politicalaction committee MN Forward, which supported Republican Tom Emmer, a gay marriage opponent who was a candidate for Governor of Minnesota.

In addition to its commitment to social responsibility, LGBT spending power is an attractive incentive for major retailers to “come out.” According to Witeck Combs Consulting, approximately 16 million gay adult Americans possess an estimated spending power this year of $790 billion. That translates to $49,000 per capita in greenbacks for Pink America.

LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY – Members of the nation’s largest Presbyterian sect are expected to debate the merits of same sex marriage this week, during the 220th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA). The Louisville, Kentucky-based Protestant denomination, which has 1.95 million members, is anticipated to take up various proposals concerning marriage equality during its annual meeting, being held through Saturday in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Among the measures under consideration are demands to confirm the religion’s traditional definition of marriage, as between a man and a woman, along with calls to change that definition to reflect a relationship between “two people,” as well as a proposal to allow Presbyterian ministers to perform same sex marriage rites in states where marriage equality is legal.

In recent years, approximately 200 Presbyterian congregations have left the denomination, in large part because of the contentious debate concerning gay marriage. Last year, the denomination voted to permit the ordination of persons who are in openly gay relationships as ministers and lay clergy.

DUBLIN, REPUBLIC OF IRELAND – One of Ireland’s top politicians says that the time has come for gay marriage to be legalized. On June 30, during Dublin’s Pride Festival, Labor Party leader Eamon Gilmore, the nation’s deputy prime minister—or Tánaiste—said that lawmakers should not dictate the terms of with whom one chooses to spend their lives. “I believe in gay marriage. The right of gay couples to marry is, quite simply, the civil rights issue of this generation, and, in my opinion, its time has come,” Gilmore said.

Organizers say that 30,000 people attended Saturday’s event, Dublin’s 29th annual LGBT rights parade and street festival. “As leader of Labor, a party for whom the politics of personal freedom is so central, I acknowledge that when it comes to promoting understanding and respect, progress has been made in recent years,” noted Gilmore. “However, there are some outstanding matters, and if we as a party are serious about building a new progressive society, these are matters that we will have to resolve.

“I believe that in certain key areas, our laws are out of step with public opinion. I don’t believe for example, that it should ever be the role of the State to pass judgment on whom a person falls in love with, or whom they want to spend their life with.”

In 2010, civil partnership was introduced in the Republic of Ireland, which constitutes the 26 southern counties of the island of Ireland.

(Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom, comprises the six counties of Ulster, in the island’s north.) Last April, the first public same sex unions were performed, which bestowed many of the same legal rights in as traditional marriage, but advocates say it doesn’t go far enough.

 Prop 8 Decision Paves Way for High Court Ruling

By Cliff Dunn

On Tuesday, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled to deny an appeal of a February lower court decision against California’s Proposition 8. The appeals court’s ruling paves the way for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide the fate of marriage equality by next year.

The 9th Circuit decision means the U.S. Supreme Court is likely to have two major gay-rights cases on its docket in the near future. The ruling comes less than a week after a federal appeals court in Boston ruled that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)—the federal law that declares marriage to be solely between a man and a woman—discriminates against married same-sex couples, by denying them the same benefits granted under the law to heterosexual couples.

As in the California appeals court ruling, the Massachusetts judges chose narrow ground to assert that the law singles out gay couples for discrimination, in ways that violate their Constitutional rights to equal protection.

Neither federal panel took the step of declaring that the Constitution supports the right to same sex marriage.

Tuesday’s case concerns the statewide referendum passed by California voters in 2008 that placed a prohibition in the state constitution recognizing same sex marriages. In their 2-to-1 decision that struck down Proposition 8, the appeals court judges said, “Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gay men and lesbians in California.” The ban had reinstated a previous one against same-sex nuptials, just six months after the California Supreme Court struck it down as unconstitutional.

After the ballot measure amended the state constitution, two same sex couples sued in federal court, arguing that Proposition 8 violates the U.S. Constitution.

After the three-judge panel ruled in February that the ban violates federal constitutional guarantees—but limited the ruling’s effects to within California—sponsors of Proposition 8 asked the 9th Circuit to assemble an 11-judge panel to reconsider the case. A majority of the circuit’s judges voted against such a rehearing.

Although many believe that the U.S. Supreme Court will decide to hear one or both of these cases, the justices are not obligated to do so. Experts say that the nine-member high court is divided 4-to-4 on the question of marriage equality, with Justice Anthony Kennedy widely considered being the deciding vote. Both the California and Massachusetts federal appeals court rulings referred at several points to decisions by Justice Kennedy to legally justify the basis for their reasoning.

MIAMI – During a three-day business trip to Taiwan, former Florida governor Jeb Bush advised President Obama and his Republican challenger to focus the 2012 election on the U.S. economy, and not to allow marriage equality to become a “distraction” in the run-up to November’s presidential election.

