Gays and straights alike carried red flags (a comment on a Media General exec who said the station viewed Speechless: Silencing Christians and “it didn’t raise any red flags”) and signs relabeling the NBC affiliate in Tampa Bay as News Channel H8 on Wednesday afternoon. More than 100 protesters gathered along Kennedy Boulevard in front of the station’s News Center to draw attention to the hate program that was aired for what they believe was $35,000 paid by a Christian group.

In a sign of political courage, Tampa City Councilman John Dingfelder attended the rally and said of News Channel 8’s decision,”This is not who Tampa is. This type of hate is just not acceptable in our community.” Dingfelder is running for a County Commission seat, a demographic that is much more to the right than the city of Tampa where he has served two terms.

Watch CL video coverage of the rally after the jump.

Here they are:

CL will be staffing the protest and bring you coverage on Twitter and video we’ll post on the blog.

By Lorna Bracewell
PoHo contributor

On Saturday, June 27, thousands of people gathered in the streets of St. Petersburg, FL for the city’s annual Gay Pride parade and festival. While we were celebrating and honoring the legacy of the LGBT civil rights movement, our local NBC affiliate (WFLA-Ch. 8) was airing Speechless: Silencing the Christians, an hour long special paid for by the conservative American Family Association (AFA) that makes a series of specious and demeaning claims about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

Watch a clip from the program after the jump.

Within hours of airing Speechless, WFLA was flooded with phone calls and emails from viewers who disagreed with and disapproved of the special’s anti-gay thesis. Equality Florida, a Tampa based statewide gay rights group, repeatedly petitioned the station and its parent company, Media General, to issue a public apology for airing the homophobic program, to divest themselves of the $35,000 paid to them by the AFA by donating it to an LGBT youth organization, and to devote an hour of air time to a special that balances out the hateful message of Speechless. So far, these petitions have gone unanswered except for a comment from Media General’s top Florida exec, John Schueler, who told Equality Florida that he could see why “people who have chosen the homosexual lifestyle might be offended” by the program’s “strident tone” but that the program “didn’t raise any red flags” for him or his associates.

Didn’t raise any red flags? According to Speechless, homosexuals (who, for PR reasons, started calling themselves “gays” in the 1990’s) are a danger to children and an existential threat to the family; they are the masterminds of an elaborate conspiracy to eradicate Christian influence and Christians themselves from our culture; they are simultaneously a cause and a symptom of cultural, spiritual and national decline. How could such apocalyptic rhetoric, such demonization of a segment of society not raise any red flags?

Imagine if Speechless targeted a racial minority instead of LGBT people. Imagine if the voiceover at the beginning of the program went something like this: “Family values, freedom of speech, freedom of religion and morality are all threatened by a radical Asian American activist agenda that’s redefining the family, teaching children that Asian Americans are normal and pushing for minority status and preferential treatment for Asian Americans” (replace the words “Asian American” with “homosexual” and you have an actual line from Speechless). All the money in the world couldn’t get that special aired on WFLA.

Due to Media General’s flagrant disregard for fairness… oh, let me try that again eschewing the euphemisms for once. Due to Media General’s flagrant disregard for the equal citizenship and physical safety of LGBT people in Tampa Bay and everywhere, Equality Florida, Impact-Florida (Ed’s. note: of which Lorna is founder) and a number of other grassroots groups from the surrounding area are organizing a demonstration outside of Media General’s Tampa headquarters at 202 S Parker St., Tampa, on Wednesday at 5:30 pm.

WFLA and Media General have made it clear over the past two weeks that they do not speak the language of reason and civility. We have tried to engage their decision makers in innumerable other ways. Since these attempts have failed, we will be there this Wednesday (at the same time as Media General’s national president) to make our demands in the “strident tone” Media General seems to prefer. Since many of us “homosexuals” are Christians ourselves, we may even quote a scripture or two. Perhaps a little something from Jeremiah? “Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness and his chambers by injustice” (Jeremiah 22:13).

By Catherine Durkin Robinson
PoHo contributor

As we remember Stonewall and the beginning of the modern gay rights movement, the progressive community is understandably frustrated with the pace of our administration in bringing about real change.

They have a point.

Enough already with the military’s ridiculous “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

And it’s about time we legalize gay marriage.

Yet after the stunning parades this weekend and the first official recognition of the movement by a sitting working US President, I’m filled with more hope than ever before.

Which is why I didn’t allow my blood pressure to rise when WFLA/News Channel 8 aired an “it would be disturbing if it weren’t so silly” documentary infomercial Saturday night about wicked gays trying to silence Christians. I urged my fellow libs to take deep breaths and see this program for what it was — a spoiled brat stomping his feet and holding his breath in the hopes of getting attention and that last piece of cake.

“Their world is ending, Mary,” I said with a giggle. “It’s falling down around them and they can’t do a thing to stop it. Let’s not be so reactionary. Pass the Sangria and shut the fuck up. I want to hear what these freakshows have to say so I can make fun of them later.”

My calls for calm were roundly ignored. Equality Florida and St. Pete Pride urged boycotts and asked supporters to write letters, send emails, and make phone calls (oh my) designed to make it all go away.

And yet the show went off without a hitch.

Either News Channel 8 wasn’t impressed or paradegoers were too busy using their mouths and hands for other pursuits.

It was, after all, a Saturday night.

But a few of my gays started screaming and using the c-word.

And that’s when I put my motherfucking foot down.

We should be extremely concerned when we start behaving like the tyrannical fundies we rail against. And the whole, “Would it be all right to allow Holocaust deniers to broadcast a program on Rosh Hashanah?” smacks of intellectual desperation.

Come on, we can do better than succumb to a lazy metaphor.

