Still Where the Boys Are  | Travel | Advocate.com

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Still Where the Boys Are
The Fort Lauderdale tourism board, looking to soften the city’s image after a tough year, invites Advocate associate editor Neal Broverman to experience its sun-drenched virtues.
An Advocate.com exclusive posted December 21, 2007
Still Where the Boys Are

After reporting, editing, and reading dozens of stories about homophobia stinking up Fort Lauderdale this year, I received quite an interesting e-mail in October. The first line of the missive read: “Gay and Lesbian Press Trip: Fort Lauderdale, Timed to Coincide with the 8th International Conference on Gay & Lesbian Tourism.” The e-mail had no mention of the city’s hateful mayor, or that incident in May when some guy named Jethro Monestime took over the public-address system at the Fort Lauderdale airport to quote Leviticus (he went with the old standby, “If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, they should be put to death”). According to the press release, Fort Lauderdale is all about gondolas, guesthouses, and gay, gay, gay! I wouldn’t have missed this for the world.

On the flight to Florida I brushed up on my Lauderdale news: In July, Jim Naugle, the city’s Democratic mayor, made a push for private bathrooms on the city’s beaches, telling the local Sun-Sentinel newspaper, “We're trying to provide a family environment where people can take their children who need to use the bathroom without having to worry about a couple of men in there engaged in a sex act.” Naugle also dropped this bon mot: “I don’t use the word ‘gay.’ I use the word ‘homosexual.’ Most of them aren’t gay. They’re unhappy.” Judging from my friends, he may have a point, but I wouldn’t recommend a straight person saying something like that.

Greater Fort Lauderdale Publicity x395 | Advocate.com

Naugle then announced a press conference where it was assumed he would apologize. He did say he was sorry -- for not taking gay public sex more seriously.

Reaction was swift: A San Francisco LGBT paper urged a boycott of Fort Lauderdale, and a planned regional convention was put on hold by one group. Broward County commissioners responded by booting Naugle from the county’s Tourist Development Council, and a group of fair-minded folks initiated the “Flush Naugle” campaign, which blasted the mayor’s homophobic remarks and mailed toilet paper to city hall.

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