Gay activists protest outside a prayer breakfast hosted by Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle on Thursday, March 13. The mayor hosted Jim Daly, the right-wing leader of Focus on the Family, at the early morning event.
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By JUAN CARLOS RODRIGUEZ
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Carrying picket signs with images of men and women who were killed because they were gay or transgendered and bearing placards that called for an end to hate speech by public officials, about 20 GLBT activists and supporters protested the March 13 prayer breakfast hosted by Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle at the Broward County Convention Center.
The group marched silently during the early morning commute along the entrance to the convention center, hoping to catch the eye of passing motorists and breakfast attendees.
The featured speaker at the prayer breakfast, Jim Daly, president of the right-wing religious organization Focus on the Family, is among the most aggressive opponents of the gay rights movement. Daly’s organization is one of the primary backers of an anti-gay marriage amendment that goes before voters in November.
Activists from the GLBT organizations Fight Out Loud and Gay American Heroes, as well as supporters from several Fort Lauderdale churches, said Daly’s appearance at the breakfast is a further example of Naugle’s intolerance and animosity toward the gay community.
“It’s unfortunate that Naugle has not spoken out against hate in the community,” said Waymon Hudson, co-founder of Fight Out Loud. “Instead, he uses the prayer breakfast to invite Focus on the Family, the most divisive anti-gay organization. To choose to do that after only a week since the murder of Simmie Williams is irresponsible and shows weak leadership.”
Hudson walked along NE 17th Street at the entrance to the Broward Convention Center just before sunrise. He held a large picture of Patricia Murphy, a 39-year-old transgendered woman who was killed in New Mexico, and a sign that read “Stop The Hate” in bold letters.
The protest was organized by Scott Hall, director of Gay American Heroes, a group that is memorializing GLBT people who have been murdered in hate crimes.
“There’s a direct correlation between encouraging discrimination of gay people and Naugle’s hate-filled rhetoric,” Hall said.
Among the victims pictured were Simmie Williams, the 17-year-old who was killed on Sistrunk Boulevard Feb. 23, Lawrence King, the 15-year-old boy who was shot down during school in California, and Ryan Skipper, the 21-year-old computer student who was stabbed to death in an anti-gay attack in rural Polk County, Fla.
According to the city’s promotional flyer for the prayer breakfast, the annual event brings together civic and religious leaders for “an inspiring message of commitment, support and hope for our community!”
Bob Collier, who walked with his partner of 45 years, Charles Hunziker, said he felt the need to demonstrate that gay people are as loving and family oriented as those who attended the breakfast.
“The breakfast is promoted as supporting family values,” Collier said. “We are a family, too.”
The protest took place just a week after Naugle’s words further angered the gay community. Naugle revisited his crusade against bathroom sex in public parks in a column he wrote for the city’s bi-monthly newsletter, Focus on Fort Lauderdale. Naugle also spoke out against gay men cruising in parks at his State of the City address.
The Fort Lauderdale City Commission passed a resolution March 4 that bars Naugle from contributing a column to the publication.
Commissioner Cindi Hutchinson introduced the motion to replace the mayor’s column with a column written by one of the commissioners.
“The reason we brought this up is because we need to end this nonsense,” she said.
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