Florida Agenda

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.

SEATTLE, WA  – Members of the state House Judiciary Committee approved a bill on Monday that would legalize same-sex marriages in Washington. The vote split along party lines, with democrats voting 7-to-6 in favor. Similar legislation was approved last week in a state Senate committee.

If legalized, Washington would become the seventh state to recognize marriage equality.

A study by the University of California-Los Angeles law school’s Williams Institute reports that “the total spending on wedding arrangements and tourism by resident same-sex couples and their guests will add an $88-million boost to the Washington economy over the first three years.

This spending is likely to generate $8 million in tax revenue for state and local governments.”

According to a press release from the report’s sponsors, estimates show that “same-sex couples will spend $39 million on weddings in Washington in the first year alone.” Study co-author Angeliki Kastanis, a Public Policy Research Fellow at the Williams Institute, noted: “That translates to approximately $3.4 million in tax revenue, given Washington sales tax rates.”

State Rep. Matt Shea (R-Spokane Valley) offered two amendments to the House bill, one which would require six months’ residency in Washington State before applying for any type of marriage. During the committee vote, Shea warned that passage of the law could lead to discrimination suits against wedding-industry professionals, such as photographers or florists
who refuse to provide their services to gay couples.

By Cliff Dunn

ORLANDO, FL – New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has LGBT activists wondering if he goes “both ways” on gay rights issues. His call last week for a statewide referendum on same-sex marriage followed hot-on-the-heels of his nomination of the first openly gay justice to the state’s Supreme Court.

Christie, 49, is on record opposing gay marriage, and last week he proposed an alternative to legislative action on the issue, saying that voters should decide whether to legalize same-sex marriage, the matter being “too serious to be treated like a political football.”

New Jersey Democrats had hoped that by forcing a vote in the legislature, it would force Christie to either change his position, or veto the legislation and in doing so, show himself to be out of touch with the majority of voters.

The governor’s judicial nomination of Bruce Harris, the 61-year-old openly-gay Republican mayor of Chatham, New Jersey, came a day before Christie promised to veto same-sex marriage legislation in the Garden State.

Opponents decried Christie’s call for a statewide vote. Democratic lawmakers criticized the governor for sidestepping a civil rights issue, but Christie dismissed their concerns, saying that “people would have been happy with a referendum on civil rights rather than fighting and dying in the streets of the South.”

That drew fire from Democrats, who pointed out that public opinion opposed civil rights for blacks in the Jim Crow-era South, and a referendum to end segregation during that time would have been overwhelmingly defeated. State Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, one of two openly-gay New Jersey legislators, compared Christie to anti-civil rights segregationists.

The governor called Gusciora and other critics “numbnuts.” He also chastised reports for giving credence to his critics’ remarks. “C’mon guys — you’ve got to be able to call B.S. on those kinds of releases,” said Christie.

New Jersey lawmakers passed a civil unions law in 2006, after the state Supreme Court ordered that marriage benefits be extended to gay couples. The law is being challenged by Lambda Legal, which says that the measure doesn’t provide marriage’s full range of benefits and protections.

Christie told reporters that Harris, his nominee to the state’s high court, has a record of advocating for LGBT rights. “If confirmed to the court, he would recuse himself from that matter because he did not want there to be the appearance of bias on his part on that issue,” Christie said. “My perspective on that issue was to put it aside because he’s not going to rule on that.”

TRENTON, NJ – New Jersey Democrats say they are within striking distance of securing enough support to override a veto by Governor Chris Christie of same-sex marriage legislation if chooses not to support it. The Wall Street Journal reports that state Senator Raymond Lesniak, one of the bill’s sponsors, estimates the chamber has between 24 and 27 supporters
for legislation allowing same-sex marriage. It takes 27 votes in the 40-member state senate to override the governor’s veto.

A new Quinnipiac University poll released Jan.19 found that 52 percent of New Jersey voters favor gay marriage, the first time approval has topped 50 percent in the poll’s history. Support varies by party affiliation: majorities of Democratic (62 percent) and independent voters (54 percent) are in favor, while only 35 percent of Republicans approve, according to the poll.

In 2003, New Jersey became one of the first states to authorize civil unions for same-sex couples. The bill now under consideration would allow couples with a civil union to “immediately” get a marriage license if they seek one.

By Bob Kecskemety

Photo: Craig Lowe of Gainsville, FL (right) and Annise Parker of Houston, TX (lower) are among the “Mayors for Freedom to Marry”. Both Lowe and Parker share the distinction of being the first known-gay Mayors of their regions.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – More than 80 mayors of U.S. cities in 25 states have formed a coalition to support marriage equality. The group, “Mayors for Freedom to Marry,” was formed last weekend at the U.S. Conference of Mayors in conjunction with the LGBT right group Freedom to Marry. The coalition is chaired by some of America’s most visible municipal chief executives: Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City, Mayor Thomas Menino of Boston, Mayor Jerry Sanders of San Diego, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles, and Mayor Annise Parker of Houston, who is openly gay. Mayors for Freedom to Marry have called for the repeal of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), and the ratification of the pro-marriage equality Respect of Marriage Act.

In the signing statement, the founding mayors wrote: “We are a diverse group of mayors –from small cities in Indiana and Maine, to the four largest cities in America. Our cities are culturally, racially, and geographically diverse, but we share one important value: a common commitment to fairness. We invite our colleagues to join us in signing this statement as we advocate for the freedom to marry and build a nation where all loving couples who want to make the life-long commitment can share in the joy and respect of marriage.”

