News » August 30, 2005

Official Bigotry

In Florida, both anti-gay political rhetoric and hate crimes are on the rise

By Andrew Stelzer

Marchers show solidarity at the Hillsborough Gay Pride in Exile celebration in Key West.

When Paul Day returned home to see “die fag” spray-painted on the steps of his smoldering mobile home, he was frightened, but not shocked. Day and his boyfriend had been harassed before, and their hometown of Lakeland in Florida’s Polk County also boasts the First Baptist Church at the Mall, whose head pastor is spearheading the drive for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage—despite the fact that it’s already illegal in the state.

Brian Winfield, communications director of Equality Florida, says he’s bracing for more events like the arson attack. He says that it stands to reason that if the anti-gay forces choose to make their home in Lakeland, it reflects “a community where people feel comfortable with their bigotry, so much so that they are willing to act it out in violent ways.”

Vocal opposition to gays has also become mainstream in neighboring Hillsborough County, where Tampa is located. Its GLBT community received a wake-up call in June, when County Commissioner Rhonda Storms raised objections to a shelf of books featured in her local library in honor of gay pride month. Storms claims she spoke for her rural and suburban constituents when she proposed that the county ban “acknowledging, promoting or participating” in gay pride events.

“I do not want to have to explain to my [6-year-old] daughter what it means to be questioning one’s sexuality … or what a transgender person is, or what a bisexual is or what a gay or lesbian is,” said Storms. She added that the library shouldn’t be “used as bully pulpit to introduce those concepts to a child outside of their parents’ purview.” Only one county commissioner voted against the ban, which resulted in the removal of the shelf of books, as well as a larger display in the central library.

Patrick Jones, co-founder of Equality Polk County, was frustrated that it took the local media four days to even report the arson. He says the gay pride ban had put the community on notice, and the firebombing reaffirmed their fears. “It makes you wonder what level it’s going to be stepped up to in this area,” Jones said.

“It’s not just a message to these two individuals,” says Winfield of the arson attack, “but to any gay or lesbian citizen of Lakeland, or of Florida for that matter, that you’re not wanted, that if we know that you’re gay, and you’re out of the closet, your life is at risk.”

The most recent hate crimes report from the state attorney general found that in the last four years on record (2000–03), Florida law enforcement agencies reported 194 hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation—more than the combined total for the first eight years of hate crimes reporting. In 2003, the 55 hate crimes against gays comprised 20 percent of Florida’s total, the highest percentage ever.

Winfield is calling on those in power to stop preaching hatred. “We need to begin a process by which our political and religious leaders step away from using this anti-gay rhetoric that’s become so popular in order to build one’s base,” he says, because history shows that when such rhetoric increases, “so do hate crimes against gay people.”

In response to the gay pride ban, more than 2,000 people marched through downtown Tampa. Some long-time residents are considering moving out of the state. Some out-of-towners are writing letters to the editor, vowing not to travel to the area on vacation. But with conservatism growing increasingly popular in Florida, a political backlash against homophobic policymakers doesn’t appear likely.

Instead, economics may be the tolerant community’s best tool. The co-owner of a Mississippi-based mini-storage business has taken Tampa off his list of potential convention sites; activists are hoping a boycott by other controversy-shy conferences and conventions may get the gay pride ban overturned. There are also plans to ask the National Football League to pull the 2009 Superbowl out of Tampa. NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue has a gay son and is an active member of Parents, Friends, and Family of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG). Gay rights supporters point to the example of a Cobb County, Ga., resolution condemning the “gay lifestyle” as incompatible with the community’s standards, which resulted in a detour of the Olympics around the county in 1996.

But the decision by the Olympic committee to snub Cobb County didn’t come until the lead-up to the games, three years after the anti-gay policy was instituted. For Southwest Florida residents who are now looking over their shoulders, four years is a long time to wait.

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• Reader Comments

  Let’s quit calling these anti-gay activist religious conservatives and describe them for what they really are: NAZIS. The Nazis targeted gays, as well as communists, Jews, and other groups they did not approve of. I doubt these intolerant fools have different feelings than the Nazis about the aforementioned groups.

  It is one thing to personally oppose homosexuality, but it is another to bring that prejudice into the public and manifest it into overt discrimination. People like Rhonda Storms fear what they do not understand, and instead of attempting to educate herself and her child (God! Now there’s a thought!) about different people, she chooses to use HER bully pulpit to to push the GLBT community into the fringes of society and reinforce the cycle of ignorance and hate that encompasses so much of the Midwest and South.

  Posted by Liberal on Aug 30, 2005 at 10:30 AM

  Liberal Posted:
  “People like Rhonda Storms fear what they do not understand, and instead of attempting to educate herself and her child (God! Now there’s a thought!) about different people,........”
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  Exactly!  And how in the hell do we convince these incredibly frightened people to let go of their fears and actively try to learn about life around them as it IS, instead of how they want their tiny, limited personal worlds to be?

  Along with their overwhelming fear comes a very strong and rigid denial system that is hard to break down.  I would give anything to be able to understand how to cut through that terror that binds them to reach them and pull them out.

  Posted by auntikrist on Aug 30, 2005 at 3:16 PM

  This is Lefty. For the last two weeks I haven’t been able to post under that name.  I kept getting redirected to a page that said the site was under repair and would be back up in 15 minutes, or words to that effect.  So, I re-registered as Leftist.  If ITT doesn’t want my comments on this forum, they should grow a pair of testicles and send me an email.  Until then, I’ll proceed under the presumption that it’s a technical defect they haven’t corrected.

  In the mean time, the only thing worse than a muslim extremist is a christian extremist.  IMO, christianity is a disease state, a mental disorder, a cancer on humanity.  And G.W. Bush is a malignant tumor who needs to be chemically disintigrated.

  Posted by Leftist on Aug 30, 2005 at 3:25 PM

  I agree wholeheartedly with the basic position that people in influential positions,such as clergy or educators,should not try to use their office(or pulpit)to incite actions against people with opposing opinions.Having said that,I also agree wholeheartedly with Rhonda Storms when she asserts that children that have not yet reached the age of reason should not have to contemplate issues that,as of yet,have no bearing on their young lives.In effect,it also throws a sucker punch at the parents of these innocents by making them deal with complex issues well before their young ones are ready for it.I would also like to suggest that gay rights activists and zealots should back off when their issues cross paths with childrens issues.Decent people,whether they be hetero or gay will not long tolerate using young kids as a political football,to say the least.

  Posted by Dr.D on Aug 30, 2005 at 4:59 PM

  My favorite scripture is “Whatsoever you sow, so shall ye reap.” We can all rest assured that the next hurricane God send through that part of the world will flatten the first baptist church of the mall and leave hundreds of thousands of homophobes homeless.  Vengence truly is the Lord’s.

  Posted by Billtalk314 on Aug 30, 2005 at 5:25 PM

• extended discussion >>>Continued...

  Discussions with more than 5 comments are continued on our special discussion page to encourage continuity and ease of use. There are currently 32 posts.

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