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A bad decision for supporter of equality, out of the Michigan Supreme Court, which ruled that the state’s anti-gay marriage amendment prohibits domestic partnership benefits. More about it over at Fix It Now blog.
The owner of the Green Iguana in Tampa tells the New Times‘ political writer Bob Norman that Gov. Charlie Crist used to frequent his bar in the 1990s and acted very, well, gay:
The story goes that the Florida governor frequented the Green Iguana, a bar in Tampa, back in the early 1990s when he was just starting his political career. He was less careful back then, people say, and during his partying at the Green Iguana, he was openly gay.
When I got Rick Calderoni, the bar’s well-known owner, on the phone, I expected him to stonewall me about it.
He didn’t.
Calderoni, who is gay, confirmed that Crist came into his bar quite often and that the two of them became friends.
Getting to the point, I asked him if he knew Crist to be gay.
“Yes,” he answered bluntly. “I just wish he would come out and admit it. That would be a great thing if he did.”
I asked Calderoni if he was certain that Crist is gay. He told me that Crist socialized with a gay clique of friends but conceded that he’d never actually seen Crist become intimate with another man.
So how can he be sure Crist is gay?
“The way he acted,” Calderoni said.
How did he act?
Calderoni laughed and said, “Very feminine.”
Norman admits this remains circumstantial evidence of Crist’s sexuality.
Influential gay publisher Mark Segal of the Philadelphia Gay News writes:
In a year that the political twists, turns and ups and downs have been more thrilling then a ride at Great Adventure or Disney World, and a year that is witnessing the most historical presidential election since Abraham Lincoln, can there be any more surprises? Absolutely. Amazingly, it’s a place you wouldn’t expect change: the Republican Party and the choice for John McCain’s running mate.
…
For McCain, at 72, choosing another white Republican man as his running mate would not look like change and might simply be waiting for the Democrat nominee to make a false move. He has no choice but take the
initiative and be bold in his choice for vice president. But how to embrace change without alienating the Republican base? Can he pick a V.P. nominee that can bring victory in one of the Republican must-win states and has solid Republican credentials?Yes, if he chooses the popular Florida Gov. Charlie Crist. Crist ran for governor as a lifelong bachelor, with numerous articles and radio talk show openly questioning persistent rumors that he was gay.
As even Segal points out, Crist has consistently and directly denied being gay. But the possibility of having even a closeted gay VP candidate is just too much for Segal to ignore:
There is no doubt that Crist will be on McCain’s short list. With the rumors still flying, can he make it beyond the short list?
There are more reasons why he should than not. McCain has a strategic choice to make once he has the Republican nomination: play to the conservative base in his party who really don’t like him or try to pick up independents and Democrats displeased with their own party’s choice. The only chance McCain has to shake up the race is to make a bold choice — pick a running mate that is popular, from the South and a state he needs to win, who looks like the new breed of political change candidate and brings buzz to his side of the race. In this instance, the gay rumors actually work in Crist’s favor. Those rumors have been tried and tested over the years, and his denial still stands. If brought up, it would be seen as a dirty trick of the Democrats, politics as usual. As for the Republicans, they have proven in the past that as long as you deny you’re gay and it can’t be proven, they’ll believe you. And to toss them a bone, Republican favorite Jeb Bush endorsed Crist.
(photo: Crist in Israel with Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, courtesy of US House of Representatives)
And then there is the bad news: The religious right gathered enough signatures to get a constitutional amendment
barring same-sex marriage in Florida on the November ballot. That means nine months of campaigning that is certain to make you want to puke your guts out by the end of the ugliness. As news reports quoted one proponent:
“I’m grateful to God first and our supporters second,” said John Stemberger, an organizer for Florida4Marriage.org. “The bottom line is kids need a mom and dad. Same-sex marriages subject kids to a vast, untested social experiment.”
Of course, it makes no difference that same-sex marriages are already illegal in this state (thanks, unfortunately, to a client of my former political consulting firm). Have been since 1997. What this amendment is really about is a chance to vent anti-gay and intolerant rhetoric and drive right-wing voters to the polls in November, since the Republican Party has very little holding it together this year and religious right voters are without a strong presidential candidate. From the same Times article:
The presence of the proposal has the potential to greatly alter voter turnout in a presidential election year.
Evangelicals and social conservatives now have a much higher motivation to go to the polls.
But the proposal could also spur interest from the opposition, which is vast and diverse. An opposition group, the bipartisan Florida Red & Blue Committee, calls the initiative “dangerous and disingenuous.”
