FLORIDA: Orange County Commission Approves Broad LGBT Protections

By a 6-1 vote, yesterday the commissioners of Orange County, Florida banned sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination in housing, employment, and public accommodations. Equality Florida reports that red-shirted supporters of the measures filled the commission's chambers prior to the vote. Congratulations to my home county!

Photo Of The Day

Nadine Smith of Equality Florida handed the president a photo during Tuesday's LGBT Pride Month reception at the White House. The accompanying letter read:

Dear Mr. President,

Thank you for the invitation to join you for the White House LGBT Pride Reception. On behalf of the 131,000 households that support the work of Equality Florida and all fair-minded Americans I ask you to please lend your voice to ending a law that literally tears families apart. Every Wednesday for almost a year these two boys wonder if the court will decide to let them be adopted by their foster dad of over 5 years or whether they will be torn from their home and likely separated. Florida is the only state with a statute that specifically bans gay people from adopting but already anti-gay groups are preparing to launch a ballot measure to make this devastating discrimination part of the state constitution. We must end this now in Florida or we will see it on the ballot state after state.

Sincerely
Nadine Smith
Executive Director
Equality Florida

Tampa Tribune Slams Bill McCollum

Florida's newspapers are continuing to slam Attorney General Bill McCollum over the George Rekers scandal. From an editorial in today's Tampa Tribune written by Equality Florida's Nadine Smith:

In McCollum's first statements he stood by his discredited witness, even as right wing organizations were scrubbing Rekers from their websites. As scrutiny of his financial dealings with Rekers deepen, he is scrambling to distance himself. Just as in Florida, Rekers billed the Arkansas Department of Health and Human Services more than twice his $60,000 retainer. But here's the difference: Arkansas stood up to him, took him to court and ended up paying only what they'd agreed to initially. Why did McCollum pay without question and without requiring any documentation from Rekers of what the extra charges covered? Why was he so eager to hire a discredited witness at an unprecedented cost in the first place? It is time for a full investigation. We have a right to know if taxpayer money was distributed improperly, perhaps even fraudulently. It's time for McCollum to come clean.

Thanks to you, McCollum no longer allows wall postings on his Facebook campaign page, but you still get in your shots in the comments.

Palm Beach Post Questions Bill McCollum Over Rekers Recommendation

Equality Florida's Nadine Smith tips us to the below Palm Beach Post grilling of Attorney General Bill McCollum over his backing of Dr. George Rekers as the state's "expert witness" in their bid to maintain a ban on gay adoption. Smith says she is having their legal team investigate the possibility of compelling the state to sue Rekers to force him to return his $120,000 fee.

How George Rekers Was Paid $120K

My pal Steve Rothaus at the Miami Herald breaks down how Dr. George Rekers ended up with twice what the state agreed to pay him for his "expert testimony."

Anti-gay psychologist George Rekers charged Florida $300 an hour to testify as an expert witness in a trial defending Florida’s ban on gay people adopting. The state planned to cap Rekers' fee at $60,900 -- but paid him $120,693 after he exceeded his contracted hours. "It is not unusual for estimated costs to require adjustment during the course of trial preparation," said Sandi Copes, communications director for the Florida Attorney General's Office. Copes said the extra hours were not agreed to in writing, but "merely by discussion." "A total of 402.31 hours was submitted for payment by invoice attached. Of the 402.31 hours, 203 was paid by Direct Order," according to a 2009 state settlement agreement. ‘‘We accept responsibility for not obtaining a written document for the 199.31 remaining hours. However, the monies are legally due."

And here's the breakdown of those billed hours.

• $27,000 (90 hours) to "evaluate and critique'' new research.
• $5,400 (18 hours) to meet with staff at the Attorney General's Office to prepare for deposition.
• $6,000 (20 hours) to standby at trial and deliver expert academic opinions.

Equality Florida's Nadine Smith says Rekers should return the money, adding: "Rekers is part of a small cadre of bogus pseudo scientists that charge these exorbitant fees to peddle information they know has been discredited time and time again. And people like McCollum will pay top dollar for it."

National And State LGBT Organizations Step Up To Protect Rekers' Rentboy

An impressive group of state and national LGBT organizations have expressed their support for Jo-Vanni Roman, the Miami rentboy caught in the middle of the best/worst scandal to hit the anti-gay political machine in years. The above listed organizations and other skilled Florida-based professionals have all indicated their willingness to step in with their widely varied areas of expertise, should the situation become appropriate for their involvement. The leaders of these organizations have agreed to lend their names to this show of solidarity by the nation's LGBT community.

