A controversial
Florida mayor has incited outrage among the local
gay populace by shifting his attention to...the
toilet. In
response to statements Fort Lauderdale
mayor Jim Naugle made last week about gay sex in
public restrooms, gay advocacy groups have launched the
"Flush Naugle's Bigotry"
campaign, sending Naugle toilet paper to mock his
views.
Naugle made the
comments when discussing a $250,000 robotic bathroom
proposed for installation on the city's beach.The
contraption permits occupants to stay inside for only a
short time before the door automatically opens.
Naugle expressed
his support for the device in the July 4 issue of the
South Florida Sun-Sentinel, which quoted him as saying the
toilet could prevent "homosexual activity" in
public bathrooms.
"Sometimes
[public restrooms] are used for sexual activity--most
of it is men meeting men because it's same-sex people
in the bathrooms," Naugle told The Miami Herald.
Also, Naugle said
in an interview, "I don't use the word
'gay.' I use the word
'homosexual.'Most of them
aren't gay.They're
unhappy."
Equality Florida,
a gay rights organization, helped come up with "Flush
Naugle's Bigotry." Equality Florida spokesman
Brian Winfield told the Herald, "We are
encouraging people to mail either a roll or several
sheets of toilet paper to the mayor at City Hall to
help him to wipe his dirty mind clean."
So far only one
actual toilet paper roll has made it to the mayor's
office, with a note written on its first sheet stating,
"His Honor--Jim Naugel [sic]. From a very
happy homosexual professional & voter. Bye!
Steve."
However, the
group's e-mail campaign has left nearly 300
electronic rolls in his in-box.
"You
should be ashamed of yourself," wrote Robert
Rosenberg of Fort Lauderdale, urging the mayor to
"clean up your mind and your act,"
signing the e-mail, "Sincerely happy and gay."
"This
isn't about the bathrooms, this is about his idiotic
comments," Michael Albetta of Fort Lauderdale,
president of the Florida Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and
Transgender Democratic Caucus, told the Sun-Sentinel.
"How does he know who's happy or not? What
makes him such an expert?"
With only one
arrest made last year for such activity in the city's
south beach bathroom, local police officials say that
sex in restrooms is no longer a hot crime.
"There's
no evidence, no reports, or arrests made for any men having
sex in any restrooms," Sgt. Frank Sousa told
the Sun-Sentinel.
"His
comments that there is a problem with gay activity going on
in public bathrooms is simply not supported by any law
enforcement agency," Winfield told the
Herald. "It's just something in his
mind.... His comments are ridiculous, so to some degree
an appropriate response is a little bit of ridicule."
(The Advocate)