Bush, 59, said the United States is “next in line” to experience the type of financial crisis raging across a number of the nation-states comprising the European Union.

During a speech titled, “How to Restore Sustained Economic Growth in the United States,” Bush warned that a depleted American economy will have worldwide consequences. “A weakened United States economically means a United States that will pull back from its commitments around the world— that will not have the ability and the interest in being a partner for stability and for peace,” said Bush.

The Miami-based Republican insider was in Taiwan—officially, the Republic of China—to address foreign ministry officials. Bush, who served as Governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007, remains high on the list of potential vice presidential choices for the GOP presumptive nominee, Mitt Romney, despite repeated protestations that Bush— the son of former President George H.W. Bush, and brother of former President George W. Bush—has no interest in the job.

In a Tampa Bay Times’ survey that was released this week, more than 100 Democratic and Republican Florida political insiders said that Romney should pick Bush as his running mate. A plurality of respondants—36 percent of total surveyed, and 47 percent of Republicans—called Bush the “strongest choice,” while Ohio Sen. Rob Portman finished second with 15 percent, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie polled 12 percent, and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio finished fourth with 9 percent. Among Republicans, Rubio and Christie tied with 8 percent each.

By Cliff Dunn

TALLAHASSEE – The battle lines are forming up, following President Barack Obama’s history-making endorsement last week of same sex marriage. In an interview with ABC News that aired in part last Wednesday night and concluded the next day on “Good Morning America,” the chief executive became the first sitting president to support full marriage equality for gays and lesbians, saying, “I think same sex couples should be able to get married.”

The spin doctors of both major parties immediately set about offering words of encouragement and condemnation. On Thursday, Gov. Rick Scott (R-Florida) told CNBC host Larry Kudlow that Obama’s public statement could have a strong negative impact in Florida, an impact that may be felt in his campaign for reelection and his ability to win Florida, with its large bloc of 29 electoral votes.
While referring to same sex marriage as a “non-issue” in the Sunshine State, Scott, who was elected governor in 2010 after spending approximately $75 million of his own fortune in his bid for the state’s top office, said that the conservative views of most Floridians had been heard at the ballot box, and that the president should take heed.

“It has already been decided,” Scott told Kudlow. “In 2008, over 60 percent of our voters passed a constitutional amendment saying there is not going to be same-sex marriage in Florida, so it’s a non-issue here. It will hurt the president here in Florida, his position.” During the 2008 presidential race, Obama won in Florida, beating his Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain, 51 to 48 percent. That margin is cause for concern as Democratic strategists weigh the numerous factors that will come into play in deciding the outcome in swing states with large electoral vote counts, including Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Virginia, all of which swung to Obama four years ago.

Other Republicans joined the chorus questioning Obama’s decision. “I think it’s going to cause an incredible discussion in the black community, because, as you know, on Sundays in the black community the most conservative people in America are in those black churches,” Rep. Allen West (R-Florida) said to ABC News last week. “I think it may have been a huge miscalculation, especially when you have 41 states that recognize marriage between one man and one woman, and you just came off an incredible loss to them. Sixty-nine percent voted [to ban same-sex marriage] in North Carolina, which is a key swing state he barely won last time,” said West said, who added that even though blacks supported the president four years ago, marriage equality was banned in both Florida and California.

In 1997, the Republican-controlled Florida legislature adopted the Defense of Marriage Act and likewise banned recognition of gay marriages performed in other states. At that time, only 27 percent of American said they supported same sex marriage. In 2008, opponents of marriage equality successfully championed passage of an amendment banning it the Florida state constitution.

Among the “big picture” questions being asked at water coolers and in the halls of Congress alike is what precisely motivated President Obama to announce his support for gay marriage, after more than two years of professing an “evolving” view on the topic? The appearance of Vice President Joe Biden days earlier in an interview in which he offered his own support for same sex marriage is seen by many as a happy (or unfortunate, depending on your point of view) unguarded moment on Biden’s part that “forced” Obama’s hand in making his own endorsement.

A new CBS News/New York Times survey shows that 67 percent believe that the president made his policy shift “mostly for political reasons,” and 24 percent say he did it “mostly because he thinks it is right.” The poll also shows that Americans’ ideas of fairness and equality have shifted, but remain complicated. According to the survey, 38 percent of Americans favor full marriage equality rights for gays, while 24 percent support civil unions that include many of the rights and privileges of formal marriage. A full third—33 percent—of Americans are against any kind of legal recognition. That number jumped when civil unions were dropped as an option, with 51 percent opposing same sex marriage and 42 percent supporting it.

