Update 9/4/07 - City Commissioners voted Mayor Jim Naugle off the Tourist Development Council because of his perceived anti-gay stance. The Associated Press carried an article on the Ft. Lauderdale strife and quoted Mayor Naugle:
"If I have a fault, it's at times I'm blunt, I'm plainspoken," he said. But he said the voters clearly "want someone in office that isn't afraid to speak the truth and not be cowed by the political consequences."
He said he has received some 7,000 e-mails related to his comments and says a majority expressed support for him.
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Click here for the story. Video of the Mayor's press conference is available here.
"I was not aware how serious the problem was of the sexual activity that is taking place in the bathrooms in public places and parks around Broward County, particularly in the city of Fort Lauderdale," Naugle told reporters Tuesday.
"I've been educated on that and I want to apologize to the children and to the parents of our community for not being aware of the problem."
Naugle's office had been receiving information from all over the country, but Naugle said the most important information came from a local homosexual activist and "a guy I call a friend", Norman Kent, who wrote an article condemning the practice of sex in public places and alerted Naugle to a website called "cruising for sex."
The site lists 13 printed pages of "cruisy" places in the Fort Lauderdale metropolitan area for anonymous homosexual hookups. The website itself is bedecked with
homosexual pornography and references to parks, fitness centers, department stores, shopping malls, farmers' markets, beaches, etc. (A greatly sanitized list can be viewed on the American's for Truth website - warning even the sanitized content is offensive and inappropriate for children: http://americansfortruth.com/news/homosexual-male-cruising-s...)
"This to me is totally unacceptable," the Mayor told reporters. "I don't think that in the name of being inclusive or tolerant that anyone in the community should have to tolerate this."
"My goal is to get the city parks removed from these lists," concluded Naugle, who urged all citizens to contact the police department if they witness any illegal activity.
Naugle also called upon "responsible members of the homosexual community" to help the city put a stop to this public homosexual behavior. He stated that the county health department recently announced that Broward County is leading the nation in new HIV/AIDS cases in the MSM (men having sex with men) category and criticized the Tourist Board for inviting homosexuals to Broward County with the HIV/AIDS health crisis ongoing.
"I'm really asking the homosexual community to join with me, to cease this activity, for the benefit of the children, the parents, and the community."
When a homosexual reporter asked him if he had any apologies to offer homosexuals, Naugle deftly replied, "I apologize for not having brought this earlier, maybe some lives could have been saved."
As he left the conference, angry homosexual activists began shouting at Naugle saying "shame, shame" and "you're an embarrassment to our city."
Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth said Mayor Naugle should be congratulated for his courageous stand against a "vocal fringe and the liberal media."
"Finally, a public servant with the courage to stand up to the homosexual militants and their fellow travelers in the media," LaBarbera said. "Imagine: a big-city mayor tries to stop gross perversions from occurring in public places - and the pro-'gay' lobby says HE is the problem and is embarrassing the city!"
A video of the news conference can be found here at the Sun-Sentinel:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sfl-724naugleapology,0,5688916.s...Those who wish to contact Mayor Naugle to thank him for his actions may do so at this e-mail address: [email protected]