Posted by Wayne Garcia on Aug. 10, 2009, at 10:45 am
Another TV news personality has been urged not to have children. The twist is that this time it is a male anchor, not a woman.
For those not enamored of following Florida media insider baseball, you can bail out now. But for the rest of us media whores, there is a wonderful story that has been playing out for a week or so in Miami, where the ABC affiliate WPLG has fired one of its anchors who now claims it is because he is (gasp!) gay.
Charles Perez has fought back, with a sexual orientation discrimination complaint (which he claims triggered the firing) and a blog post in the Daily Beast in which he details his claims that station management was afraid of his increasing gay profile and urged him not to have children with his male partner. (The station, in written statements, denies Perez’s allegations.)
By Catherine Durkin Robinson
PoHo contributor Catherine Durkin Robinson is a “feminist mother of twins” and a political blogger, working under the title Out in Left Field.
Keith Meinhold is one of many decorated veterans who can no longer serve his country … because he’s gay.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Aug. 4, 2009, at 1:45 pm
Angela Rouson stepped into the Creative Loafing recording studio this week to discuss her campaign for St. Petersburg City Council in District 5, against fellow newcomers Steve Kornell and retired police officer Joe Smith. Yes, she’s the wife of powerhouse (and controversial) African American politician Darryl Rouson; but she came off as her own person — bright, articulate, well-informed and passionate — in her recent Suncoast Tiger Bay Club event, and she likewise was engaging in this interview.
I asked her if she felt that St. Pete cops were being “reined in” and not fighting crime to the fullest of their ability, and she said:
I’ve talked with the sheriff, Sheriff Coats, I’ve talked with Chief Harmon (and done ride-alongs with both agencies), and the general consensus is there is some of that. And there is also a lack of resources to be able to address issues, because if you are going to take down, for example, a drug house, you need more than one officer on the beat. I think they are being held back to some extent, but I think resources play into that as well.
Is there a racial political component to the police being held back?
I can’t really answer that question. But what I can say is there is no rational reason for not addressing the crime. …As a member of City Council I’m going to work to make sure that the mayor works with the chief of police to be more aggressive in addressing the issues.
I also asked her — given her husband’s controversial anti-gay statement that being gay was “morally wrong” (he later apologized for saying it) — if she would participate in St. Pete Pride and about her stance on domestic partner benefits. Hear her answers after the jump in the full podcast:
By Catherine Durkin Robinson
PoHo contributor Catherine Durkin Robinson is a “feminist mother of twins” and a political blogger, working under the title Out in Left Field.
When Alexandra Zayas fromthe St. Petersburg Times called to talk about the Channel 8 protests, I couldn’t have been happier. Intelligent, friendly, compassionate — Zayas understood the topic and had done the research. She was covering the protest and surrounding story, gathering opposing points of view from friend and foe alike.
Hers would be a well-rounded story. I could just tell. So I was happy to contribute a verse.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jul. 15, 2009, at 8:53 pm
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.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jul. 15, 2009, at 9:57 am
Organizers of today’s 5:30 pm protest at Media General-owned News Channel 8 in downtown Tampa have released two logos they are putting on signs and T-shirts for the event, playing on the station’s logo and the word “hate” that represents the station’s airing of the anti-gay Speechless Christian infomercial on Gay Pride day.
Here they are:
CL will be staffing the protest and bring you coverage on Twitter and video we’ll post on the blog.
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.”
The Obama Justice Department has reached out to major gay rights organizations and scheduled a private meeting for next week with the groups, in an apparent effort to smooth over tensions in the wake of the controversy over the administration’s defense in court of the Defense of Marriage Act.
Tracy Russo, a spokesperson for Justice, confirmed the meeting to me, after I posted … that top gay rights lawyers were miffed that administration lawyers had rebuffed their requests to meet and discuss ongoing litigation involving DOMA.
At the meeting — which hasn’t been announced and is expected to include leading gay rights groups like GLAD and Lambda Legal — both sides are expected to hash out how to proceed with pending DOMA cases.
eQuality Giving, an online community that provides strategic advice for philanthropists interested in legal equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer Americans, has ranked all 50 states according to the number of Equality Goals each has achieved. On this States of Equality list, Florida ranks an embarrassing 37th with a score of 1.5 out of a possible 6 points barely beating out Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi and other shining beacons of progressivism.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Apr. 30, 2009, at 6:40 am
So even before my first cuppa this morning I am subjected to a live Today Show interview with beauty queen aspirant Carrie Prejean, the Miss California entrant who believes that celebrity blogger and out-gay Perez Hilton cost her the Miss USA title with his query about same-sex marriage.
