Just before 11 pm last night came word of the latest victory for equality -- a federal judge struck down Virginia's anti-Gay marriage laws and constitutional amendment.
Happy Valentine's Day.
Both St. Augustine and St. Augustine Beach have adopted GLBT rights ordinances, unanimously: we await St. Johns County government's very consertative Republican burghers ackonwledging our right to exist.
Fueled by campaigns of hate from the likes of RANDY COVINGTON (see below), that might prove to be a long wait.
But St. Augustine and St. Augustine Beach are today islands of acceptance in Northeast Florida, where Jacksonville's Mayor would not lift a finger to support GLBT rights before its City Council in 2012, leading to rejection by bigots.
St. Augustine is different.
St. Augustine is becoming cooler and more hip, moving from cruel (in 1964) to cool (now).
In fact, there was spontaneous applause at the St. Augustine City Commission last year, from wedding businesspeople, when I spoke in favor of Gay marriage (as they sought and won the right for wedding couples and others to imbibe champagne on horse-drawn carriages).
I wrote the first article on Gay marriage for an American Bar Association publication (Human Rights) in 1991, after winning settement in the case of Rinde v. Woodward & Lothrop, which brought equal discount benefits to employees at 30 Woodies and John Wanamaker stores in six states and Washington, D.C. Woodies was persauded bigotry was bad for business, as boycotts were threatened by the National Organization for Women (NOW), and Gay and progressive groups. Woodies' discount incrased its profits, as all discounts do -- people spend more money.
I predict that, as a result of a pending Equality Florida federal court case in South Florida, there will soon be romantic Gay and Lesbian weddings right here in St. Augustine, the wedding capital of Florida.
The anti-Gay marriage amendment in Florida is bad for business. Gay and Lesbian people are going elsewhere for destination weddings -- as far away as Hawaii.
As the Woodward & Lothrop case proved, bigotry is bad for business. Corporate America knows that. They supported the Supreme Court's Windsor decision last year.
Yet Gay marriage in Florida is illegal now. Why?
Braying organized Gay-bashing bigots' fear and smear. Fulminating fascists, supported by opportunistic then-Governor Charles Crist, Florida's antedeluvian anti-Gay marriage constitutional amendment was adopted in 2006 (like Virginia's), to protect the "sanctity" of marriage. This gooberishness was accomplished amidst a hateful, falsehood-festooned anti-Gay campaign so choked with money that it even sent hate mail to at least one dead dog.
Now running for Governor as a Democrat, the corporativist Mr. Crist has since apologzed for his Gay-bashing Philistinism, but I still don't trust him.
Do you?
Nor do I trust our St. Johns County Visitor and Convention Bureau, Inc., whose tired putative leaders refuse to advertise in Miami, to youth, or to GLBT markets, even though its MMGY consultant, Dr. Peter Yesawich, Ph.D.,, said GLBT people are 5% of the tourism market and more of "the spend."
SJC VCB's illegal, unethical no-bid contract expired last year. It still refuses to cooperate in response to Open Records requests. VCB still refuses to provide a list of Gay-friendly lodgings.
Why?
We are waiting for the County to re-bid the contract, and to take bed tax money squandered on advertising in Reader's Digest and Better Homes and Gardens and spend it wisely -- on a new St. Augustine Beach Pier, a private partnership with city, state and federal governments, embracing a new Key International Embassy Suites Hotel and a local verson of Seattle's Pike Plae Market, complete with a farmer's market, fishing, crafts and a small business incubator.
The price for VCB's anti-Gay, anti-youth and racist bigotry must be sunsetting VCB.
VCB Founder Virginia Whetstone infamously said that VCB should not advertise for college student tourists, and that St. George Street stores should all close at 6 PM because of her odd fear of "crime."
The only crime wave I am aware of here in St. Augustine, Florida is white collar crme, including possible wage theft and possible VCB and member antitrust and civil rights violations, for which VCB must answer to the Justice Department.
Few African-Americans are employed on St. George Street, while artists and entertainnnr stll being threatened by police. Can't you just feel the love?
Enough.
Meanwhile, Happy Valentine's Day.
Gay Marriage is becoming a reality, as I hesitated to predict in my 1991 ABA Human Rights article.
Yes, Virginia, this one's for you, too!
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