Category: Florida

Florida GOP candidate trifecta: no gay marriage, adoption, or foster parenting

LGBTQ Nation • Tuesday, August 10, 2010 • Filed under: Family and Parenting, FloridaComments (0)

Bill McCollum, Florida’s Attorney General and a Republican candidate for Governor, has made it clear he supports his state’s ban on gay adoption, and he doesn’t think gay people should be allowed to be foster parents, either.

McCollum

In an interview published in the Florida Baptist Witness, McCollum, who was embarrassed earlier this year when his key witness fighting Florida’s ban on gay adoption, Dr. George Rekers, was caught taking a European vacation with a male escort, said that he disagreed with Florida law that allows gays to serve as foster parents.

From the Florida Baptist Witness:

Do you support civil rights protections on the basis of sexual preference?

McCollum: I believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman. I believe that a family should consist of one man and one woman. I don’t believe in gay adoption. I don’t believe in involving the government in enforcing or encouraging the lifestyle of gays and homosexuals. I just don’t believe that.

Florida permits homosexuals to serve as foster parents. That has been used as an argument to undermine the ban on adoptions. Should homosexuals be permitted to serve as foster parents in Florida?

Well, I personally don’t think so, but that is the law.

Should the law be changed?

I think that it would be advisable. I really do not think that we should have homosexuals guiding our children. I think that it’s a lifestyle that I don’t agree with. I realize a lot of people do. It’s my personal faith, religious faith, that I don’t believe that the people who do this should be raising our children. It’s not a natural thing. You need a mother and a father. You need a man and a woman. That’s what God intended.

Early voting began Monday for the Florida Primary Election on August 24.

Florida bill seeks to deny tax credits to films that feature gay characters

LGBTQ Nation • Monday, March 8, 2010 • Filed under: Film, FloridaComments (1)

File this under “WTF?”

Florida lawmakers are hoping to pass a $75 million incentive package to attract movie studios to film in the sunshine state, but a little noticed provision could deny tax credits to movies that feature gay characters or other “non-traditional” families.

Current state law gives tax credits on productions that are “family friendly,” i.e. no smoking, sex, nudity, or profane language.

But the new bill, proposed by Republican Stephen Precourt, would not only increase the tax credit, but expand the field of disqualified productions to include any which “exhibit or imply any act” of “non-traditional family values” and films with “gratuitous violence.”

Florida Family Policy Council President John Stemberger said non-traditional family values could include anything from “drug abuse to excessive drunkenness to homosexual families.” Continue reading…

Florida judge approves lesbian couple adoption despite state’s ban

LGBTQ Nation • Thursday, January 28, 2010 • Filed under: Family and Parenting, FloridaComments (0)

Florida’s outdated gay adoption ban took another hit after a Miami judge approved the adoption by a lesbian couple.

Alenier, right, and Leon, with their adopted son.
(Miami Herald photo)

Vanessa Alenier and Melanie Leon of Hollywood, FL, became the third gay couple in the last year to be approved to adopt, directly contradicting the state’s 1977 law against it, according to the Miami Herald.

Alenier, 34, said she did not want to begin her journey as a parent with a lie. So she told the truth, acknowledging she was gay on the adoption application — despite Florida’s 33-year-old law banning gay men and lesbians from adopting.

Earlier this month — as a Miami appeals court determines the constitutionality of the embattled adoption ban — a judge quietly approved the 1-year-old’s adoption. The decision by Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Maria Sampedro-Iglesia is the third finalized adoption by a gay couple within the last year.

While the 1977 law remains in limbo, Sampedro-Iglesia’s ruling suggests some state court judges already have made up their minds about gay adoption, a thorny political issue in a state with a significant social conservative streak.

The Florida Department of Children & Families says it is currently deciding whether to appeal the judge’s decision.

Previously, a judge in Key West, Monroe Circuit Judge David J. Audlin, struck the first blow to the statute on Aug. 29, 2008, when he signed a 67-page order declaring the law unconstitutional. Audlin’s order cleared the way for a Key West lawyer, Wayne LaRue Smith, to adopt a boy he had been raising in foster care.

‘South Florida Gay News’ publication plans January launch

LGBTQ Nation • Saturday, December 26, 2009 • Filed under: Business, FloridaComments (0)

Fort Lauderdale attorney and radio host Norm Kent plans to launch a new weekly newspaper geared toward South Florida’s LGBTQ community.

