As you know by now, the Hillsborough County Commission repealed its eight-year-old ban on promoting or sponsoring gay pride events yesterday, which according to one of the Christian conservatives who railed against the repeal said, means the county has now lost "the favor of God."
A couple of random thoughts on the day's proceedings nearly 24 hours later: After just a few of the 38 scheduled speakers went to the microphone, it became apparent that seemingly every person who identified themselves from someplace along the eastern or southern part of Hillsborough (such as Valrico, Riverview or Brandon) was against repealing the measure, while nearly everyone who identified themselves from Tampa supported the repeal. Although this has been evident in the 13 years I've lived here (and obviously there are people in the city who favored the status quo and vice versa in the county), there really is a pretty dramatic fissure between the sensibilities of this very large county and its largest city.
Commissioner Victor Crist was certainly accurate when he said that as he looked for a welcoming place for a gay friend (or was it a relative? I forget) to move in Florida, he saw places like Key West, Palm Beach County, Fort Lauderdale and Pinellas County come up in his Google search before he ever got to Hillsborough. He didn't make an editorial judgment about that, conceding that this wasn't exactly LGBT-friendly territory. But think about that. In how many other parts of enlightened America (which I would think that Hillsborough Commissioners believe they're representing) would anyone feel comfortable admitting that in 2013, when so much social progress regarding the LGBT community is happening throughout the country?
Advocates for maintaining the ban often used God and religion in their arguments (such as Terence Smith, who worried that the county would begin holding parades for "pedophiles, rapists, adulterers, or polygamists."). Advocates for repeal argued that the county was leaving money on the table, citing figures that St. Petersburg's annual Pride Festival in late June every year brings in approximately $10 million to the community. As far I recall, neither Bill Foster nor Rick Baker were or are big fans of that festival, but they never tried to stop it. instead they chose not to celebrate it, and didn't attend (though Foster memorably said a couple of years ago he might "mosey on down" to check out the activities).
But judging by the intensity of the anti-gay forces out on Wednesday, that figure could have been $100 million, and it wouldn't have mattered. Unlike other counties (say Orange, which surrounds Orlando) that have a Republican majority in Florida, the arguments for many Republicans in Hillsborough haven't been about fiscal matters, but social ones (and by the way, it was interesting to hear so many critics come out and discuss failed roads and other infrastructure problems that they contended the county needed to pay attention to. Nobody, however, mentioned light rail).
But there was some humor invoked at the meeting.
See, there's this little annual bacchanal held in Tampa every year that is celebrated by the mayor, the City Council, County Commissioners, the police chief, and everyone else in officialdom that certainly rivals any public event held in Florida when it comes exposing skin. It's called Gasparilla. Suddenly all those arguments about not allowing such tawdriness to occur on Tampa's streets seemed a bit hollow.
Okay, on to other news: Governor Rick Scott continues to get bashed by Democrats unhappy about his veto of a bill that was almost unanimously supported in the Legislature that would allowed young undocumented immigrants in Florida to apply for a temporary driver's license.
And we caught up with former Governor and Tampa Mayor Bob Martinez earlier this week. He took exception to Bob Dole's recent proclamation that Ronald Reagan would be unwelcome in today's Republican Party.
This article appears in Jun 6-12, 2013.