Let’s get angry about the lies the radical right spews under their crosses and from behind their Bibles. Absolutely, let’s laugh among ourselves about how funny it is that their movement is dying and true equality is within reach. Let’s counter illogical arguments with reasoned debate and religious mumbo-jumbo with good old-fashioned wisdom.

If we try to shut them up, their rallying cry becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Who needs that? Haters are like roaches, running for cover when the light of knowledge and truth shines upon them.

I prefer they stay in the light. It’s easier to aim the bug spray.

And besides, Mary, that’s how we’ll win.

Catherine Durkin Robinson is a “feminist mother of twins” and a political blogger, working under the title Out in Left Field.

Let’s get one thing straight right off the bat: Winning a mayoral forum or debate is not the most meaningful thing in a campaign. The myriad gatherings of the 10 mayoral candidates in St. Petersburg that have already occurred and are yet to occur likely won’t alter the Sept. 1 primary outcome one iota.

Why?

Because such forums are a place that can only do a candidate harm. Stumble, or stumble badly, and the media coverage can magnify it into major damage. “Win” such a debate and not only will the MSM mostly not declare you the winner, but you have only “won” in front of a few hundred people, at most.

The way campaigns are really won are through spending campaign contributions on direct mail, television and radio advertising and through a concerted grass-roots voter contact effort.

So that brings me to reporting the “results” of Monday night’s mayoral forum held by the St. Pete Pride organizers at the King of Peace MCC. The “winners”?

Alex Haak.

The longshot mayoral candidate was not included in the Q&A period and allowed only an opening three-minute speech, which he accomplished in less than a minute and that was, for all its brevity, completely incomprehensible. Here are my actual notes, verbatim, from his stump speech: “It’s not going to take me three minutes. Best mayor. Best everything you can possibly think of. And member of the stonewall organization, for a while. I did not expect it. This is the place.” He said more stuff, but I either couldn’t understand it or keep up with his rap.

OK, joking aside, the real winners were Scott Wagman and Jamie Bennett. A close third goes to Kathleen Ford.

Here’s why.

Wagman, Bennett and Ford were the only pro-GLBT candidates in the room of about 200 straights and gays at the church on 5th Avenue N. Larry Williams and Bill Foster win admiration for sticking by their conservative guns and not agreeing to sign a St. Pete Pride proclamation or attend the parade (two things that Mayor Rick Baker has also refused to do for his entire term) but they lose the forum because it was a GLBT forum.

Wagman toned down some of his off-putting “I’m a businessman” rhetoric and was more dynamic than at most events I’ve witnessed. He was solidly pro-GLBT and had the line of the night when asked about attending the parade and inviting participants to say hi to him as he rides in it with his dogs, “Waggers for Wagman, with some of the gayest dogs you ever will see.”

For Bennett, he also touted his participation in the parade for years. “St. Pete Pride is an important event; it represents the strength of diversity. I appreciate that,” Bennett said. “I think it’s a wonderful party.”

By my count, Wagman and Ford both scored points on the next question, about police staffing. Wagman is the only candidate who said he would get a new police chief and add 100 cops (a $10 million price tag annually). Ford made her point strongly without seeming harsh: “When I left city council [in 2001] there were not enough police officers on the street. And still there are not enough officers on the street. The community policing program disappeared. Folks, there has been a lot of slippage. We saw BayWalk struggle to the point where it went into bankruptcy. Where were our leaders? Why? Why is it that any 11-year-old can tell you where the drug houses are in the city of St. Petersburg? I guarantee you there will be a change.”

Ford, Williams and Wagman all effectively played the “parental responsibility” card during a talk about how to engage bored youths and prevent bullying. Ford best articulated the need to protect teens just coming to terms with their sexual orientation or transsexuality, while Wagman had the best there’s-hope-for-our-youth anecdote, about passing some unsavory looking kids at a recent campaign stop, some “very thuggish looking teens, sitting there, pants down the whole thing…” As he passed, one of them asked Wagman, “Can you win? That wasn’t exactly the comment I was expecting. We do not demand anyting of today’s youth, other than lollygagging around and playing video games.” And we should, he said.

His answer was a Youth Corps-like emphasis on volunteering, including reviving a Tampa-esque Paint Your Heart Out home-improvement program like one ended in St. Pete because of legal liability concerns. (Yes, that might sound a bit self-serving for a guy who used to run a paint business.)

Ford, Wagman and Bennett all said they would move immediately to add domestic partnership benefits for same-sex couples, with Wagman pointing out that older straight couples need the benefits as well. Williams and Foster said they would study the costs and consider adding the benefits.

Ford was, again, perhaps the best informed of the lot but showed one of her worst political traits: getting far too wonky. In answering a question about how to get better public transportation (a query that, I am sure, was aimed at getting more and better buses to people’s neighborhoods), Ford used the opportunity to give a growth-management dissertation, talking about water shortages, Senate Bill 360’s impact and “concurrency elements.” Yikes!

Disclosure: Wagman’s campaign has hired the partner of CL Editor David Warner as a political consultant. Becuase of that inherent conflict of interest, Warner plays no role (either in editing or assigning coverage) in CL’s coverage of the St. Petersburg mayor’s race, which is entirely determined by Political Editor Wayne Garcia.

Headlines after the jump …

• Folo-up: Ann Coulter appears on The Today Show; no NBC ban. ‘I don’t think I would be sitting here if it wasn’t for a headline on Drudge.”
• Equality Florida: Hillsborough’s anti-gay pride library policy “under review.”
• Sansom’s damage control efforts.
• Cleaning up after Buddy: Phyllis’ first days in office.
• Media General’s Hernando Today cuts publication on Monday and Tuesday.
• Who’s in and who’s out for the Senate seat from Florida in 2010.
• Marco Rubio’s in.
• Who is Florida’s most maverick congressperson?
• Roland Burris denied.