The Political Whore

Been covering politics or in it for nigh on to 25 years in Florida and I have never seen anything like last night’s candidate forum at the Metropolitan Community Church in Tampa. Don Kruse, who is running in the primary against anti-gay rights Commissioner Brian Blair, showed up to speak to a storm-dwindled audience of about 35 people at the event co-sponsored by Equality Florida.

A few days ago I asked in a blog post, “What does somebody have to do to lose newspaper endorsements to Blair?” Last night I might have received my answer.

So let me set this up: I was a panelist at the forum, along with EF Executive Director Nadine Smith and moderator Chris Krimitsos of The Bleepin’ Truth on public access. It was later in the evening that Kruse’s turn came, and he was solo on the stage, as Blair did not show up to the gay-friendly event.

So I asked the first question: Given Blair’s anti-gay record (voting against gay pride displays, criticizing the anti-bullying Day of Silence in public schools), where did Kruse stand on gay rights?

Kruse started in explaining that he wanted some enlightenment from the audience. “Educate me,” he said. Then he veered to the issue of hate crimes. Crimes are crimes, there are no distinctions of shades of right or wrong depending on the skin color or sexual orientation of the victims involved. “They are crimes against humanity,” he said.

Smith cut in at that point and reminded Kruse that we were talking about gay pride recognition and discrimination and not hate crimes, and Kruse continued to say that was why he was at the forum, to learn about why we need specific protections in place. He then continued to talk about how he didn’t like giving any kind of special distinctions to wrong, that wrong was wrong, nobody should get discriminated against.

So I piped in and asked him pointedly, “If you were elected and on the board, and a commissioner, let’s say Rose Ferlita, would move to repeal the ban on recognizing gay pride events, would you vote to repeal it?”

Kruse demurred. “I think it wasn’t passed legally,” he answered in explaining that he wouldn’t say how he would vote now because the prohibition was wrong in the first place. Somebody should have sued to undo it, he said. (The somebody who did sue, Joe Redner, walked in shortly after that.) Would you file a lawsuit to undo it? Kruse again dodged and starting questioning why county funds should support gay events. Smith then explained that the policy did not stop or spend funds, that no funds were involved, that it was only designed as a hateful slap in the face to the gay community, one that the county has not delivered to any other community in the county. Do you find the policy offensive, she asked him. “Yes,” he said. After we asked again how he would vote on a repeal motion, he finally conceded he would vote it down “the way it was structured, yes.”

“I’m standing before you because I think it was wrong in the first place,” he told the increasingly confused audience.

Then the wheels went off the track. Phyllis Hunt, the pastor of the MCC, asked from the audience whether Kruse would vote to restore protections based on sexual orientation to the county’s Human Rights Ordinance (the Republican majority on the commission stripped those protections out a decade ago). Kruse didn’t answer directly and again launched into his plea for why special protections were needed for anyone, that discrimination was wrong against everyone and that they are “crimes against humanity.” By this time, he was becoming very loud and very emotional, crouched at the corner of the stage, nearly pleading with the audience to understand his point of view. “This is a very difficult thing,” he said, then discussing his revulsion at pedophilia (while acknowledging that he was veering off-topic and the pedophilia had nothing to do with gay rights) and that he hated the idea of anyone being harmed or molested and that if anyone did that to his family he would put a gun in the mouth of the perp and “I could pull the trigger myself.”

Hunt parried with him about the need for protecting LGBT people who are losing jobs or being denied housing simply because of their sexual orientation. By this point, Kruse’s voice was near a scream as he declared, “I don’t want more laws on the books. I want less laws.” By this point, he had thrown in a curse word and a “frickin’” and many in the church’s sanctuary started getting visibly upset. “It’s got to be crimes against humanity, and we’ve got to get together,” Kruse pleaded.

Kruse later apologized to Hunt and others for getting so worked up and using inappropriate language, and he stayed until the end of the forum to talk to people. Give him points for showing up and engaging voters, as opposed to the many incumbents who are working on their Rose Garden strategy of laying low.

During the questioning/meltdown, Smith told Kruse that his views were “wrapped in ignorance” and offered politely to meet with him to educate him. Kruse accepted her offer.

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