Among the mayors who signed the Mayors for Freedom to Marry statement, six are from Florida: Craig Lowe (Gainesville), Joy Cooper (Hallandale Beach), Craig Cates (Key West), Lori Moseley (Miramar), Frank Ortis (Pembroke Pines), and Jeri Muoio (West Palm Beach). No mayor of a major metropolitan area of Florida signed the statement,
and none serves in a Miami-Dade County municipality.

PHOTO:  ED SCHIPUL flickr.com/eschipul

VATICAN CITY, ROME – In a thinly veiled attack upon the institutions of gay marriage and same-sex adoption, Pope Benedict XVI warned this week that progressive values threaten the long-term prospects for the human race, and that the world’s ills are a sign of divine displeasure.

“The present moment is sadly marked by a profound disquiet and the various crises – economic, political and social – are a dramatic expression of this,” the Pope said at a gathering of international diplomats this week in Vatican City.

During his annual “state of the world” speech on Monday, Benedict, who heads the world’s 1.1 billion Roman Catholics, told an audience that, “Policies which undermine the family threaten human dignity and the future of humanity itself.”

As leader of the world’s largest Christian denomination, the pontiff rules the Holy See, a city-state centered upon Vatican City, a district of Rome. His annual address to the 180 diplomats comprising the Vatican diplomatic corps included a denunciation of same-sex marriage: “The family, based on the marriage of a man and a woman,” said the 84-year old pope, adding that the family “is not a simple social convention, but rather the fundamental cell of every society.”

Benedict, who succeeded to the papacy in 2005, also condemned what he considers a permissive global attitude towards reproductive rights, decrying societies that “not only permit, but at times even promote, abortion for reasons of convenience or for questionable medical motives.”

During the same address, Benedict asked for “the recognition of the inalienable dignity of each human person and of his or her fundamental rights,” although in this case he was referring to the dignity and rights of people in the Middle East, and the “Arab Spring” uprisings that happened last year.

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

Calling gay marriage a “desecration of Torah values,” more than 100 Orthodox Jewish rabbis have signed a statement condemning same-sex unions.

The statement, released this month, was a response to the November 10, 2011 same-sex commitment ritual at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue in Washington, D.C., between two men. The ceremony was officiated by the Orthodox-ordained rabbi and gay rights activist Steven Greenberg.

The statement reads: “We, as rabbis from a broad spectrum of the Orthodox community around the world, wish to correct the false impression that an Orthodox-approved same-gender wedding took place.” It adds that “By definition, a union that is not sanctioned by Torah law is not an Orthodox wedding, and by definition a person who conducts such a ceremony is not an Orthodox rabbi.”

The rabbis’ reaffirmation of traditional Jewish views of marriage was issued more than a year following the release of the “Statement of Principles,” a historic document declaring that gay persons in the Orthodox community should be treated with dignity and respect.

While the “Statement of Principles” affirmed heterosexual marriage as the “sole legitimate outlet for human sexual expression,” it admonished that “embarrassing, harassing, or demeaning someone with a homosexual orientation or same-sex attraction is a violation of Torah prohibitions that embody the deepest values of Judaism.” The document was signed by nearly 200 Orthodox rabbis, along with leaders in the Orthodox community.

Greenberg, who performed the same-sex commitment ceremony, is often described as the first openly gay Orthodox Jewish rabbi. Those credentials are disputed by some Orthodox Jews since he first disclosed his sexual orientation publicly in 1999 in an article in the Israeli newspaper Maariv. In 2001, Greenberg, 55, took part in the film “Trembling Before G-d,” a documentary about gay men and women raised in the Orthodox culture.

While many aspects of Greenberg’s ceremony were taken from traditional Jewish kiddushin (that is, the religious consecration of a bride and groom), Greenberg later stated that his “position was and still is that kiddushin is not appropriate for same-sex couples.”

DES MOINES, IA – Iowa’s Speaker of the House, Kraig Paulsen said that the state’s next legislative session will be relatively short and tightly focused on the economy and jobs in Iowa. Paulsen, a Republican, said he had no plans to revisit volatile social issues like gay marriage and abortion when the House goes back into session on January 9.

Republicans who control the House approved tough restrictions on abortion and a resolution calling for a statewide vote on banning gay marriage last time around, but the Senate’s Democratic leader blocked debate on both measures.

According to the Chicago Tribune, the State Senate Majority Leader, Michael Gronstal, has indicated he would do the same again, and given that, Paulsen said there’s little incentive to revisit the issues.

The gay marriage fight was sparked by a state Supreme Court decision striking down a law defining marriage as between one man and one woman. The House passed a resolution calling for a statewide vote on amending the constitution to overturn that decision, but Gronstal blocked the resolution in the Senate, where rules and tradition give him the power to decide which issues are debated and which aren’t.

RALEIGH, NC – Last weekend, the Pullen Memorial Baptist Church voted to prohibit the church’s pastor from legally marrying anyone until she can legally marry same-sex couples under North Carolina law.

The congregation said that the language of a proposed state constitutional amendment against same-sex marriage discriminates against same-sex couples by denying them the rights and privileges enjoyed by heterosexual married couples, the Raleigh News Observer reported.