Another important factor in the marriage equality debate is the growing number of Americans who admit to knowing or being friends with a gay or lesbian individual. In 2003, a CBS News/New York Times poll found that 44 percent had a coworker, friend, or family member who was gay. That number jumped to 69 percent in the new survey, with those individuals who know a gay person more likely to favor marriage equality.

Last month, the CBS News/New York Times poll found Obama and Romney tied, with 46 percent supporting each man. The most recent survey shows a slight edge for Romney over Obama—46 to 43 percent, with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus four percentage points, meaning the race remains a statistical dead heat.

The president’s vulnerability remains in spite of increased optimism about the economy. This may explain, at least in part, his shifting the debate away from “daddy” issues—those which relate to the economy, national security, and other policy matters where Republicans tend to hold sway among voters—toward “mommy” issues, which swing voters to Democrats, and which include social policy and spending, healthcare topics—and LGBT rights. By changing the conversation from those issues which are contentious for the president—jobs, the still-anemic economy, and the continuing distrust for Wall Street—to those which have the support of moderates and independents, Obama may be able to influence the dynamics which have thus far shaped the presidential race, and the way his countrymen perceive him.

Among those Americans who may perceive the president in the most critical light are social and religious conservatives. The president, who has professed his religious faith many times, must now convince religious voters, many who are divided over marriage equality, that his views on gay marriage don’t represent an attack on religious liberties or the freedom of churches to refuse to perform services that run contrary to their core beliefs. “We’re both practicing Christians,” Obama said during the interview, referring to his wife and himself. “And obviously this position may be considered to put us at odds with the views of others.”

In recognition of that important base of the electorate, shortly after declaring support for marriage equality, Obama placed a conference call to more than a half dozen African American ministers to explain his announcement and defend its consequences. The pastors represent one of the most divided constituencies the president has: black Americans who overwhelmingly support Obama while at the same time opposing marriage equality rights for gays.

According to the Rev. Delman Coates, a pastor who was on the conference call, the chief executive told the ministers that his decision had been a struggle of conscience, but that he believed he had made the right one. Most of the participating pastors agreed to “work aggressively” for the president’s reelection, but not all of them. “They were wrestling with their ability to get over his theological position,” said Coates, pastor of Mt. Ennon Baptist Church in Clinton, Maryland. “Gay marriage is contrary to their understanding of Scripture.”

Rev. Joel C. Hunter, the pastor of Northland, a conservative mega-church based in Central Florida, also spoke with the president on the phone after the ABC interview. “Some of the faith communities are going to be afraid that this is an attack against religious liberty,” Hunter told the president. “Absolutely not,” the president assured Hunter, who was elected President of the Christian Coalition in 2006, and who delivered a blessing for Obama in 2009 prior to his inauguration. “That’s not where we’re going, and that’s not what I want,” the president added.

FORT LAUDERDALE – What a difference a year has made to the policy positions of Rep. Allen West (R-FL), at least in terms of marriage equality. On Friday, April 6, the freshman congressman, who represents Florida’s 22nd Congressional District—which includes parts of Fort Lauderdale and Wilton Manors—was asked by CNN host Kyra Phillips if he believed that gay marriage was an issue for the federal government to decide.

West, a social conservative who is seeking to win the newly created 18th Congressional District seat created by the redistricting that followed the 2010 U.S. Census, surprised the news anchor by sidestepping the question, saying that there “are a lot people that try to take you down a rabbit hole to discuss things that really aren’t that important.”

Registering both her shock and her familiarity with West’s previous public comments on the issue of marriage equality, Phillips interrupted the House member. “Wait a minute. “Are you saying gay marriage is not important?” she asked.

Said West, who appeared uncomfortable with the question, “I think if you poll the American people—I don’t think they’re going to bring up gay marriage as one of the top concerns. The American people are concerned about where they’re working.” That answer marked a departure for the former Army lieutenant colonel, who told the Eagle Forum Collegians 2011 Summit in Washington last year that gay marriage was a slippery slope with one destination: the end of society as we know it.

“The term ‘gay marriage’ is an oxymoron,” West told the Forum last June. “Because marriage is a union and a bond between a man and a woman to do one thing: the furtherance of society by procreation, through creating new life.” He cautioned that by continuing to permit the existence of nontraditional institutions, “it just becomes a matter of time before you don’t have society.”

By CLIFF DUNN

WASHINGTON, DC – A subtle cultural shift may be underway on the part of the highest ranks of the Republican Party and their unofficial but no less powerful greybeards, with GOP Congressional leaders blocking passage of a number of measures that would have strengthened the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the federal ban on same-sex marriage.

Even cultural conservatives including Rep. Allen West (R-FL), whose district encompasses portions of Fort Lauderdale and Wilton Manors, have made drastic shifts in their on-record statements.