The new print and online publication, the South Florida Gay News.com will be published on Mondays, with more than twelve thousand copies slated for distribution in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties.

Nicknamed SFGN, Kent said he purposely chose a hard copy newspaper name with a “dot com” in the masthead “in order to accommodate and acknowledge; promote and link the diverse media platforms a 21st century newspaper has to deliver. Our developing website will be up and running this week.”

“The bottom line is that we are going to publish a fiercely independent publication, a credible and legitimate weekly newspaper, which will feature topical news, cutting-edge issues, outspoken columnists, and articles capturing the breadth and diversity of gay life,” according to a press release issued by Kent.

Kent is no stranger to publishing. In 1999 he published The Express Gay News – the first credible weekly newspaper for South Florida’s gay and lesbian community. Continue reading…

Anti-gay singer Buju Banton jailed in Miami on drug charges

LGBTQ Nation • Sunday, December 13, 2009 • Filed under: Florida, MusicComments (0)

buju-bantonBuju Banton, the Jamaican reggae star whose anti-gay lyrics have drawn international criticism, is in a federal lockup in Miami, facing drug conspiracy charges, reports the Miami Herald.

Drug Enforcement Administration agents say Banton, real name Mark Anthony Myrie, has been in custody since Thursday and will soon be transferred to Tampa, where the U.S. Attorney is charging him with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute more than five kilos of cocaine.

While legions of dancehall reggae enthusiasts view Banton as one of the most prolific voices of Jamaica’s poor masses, critics say he’s a gay basher whose lyrics incite violence by calling for attacking and torturing homosexuals.

His song Boom Bye Bye, a dancehall hit released in the 1990s, advocates shooting gays in the head and setting them on fire.

Such lyrics have made Banton the target of angry gay activists, who this this fall forced the cancellation of a string of concerts by the artist during a U.S. tour that included a Halloween night concert in Miami.

The L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center recently issued this statement, referring to Banton’s Grammy award nomination for the album Rasta Got Soul, “It’s an affront to LGBT people, and to all fair-minded people around the world.”

Miami police charge teacher’s gay ex-lover with murder

LGBTQ Nation • Monday, December 7, 2009 • Filed under: FloridaComments (0)

Gregory Higgs

Gregory Higgs


North Miami Police have determined Miami teacher Charles Brown was stabbed to death last week because he didn’t want to make a relationship work with his former boyfriend, Gregory Higgs, reports WTVJ-TV.

Higgs has been arrested and charged with first-degree murder.

According to a police report, neighbors watched in horror as Higgs stabbed Brown several times with a kitchen knife in the hallway at Inland Towers Apartment. Higgs, 53, then fled the scene but was captured a short time later.

Police believe the two men knew each other for a long time and had an intimate relationship for the past seven or eight years before brown broke it off for unknown reasons. Brown, a 54-year-old teacher at North Miami High School, began receiving threatening E-mails at work and Higgs also sent his angry letters to the Miami-Dade County School Board.

Police believe all Higgs wanted was an explanation for the break-up and he waited in the hallway at brown’s apartment to get it.

Election night brings victory and defeat for gay candidates, issues across the nation

LGBTQ Nation • Wednesday, November 4, 2009 • Filed under: Around the Nation, Florida, Maine, Marriage Equality, Michigan, North Carolina, Texas, Washington (State)Comments (0)

Gay-RightsIt was to be a night of hope and promise for the LGBT community, but instead the crushing defeat of Maine’s gay marriage law delivered another setback for gay rights advocates and overshadowed many other victories at the ballot box Tuesday.

In Maine, voters on Tuesday rejected a law allowing gay marriage, a closely fought referendum on the one year anniversary of a similar outcome in California.

In repealing the law passed by the legislature last May, Maine becomes the third state in which voters reversed government rulings to permit gay marriages, after California and Hawaii.

Full story on Maine’s gay marriage vote, here.

But in an apparent victory for gay rights supporters, Washington voters seemed to be approving Referendum 71, which expands the state’s domestic partnership law.

The so called “everything but marriage” law will grant gay couples more than 200 additional rights currently reserved for married spouses, including ensuring extended work leave for people with critically ill partners and preserving pension benefits for the surviving partner in the event of the other’s death.

Full story on Referendum 71, here.

In other races across the nation:

Out lesbian Annise Parker in run-off for Houston mayor
From the Houston Chronicle:

Annise ParkerThe race for Houston mayor narrowed Tuesday to a choice between a veteran City Hall insider hoping to become Houston’s first openly gay leader and a former civil rights activist hoping to become only the second African-American to run the nation’s fourth-largest city.