So giving her the benefit of the doubt at that time, Prejean was a very bad question-answerer.
Now, however, we have confirmation that she is a bonafide gay hater. Prejean is part of an anti-gay-marriage advertisement being unveiled today by a national anti-gay group. It won’t embed, so you have to check it out here. Politico reports:
The anti-same-sex marriage National Organization for Marriage is trying to turn the tables on gay rights activists this morning with a new ad accusing them of attacking Miss USA contestant Carrie Prejean for opposing gay marriage.
The ad … will be released at a press conference with Prejean — the new star of that movement — today in Washington, D.C.
Video of Prejean on Fox News right after the pageant after the jump.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Apr. 4, 2009, at 4:16 pm
Iowa becomes the fourth state in the nation and the first in the Midwest to allow same-sex marriages after that state’s Supreme Court struck down a ban against gay marriage.
Basic fairness and constitutional equal protection were the linchpins of Friday’s historic Iowa Supreme Court ruling that overturned a 10-year-old ban on same-sex marriage and puts Iowa squarely in the center of the nation’s debate over gay rights.
The unanimous, 69-page decision maintains a church’s right to decide who can be married under its roof, but it runs counter to the expressed opinion of a majority of Iowans who believe marriage is defined as the union of one man and one woman.
The landmark ruling is guaranteed to send shock waves through politics in Iowa and beyond. With no appeal as an option, opponents say their only hope to overturn Friday’s decision is an almost-certain bid to amend the state constitution. But that path, which would eventually require a public vote, would not yield results until 2012 at the earliest.
Already, political writers are saying this will be the impetus for gay marriage and a nationwide constitutional amendment against it as key issues in the 2012 presidential elections.
By Ben Luongo
PoHo contributor Ben Luongo is a USF political science graduate student. He will be graduating this spring.
One of my posts last week, inspired by the human rights violation of California’s prop 8, discussed how the state should recognize the legal equality of all sexual orientations. Florida took a step in the right direction when Judge Cindy Lederman ruled that the laws restricting gay couples from adopting children were unconstitutional.
Martin Gill and his partner brought their case to the court wanting to adopt two brothers that they have been fostering. Lederman ruled that there was no “rational basis” for banning gay couples from adopting. The law banning gay men and lesbians from adopting was 31 years old and it was about time that it was challenged, especially since Florida was the only state with an outright ban on gays and lesbians adopting. This is not the end of the story, however. The decision has already been appealed by the state and is likely, after the appellate court rules, to be heard by Florida’s Supreme Court.
If Florida’s Supreme Court overturns the law then it would ban restrictions statewide, and it should. Here is why: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jan. 22, 2009, at 11:52 am
County commissioners just voted down Kevin Beckner’s attempt to overturn a 2004 Ronda Storms prohibition against even studying domestic partnership benefits for county employees. The vote was 5-2, with Beckner and Rose Ferlita voting to get rid of the 2004 anti-study policy and Commissioners Jim Norman, Al Higginbotham, Kevin White, Ken Hagan and Mark Sharpe voting against it.
Although Ferlita voted for the procedural motion to overturn Storms’ 2004 study prohibition, she was adamant that she would not support expanding benefits because of the county’s fiscal situation. “Thank you for raising this issue and making this morning more interesting than I probably cared for it to be,” Ferlita said. “Timing timing timing. The fact that you brought it up now raises a whole whirlwind of emotions.”
The opponents also cited the poor state of county finances. Jim Norman, however, answered Beckner’s call to be direct by saying, “I’m a conservative. I’m not ashamed of being a conservative. On this we differ, and you know we differ. I believe that family benefits should be between a husband and wife. That’s where I draw the line. You can make numbers work any way you want, but looking at your sheet and trying to do a quick analysis, there’s only 5 out of 67 counties offering this.”
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jan. 20, 2009, at 4:01 pm
As I wrote about over the weekend, Hillsborough County Commissioner Kevin Beckner will ask his colleagues on Thursday to allow staff to prepare a cost-benefit analysis of offering domestic partnership benefits in the county’s current renegotiation of its insurance plans.
That move has set off a firestorm of activity on the Christian Right, if two e-mails that I got my hands on are any indication. The first from the man that Beckner beat, Brian Blair:
From: Brian Blair
Sent: Sunday, January 18, 2009
Subject: Fw: New County Commissioner tries “stealth attack”! Please read and act – THIS IS VITALLY IMPORTANT!
Do you think with $250,000 in campaign donations we should have mentioned he [Beckner} was an Activist on several G.L.B.T. Boards and that a large percentage of his campaign donations came from out of State? I want to personally appoligize to all that suported me! May God Sincerely Bless you in 2009!