Equality Florida: Nadine Smith, Executive Director
National Center for Lesbian Rights: Kate Kendall, Executive Director
Norm Kent: Civil Rights Attorney, Publisher and Editor, South Florida Gay News
Truth Wins Out: Wayne Besen, Executive Director
The Trevor Project: Charles Robbins, Executive Director
Lambda Legal: Gregory Nevins, Senior Staff Attorney, Southern Regional Office
Fifteen Minutes Publicity: Howard Bragman, Chairman

Noted Hollywood publicity agent Howard Bragman, who specializes in media crisis management, has volunteered to help Jo-Vanni Roman navigate the deluge of interview requests. They are scheduled to speak today. Florida-based attorney Ron Gunzburger has also made an offer of pro bono support, should the need arise. Other national and state organizations may be added to this list in the next few days.

Special thanks go out to Father Tony Adams, who worked as our point person in Florida on this effort. Of course, there is a hope that none of these esteemed groups will need to step in at all, but we MUST circle the wagons around this kid right now, lest our enemies sense that he is vulnerable to whatever repulsive plans they may have.

Thanks very much to all of the JMG readers who have contacted me with expressions of support, advice, and offers of money. We are trying to work through all of your emails and get back to every one of you. Later this week, we may create a PayPal account for young Jo-Vanni, should his financial situation become dire.

Today is a day to be proud of our people, I know I am.

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum Responds To Dr. George Rekers Scandal

I just got off the phone with Nadine Smith at Equality Florida who tells us that our campaign against Bill McCollum has finally forced him to acknowledge the Dr. George Rekers scandal. McCollum's press release:

As hired counsel for the Florida Department of Children and Families, our office is committed to providing our client with the best possible legal representation in this matter. Dr. Rekers, a professor emeritus from University of South Carolina and a neuropsychologist with a degree from UCLA, came to our attention by recommendation from another academic after an exhaustive search for potential expert witnesses who were willing to testify. Dr. Rekers had exceptional credentials and he had provided testimony in similar cases on two separate occasions, one of which was a Florida case in Federal Court. The contract was executed at the direction of the Department of Children and Families, and the ACLU did not object to his position as an expert at the hearing. He has completed his testimony and is no longer involved in this case.

Equality Florida has learned that amount of money paid by the state to Rekers is actually much higher than originally thought.

An online search of Florida vendors shows Rekers was paid roughly $120,000 and his co-hort Walter Schumm recieved an additional $36,000 in taxpayer money. McCollum's office also tried to downplay their relationship with Rekers, insisting that DCF paid him, ignoring the fact that the Attorney General's office prosecuted the case, defined the strategy and selected its witnesses. But was McCollum's attempt to shift focus to DCF more than a political sleight of hand? Was it simply a lie? The same records that show that Rekers was paid double what was originally reported, also show the agency responsible for the funds as "Office of Attorney General- Finance & Accounting."

Go to Equality Florida's petition demanding that McCollum apologize. Continue to rain down your outrage on McCollum's Facebook campaign page. Call out Bill McCollum for his LIE that this is the work of Florida's Department of Children and Families. And as Nadine Smith just said to me, "How can he think it's BETTER that people think this huge amount of money was ripped from the nearly destitute agency devoted to serving Florida's children?" We WILL hang the albatross known as Dr. George Rekers around Bill McCollum's turkey wattle.

Jo-Vanni Update

I've had a couple more phone conversations with Jo-Vanni today. He reports that his interview with CNN this morning "went pretty well," but that they gave him no indication when it will air. (I've emailed my contact at CNN to ask.) And they apparently will show him on camera.

In the meantime, I've got Father Tony working in Fort Lauderdale to put together a support team for Jo-Vanni. As I'm sure you all realize, there may be some pretty nasty people out to get him in some way or another. We've got a connection to one of South Florida's sharpest LGBT legal minds, but want to also make sure he's getting good advice on handling the deluge of media inquiries. And of course, the kid just needs some good old social support. None of us can be 100% confident we're getting the full story here, but until we know otherwise, we need to close ranks behind this kid and block any attempts by the Christian right to hurt him. South Florida readers, I welcome your emailed suggestions.