September 24, 2007
Ft. Lauderdale: “Hate Campaign Against Gays Launched By the Mayor” Says It All
Naugle’s anti-gay stance splits local blacks
Inside Fort Lauderdale City Hall, a contingent of gay white men squared off against black ministers this month, arguing over civil rights. …
“You didn’t have to drink from separate fountains. Our struggle is not the same … you can’t equate race and sexuality,” O’Neal Dozier, pastor of the Worldwide Christian Center, told one activist. “Slavery was not a choice.”
“Yours is a message of hate, minister … You don’t speak on behalf of freedom,” answered Michael Rajner of the Campaign to End AIDS, a nonprofit group.
Now the debate over gay rights threatens to drive a wedge between members of South Florida’s black community. Despite the support that many black ministers showed for Naugle, the local NAACP took a public stand against the mayor, calling his crusade a “hate campaign.”
“I’m not here to condone or condemn gay sex,” Marsha Ellison, head of the Broward NAACP, told The Miami Herald. “This is a hate campaign against gays launched by the mayor.”
She said the branch’s position — adopted after a unanimous vote of its 22-member executive committee as well as branch members — echoes the national NAACP’s position. ”Anytime any group is discriminated against it becomes a civil rights issue,” she said.
See also:
NAACP Call Mayor’s Remarks Against Gay Hateful
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Filed Under: Christianity, Florida, Hate Speech, Race/Ethnic Issues