Brian
Here’s the e-mail he was commenting on, from Terry Kemple’s Community Issues Council:
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jan. 16, 2009, at 8:14 pm
The Tampa Tribune reported that Hillsborough County Commissioner Kevin Beckner had put the issue of same-sex benefits on a future agenda, but I heard from Beckner late this evening, and he is worried that the Trib didn’t get the story right.
“This is totally going to get blown out of proportion,” Beckner said. “This has nothing to do with gay rights. It’s about what is best for our community.”
Kevin Beckner, Hillsborough County’s first openly gay commissioner, is about to reopen the potentially explosive issue of giving health care benefits to the domestic partners of county employees.
Beckner requested that commissioners discuss the issue Thursday at their regularly scheduled meeting. The last time the issue came up, in April 2004, a split commission instructed County Administrator Pat Bean not to take any steps to offer the coverage.
… Beckner’s gambit drew immediate fire from Mark Sharpe, considered by many to be one of the more-moderate commissioners. Sharpe said expanding government spending while the county and nation are mired in a financial crisis is “irresponsible.”
“We sit on the edge of economic collapse, and our government should be focused on tightening our belts and curbing spending,” Sharpe said.
Beckner said, however, he has not put approval for any domestic partnership benefits — for gays or straights — on the agenda. He wants the commission to overturn a previous board’s prohibition against staff studying the cost-benefits of such a change to allow county employees to examine the issue further, since the county is renegotiating its insurance package presently. He said he would not consider adding new benefits until its fiscal impact can be studied.
“The studies I have seen is that there is virtually no cost in adding these kinds of benefits to a health-care plan,” Beckner said this evening. “I contend this is a matter of economic development. If you want to talk about the rising cost of health care, two of the leading contributing factors are the uninsured and the underinsured. When we have the opportunity, when it is economically feasible to insure more people, … it results in long-term savings to our community.”
He said studies he has seen show that 67 percent of those who take advantage of such domestic partnership are of the opposite gender, not same-sex. Since a majority of Fortune 500 companies offer such benefits, it is time, he reasons, that Hillsborough County act more like the kinds of industries that it wants to attract to the region.
“This is not a gay rights issue,” he said. “This is about economic development. It’s not just about our employees. It is about our community.”
A decision was due Tuesday on the request by 47-year-old Martin Gill to adopt two young boys he has been raising as foster children. The state of Florida has fought in court against Gill’s petition to adopt the boys.
Florida has one of the strictest bans on gay adoptions in the country. A judge in Key West ruled in September that the ban was unconstitutional, but that ruling has had limited legal impact.
The American Civil Liberties Union has sided with Gill in the case. The ACLU says there is a shortage of parents for adoptions in Florida, where at a given time there are about 1,000 children waiting to be adopted.
CNN went all Star Wars on viewers election night with Princess Leia stand-in Jessica Yellin reporting via hologram. (Where was Admiral Ackbar??) Help us Barack Obama, you’re our only hope!
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Oct. 6, 2008, at 9:35 am
Today marks the first day of the Tampa Tribune’s new Mon-Fri one-news-section era. PIck one up and check it out and let me know what you think. In the meantime, here’s today’s top political and media news headlines, with updates daily (box, right, you know):
Pulling apart the Yes on 2 arguments like a roasted chicken from Publix.
The 7th Annual Blogger Boobie-thon (all for a good cause); local Out in Left Field once again bares it all for the cause, but you gotta pay to see it.
Yes, the Tina Fey turn as Palin on SNL was hilarious, but for those who stayed tuned for another 5 minutes got treated to another example of why Kristen Wiig is the funniest player on the show today:
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Aug. 5, 2008, at 11:35 am
Faced with growing attention from human rights groups that had been circulating a video of him calling homosexuality “morally wrong,” state Rep. Darryl Rouson last night apologized for his earlier stance, taken when he was a Republican lawyer and not an incumbent Democratic state representative in a primary fight to keep his job.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on May. 8, 2008, at 9:56 am
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.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Mar. 11, 2008, at 11:25 am
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.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Feb. 13, 2008, at 3:28 pm
Influential gay publisher Mark Segal of the Philadelphia Gay Newswrites:
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)
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Feb. 2, 2008, at 12:08 pm
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 sameTimes 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.”
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Feb. 2, 2008, at 11:51 am
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.)
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Dec. 5, 2007, at 1:38 pm
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);
Posted by Wayne Garcia on May. 4, 2007, at 2:22 pm
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.
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 
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 
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.
