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Florida’s
GLBT
community
is
having
a
hard
time
being
cheerful
after
the
Nov.
4th
election.
Barack
Obama’s
victory
and
the
public’s
so-called
mandate
for
change
is
overshadowed
by
the
passage
of
Amendment
2,
along
with
other
anti-gay
measures
in
California,
Arkansas
and
Arizona.
As
pundits
pontificated
on
television
about
Obama’s
win
signaling
the
end
of
culture
wars
and
discrimination,
the
gay
community
had
little
to
celebrate.
“I’m
totally
pissed
that
these
right
wing
nut
balls
have
destroyed
my
party,”
said
Jorge
Mursuli,
board
member
of
Florida
Red
and
Blue.
However,
the
problems
with
the
No
on
2
campaign
began
long
before
anti-gay
proponents
gathered
enough
signatures
to
put
the
measure
on
the
ballot.
Gay
leaders
attempted
to
form
a
solid
statewide
front.
But
a
rift
formed
between
board
members
of
Florida
Red
and
Blue
and
Nadine
Smith,
executive
director
of
Equality
Florida.
Smith
had
already
founded
her
anti-Amendment
2
coalition,
Fairness
for
All
Families,
when
Florida
Red
and
Blue
(FRB)
was
being
formed
last
year.
FRB
board
members,
including
Mursuli,
Heddy
Pena
and
Patricia
Ireland,
national
president
of
National
Organization
for
Women
arranged
met
with
Smith
and
urged
her
to
join
FRB.
After
months
of
back-and-forth
negotiations,
both
groups
failed
to
unite—spreading
manpower
and
cash
too
thin
to
wage
an
effective
battle.
FRB
leaders
say
Smith
refused
to
join;
Smith
says
it
was
FRB
that
failed
to
join
her
coalition.
She
said
she
did
not
join
FRB’s
board
because
she
had
already
established
Fairness.
FRB’s
board
members,
she
said,
wanted
her
to
fold
the
coalition
and
disband
her
board.
“It
was
insulting,”
she
said.
The
conflict
drew
charges
of
ego
battle
between
Smith
and
a
“boys
club”
made
up
of
well-connected
gay
male
donors.
Smith
and
FRB
staff
also
disagreed
on
the
best
strategy
to
approach
voters.
“The
message
that
we
got
was
that
Fairness
was
too
gay
and
too
progressive,”
Smith
said.
She
describes
Fairness’s
mission
as
a
progressive
grassroots
effort
to
mobilize
voters
in
Florida’s
minority
communities.
FRB’s
media
campaign
focused
on
showing
how
Amendment
2
affects
mostly
straight
couples,
not
about
gay
marriage.
The
most
profound
difference,
Smith
said,
was
about
how
to
reach
African
American
voters.
“Their
approach
was
to
have
no
outreach
to
the
black
community,”
Smith
said.
FRB
deputy
campaign
strategist,
Michael
Kenny,
calls
Smith’s
assertion
“ridiculous.”
Kenny
said
FRB
worked
made
media
buys
in
all
the
major
networks
in
major
markets.
“Is
Nadine
is
suggesting
that
African
Americans
do
not
watch
ABC,
CBS,
or
NBC?”
Kenny
said.
“The
bottom
line
is
we
did
not
have
enough
resources
to
complete
our
broadcast
goal,
let
alone
have
the
luxury
of
targeting
any
specific
demographic.”
He
said
that
FRB
was
using
national
research
that
showed
the
large
influx
of
African
American
voters
drawn
by
Obama
would
overwhelmingly
support
Amendment
2.
He
said
FRB
offered
to
co-fund
research
with
Fairness
to
address
reaching
the
black
community,
but
Smith
did
not
agree.
Smith
says
Kenny’s
allegation
is
false.
She
points
to
a
$25,000
in
kind
contribution
from
Equality
Florida
to
FRB
that
was
the
bulk
of
her
research.
“We
were
sounding
the
alarm
bells
as
loud
as
we
could,”
Smith
said.
Kenny
said
Smith’s
claim
isn’t
true,
however.
“To
suggest
that
this
organization
(FRB),
created
explicitly
to
fight
this
amendment,
should
have
or
could
have
been
responsible
for
changing
a
cultural
and
religious
belief
created
over
century
is
patently
absurd,”
Kenny
said.
“If
anyone
should
have
built
those
bridges
[in
the
African
American
community]
it
should
have
been
the
statewide
LGBT
organization
that
has
been
doing
this
for
more
than
12
years.”
Kenny’s
comment
was
a
jab
at
Smith,
who
has
been
with
Equality
Florida
for
12
years.
The
infighting
amongst
FRB
and
Fairness
was
disasterous:
72
percent
of
African
American
voters
supported
the
amendment.
“The
black
community
has
not
been
reached
out
to,”
said
Charles
Martin,
a
member
of
the
National
Black
Gay
and
Lesbian
Advocacy
Coalition.
“We
should
have
come
out
with
a
strong
message.”
Martin
is
executive
director
of
the
South
Beach
AIDS
Project
and
lives
in
Liberty
City
with
his
white
partner.
“If
I
didn’t
see
a
No
on
2
message,
then
you
can
bet
nobody
in
the
community
saw
it,”
Martin
said.
As
FRB’s
finance
chairman,
Bob
Farmer—former
national
treasurer
for
Michael
Dukakis,
Bill
Clinton
and
John
...
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