(photo credit: Rudy Kleysteuber/flickr.com)
And that is a big fat raspberry and a moral lesson in doing what is right. On Friday, Mayor Pam Iorio made a stand that 
is the best thing she has ever done in her political career: She told county leaders she won’t even consider merging or consolidating functions with them because of their anti-gay stance. As she wrote to Times reporter Bill Varian in response to county commissioners’ overtures about merging parks and recreation departments:
We should not merge any services where our values are not compatible. The County’s lack of tolerance towards a segment of our community cannot be allowed to affect the services provided by Parks and Recreation.
Yes, Ronda Storms’ crusade of intolerance back in 2005 lives on. It is county policy not to recognize gay pride events, a policy that Storms made sure can only be overturned by a supermajority vote of the County Commission. As Iorio rightly points out in her e-mail, merging with the county parks department could endanger some city-support gay events:
The county took over the library system many years ago. (It has its own county-wide millage rate) This worked well until a few years ago when the BOCC decided not to allow any Gay pride displays at the libraries. This I very much disagreed with and thought it sent the wrong tone for the entire community. The City co-sponsors through our Parks and Recreation Department many special events as I mentioned above. One for example is Winter Pride at Al Lopez Park.
In my recent “Fix It Now” column, item No. 9 was “Stop beating up on gay people:”
We waste far too much time, energy and newsprint writing about the battle over gay marriage or transgender firings. Richard Florida was right; communities that embrace tolerance and diversity outperform those that don’t. Even if you aren’t down with homosexuality because of your religion or whatever psychosexual hang-ups you have, just walk away from this fight.
Iorio shows why this is so important. No matter what you think about the mayor, take time today to send her an e-mail of support for her strong stance and for the warning shot across the bow of the county leaders. There is a price we pay for intolerance, in lost economic growth, in government efficiency, and in creative and cultural richness. (While you’re at it, send some love over to the county commissioners and urge them to repeal their hateful gay pride resolution.)
The Romney campaign sent out this e-mail to Florida supporters today, under the subject line “Preserving Traditional Marriage in Florida:”
Dear Friend:
Preserving traditional marriage between a man and a woman is imperative for America’s future. Families are the building blocks of society, and we must recognize that the ideal setting for nurturing and raising children is in a home with a mother and a father.
Unfortunately, traditional marriage is under assault by liberal, activist judges in many states. I experienced this first-hand when I was Governor of Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Supreme Court, on a 4-3 vote, created a right to same-sex marriage by judicial mandate. We must prevent the same thing from happening in Florida.
As President, I will champion a Federal Marriage Amendment to protect the traditional definition of marriage as between one man and one woman. Until we have a federal solution that restores and protects our societal definition of marriage, we must continue to protect the traditional marriage relationship state by state.
In Florida, a ballot initiative has been proposed that would give constitutional protection to the definition of marriage as one man and one woman and prevent unelected activist judges from trying to invent and impose new laws that disregard the will of the people. I strongly support this initiative.
I encourage you to learn more about this important issue by visiting Florida4Marriage.org or MittRomney.com/issues/american-culture.
That in contrast to this account of a 1994 pro-gay stance he held:
Bay Windows, the Boston-based gay and lesbian newspaper, republished excerpts from an August 1994 interview the paper did with Romney during his campaign against Senator Edward M. Kennedy. In the interview, Romney said it should be up to states to decide whether to allow same-sex marriage and he criticized Republican “extremists” who imposed their positions on the party.
“People of integrity don’t force their beliefs on others, they make sure that others can live by different beliefs they may have,” Romney is quoted as saying.
… Asked about Romney’s remarks in 1994, his communications director, Eric Fehrnstrom, said in an e-mail statement: “Governor Romney believes Americans should be respectful of all people. What he opposes are the efforts by activist judges who seek to redefine the longstanding institution of marriage being between a man and a woman.”
And the revelation last year of a 1994 letter he wrote to Log Cabin Republicans in Mass:
“…a letter he sent to the Log Cabin Club of Massachusetts [said] that he would be a stronger advocate for gay rights than Senator Edward M. Kennedy, his opponent in a Senate race, in a position that stands in contrast to his current role as a champion of a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.
“We must make equality for gays and lesbians a mainstream concern,†Mr. Romney wrote in a detailed plea for the support of the club, a gay Republican organization.
Here’s some vid of Romney in 1994 addressing the idea of being more liberal on gay rights than Ted Kennedy (about halfway through, after his flip-flop on abortion);
More lowlights from the GOP Presidential Debate:
Moderator: Governor Thompson, same theme. If a private employer finds homosexuality immoral, should he be allowed to fire a gay worker?
Thompson: I think that is left up to the individual business. I really sincerely believe that that is an issue that business people have got to make their own determination as to whether or not they should be.
Moderator: OK. So the answer’s yes.
Thompson: Yes.
The former Bush cabinet member was the only candidate to be given a chance to respond to the question, or else, no doubt, he would not have been alone.