Last week on CNN, West— whose previous statements warned that marriage equality would be a signpost of the decay of society and that homosexuality is a “choice”— said “I want my daughters to have the opportunities that I had, and that’s what concerns me. That’s what keeps me up awake at night, not worrying about who’s sleeping with whom.”

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX)—who voted “no” in 2007 on federal legislation that would prohibit employment discrimination based on sexual orientation, and was rated 0% by the Human Rights Campaign, indicating opposition to gay-rights—told Politico.com, “That’s not something we’re focused on now.”

During the 2010 House floor debate on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Gohmert predicted that permitting openly-gay military servicemembers would sound America’s downfall. The Congressional Record reported the four-term lawmaker as saying that “when militaries throughout history … have adopted the policy [of] ‘fine for homosexuality…’—they’re toward the end of their existence as a great nation.”

Congressional Quarterly quoted an aide to a ranking House Republican who said that GOP lawmakers are concerned that the conservative social agenda that has been driving the Republican presidential primaries will alienate independent and socially moderate voters in their home congressional districts.

“There is a debate in the Republican conference on whether defense of marriage is a winning issue politically,” the unnamed aide said. These concerns have touched the top echelon of GOP leaders, who have been sending mixed signals to social conservatives—to the displeasure of the latter.

In 2011, President Obama instructed the Justice Department to stop defending DOMA in court. At that time, House Speaker John Boehner and the Republican House leadership formed the House Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group (BLAG) to step into the void and defend the law in court. Attorney Paul Clement was hired to defend DOMA, and given a $1.5 million budget by BLAG.

Marriage equality opponents expressed satisfaction with Boehner and BLAG. They have recently begun to sharply criticize what they perceive as lackluster performance on the part of Boehner and the GOP leadership, and accuse them of paying lip service to mollify religious and social conservatives.

“They hired Paul Clement, and they think their job is done,” complained Tom McClusky, senior vice president of the Family Research Council, to Congressional Quarterly. “While the Obama administration ignores DOMA, Speaker Boehner has forgotten that the checks and balances also include Congress,” he added.

The possibility of a social realignment within the GOP echoes an actual shift that occurred during the 1948 presidential election, when the Democratic Party split on the issue of civil rights for African Americans.

Addressing the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia that year, Minneapolis mayor Hubert Humphrey urged party leaders to “get out of the shadow of states’ rights and walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights.” That call resulted in a walkout by Southern Democrat delegates, who subsequently nominated then-South Carolina Gov. Strom Thurmond as the candidate of the States’ Rights Party, or Dixiecrats.

“Republicans are cognizant of where the public is moving,” said Brian Moulton, the legal director of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest LGBT rights organization, concerning the mixed signals. “The Speaker’s defense of the law helps us show the harms that the law has caused,” and, he added, “at the end of the day, his action perpetuates the harms.”

STRASBOURG, FRANCE – The European Court of Human Rights ruled last week that its member states are not required to grant access to marriage to same-sex couples.

The judges were deciding upon the case of two gay women who are registered in France under a civil partnership. The couple argued that their status prevents them from adopting a child as a couple.

The women, Valerie Gas and Nathalie Dubois, were asking the court to establish their marriage rights under European anti-discrimination laws.

Among other rights the women were petitioning for Gas to be allowed to adopt Dubois’s 11 year-old daughter.

But the judges said there had been no discrimination. “The European Convention on Human Rights does not require member states’ governments to grant same-sex couples access to marriage,” the court ruled.

“With regard to married couples, the court considers that in view of the social, personal, and legal consequences of marriage, the applicants’ legal situation could not be said to be comparable to that of married couples,” they added.

But the judges noted the importance of parity in all instances: “Where national legislation recognizes registered partnerships between samesex, member states should aim to ensure that their legal status and their rights and obligations are equivalent to those of heterosexual couples in a similar situation.”

WASHINGTON, DC – White House officials are clarifying remarks made last week by Michelle Obama during a New York City fundraiser, explaining that the First Lady was not trying to imply that President Obama’s Supreme Court nominees support same-sex marriage, and that she was not endorsing marriage equality on her own behalf or that of the president.

“For the first time in history, our daughters and our sons watched three women take their seat on our nation’s highest court. And let us not forget what their decisions–the impact those decisions will have on our lives for decades to come–on our privacy and security, on whether we can speak freely, worship openly, and, yes, love whomever we choose. But that’s what’s at stake. That’s the choice that we face,” Obama said on March 19.

“That is a reference to the president’s position on the Defense of Marriage Act [DOMA],” White House press secretary Jay Carney said afterwards, referring to the 1996 law that federally defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

In 2011, the Obama administration announced that part of DOMA was unconstitutional and ordered the Justice Department to stop defending the law in court.

There were those on the political left who were hoping that the First Lady was making reference to marriage equality as well as signaling a White House plan to appoint Supreme Court justices who support gay marriages.