City Controller Annise Parker and former City Attorney Gene Locke, the two candidates originally predicted by many to prevail at the race’s outset, will face each other in a Dec. 12 runoff election.

Addressing a jubilant crowd, Parker looked ahead to the runoff election. “This race is not over,” she said. “In five weeks, we’ll claim victory.”

Kalamazoo voters approve anti-discrimination law
From the Kalamazoo Gazette:

KalamazooIn Kalamazoo, Michigan, voters decisively adopted a city ordinance Tuesday that extends anti-discrimination protections to gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender individuals.

The ordinance passed 7,671 to 4,731, making Kalamazoo the 16th city in Michigan to adopt such a gay-rights ordinance that grants the protections in the areas of employment, housing and public accommodations.

The ordinance was approved in all but three of the city’s voting places. It also passed among heavy absentee ballot voting.

Chapel Hill elects first openly gay mayor
From the Chapel Hill News:

Mark KleinschmidtIn Chapel Hill, N.C., two-term councilman Mark Kleinschmidt, a death-penalty defense lawyer and gay rights advocate, narrowly defeated colleague Matt Czajkowski to take the reins as mayor.

Kleinschmidt received 48.6 percent of the vote in the four-person mayoral race.

“We have a divided community right now, and that’s got to be job No. 1 to address that,” Kleinschmidt said. “The first thing is to talk to Matt.”

Kleinschmidt’s victory marks the first time an openly gay candidate has won Chapel Hill’s mayoral office, and only the third time an openly gay man has been elected mayor of a town in North Carolina.

St. Petersburg elects first openly gay official
From the St. Petersburg Times:

Steve KornellIn St. Petersburg, Florida, The City Council will welcome one fresh face: Steve Kornell.

When he takes office Jan. 2, Kornell will become the first openly gay person elected to office in St. Petersburg. It’s a significant milestone in a city with a large gay community that has faced opposition to pride displays under conservative leadership.

Kornell has an extensive background working with city recreation centers, running both Childs Park and Shore Acres. He wrote a grant that still brings in millions for teen programs in the area.

Detroit elects openly gay city council president
From the Detroit Free Press:

Charles PughDetroit elected openly gay former Fox News reporter Charles Pugh to the city council Tuesday.

By capturing the most votes, Pugh, who survived negative publicity due to his foreclosure woes, will be council president.

“This is unbelievable,” Pugh told the Free Press before a victory speech.

“It means Detroit has really wanted change for a very long time.”

Court tosses suit by lesbian over claim she was denied visitation with dying partner

LGBTQ Nation • Wednesday, September 30, 2009 • Filed under: Around the Nation, FloridaComments (0)

Janice LangbehnMIAMI — A federal court in Miami has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a Washington state lesbian who was not allowed to visit her dying partner at Jackson Memorial Hospital.

“The hospital took the position that we thought was pretty extreme — that it has no duty, no legal obligation, to allow visitors [of any sort] in the hospital. The court agreed,” said Beth Littrell, a staff attorney for Lambda Legal, a national gay-rights group representing Janice Langbehn, whose partner of 17 years died at Jackson in 2007.

Langbehn’s partner, Lisa Pond, suffered a fatal brain aneurysm on Feb. 18, 2007, shortly before they were to sail with their three children on a Caribbean cruise for gay families.

At Jackson, Langbehn said, a social worker would not let her visit Pond because Florida is “an anti-gay state.” Pond, 39, died the next day.

From the beginning, Jackson said Langbehn was not discriminated against and defended social worker Garnett Frederick, who denied making the comment. Continue reading…

FL appeals court hears arguments in ban on gay adoptions

LGBTQ Nation • Thursday, August 27, 2009 • Filed under: Around the Nation, FloridaComments (0)

Martin GillThe Florida state court of appeals began hearing arguments Wednesday on last year’s ruling that struck down the state’s ban on gay adoption.

The state is appealing a Miami-Dade County judge’s November 2008 ruling that the state law that bans gay adoptions is unconstitutional. The ruling came in the case of Martin Gill, who along with his partner fought to adopt their two foster children. They won the case and the judge’s ruling overturned the 31-year-old law that banned gay adoptions.

State attorneys say the judge legislated from the bench and that state lawmakers should decide the issue. The Third District Court of Appeal is hearing oral arguments from the Florida Department of Children & Families. Continue reading…

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