On March 15, 2005, I attended former Reagan UNESCO Ambassador ALAN KEYES' Nuremberg-style anti-Gay marriage hate rally, which the five all-white, all-Republican St. Johns County Commissioners voted to allow KEYES and his possible co-felons to hold, rent-free,
in our St. Johns County Convention Center at the World Golf Village.
Violating their contract with St. Johns County, Ambassador KEYES and his band of haughty haters:
- collected money (in KFC buckets);
- sold merchandise;
- did not open their event to the public, but required attendees have tickets from churches.
There was a massive SJSO presence at WGV, with multiple vehicles, an evidence van, and plain clothes detectives.
It evidenced Sheriff DAVID SHOAR's fascist tendencies, defending 600 KKK redneck peckerwoods against the possibility of First Amendment protected activity -- protests by GLBT people at our $16.9 million WGV County Convention Center.
When Ambassador KEYES stated that "The Pilgrim fathers had religious freedom in Holland, but still they came to America," asking why? I responded, "To steal the land!"
That night, just before crossing the Bridge of Lions, inspired by hateful ALAN KEYES' performance -- and our corrupt St. Johns County Sheriff's office'd anti-Gay bigotry, -- I made a promise.
I announced that we were finally going to get Rainbow flags on the Bridge of Lions -- an idea first suggested by Jason Ralph in 2003, with City Commissioners treating GLBT people disdainfully, disrespectfully and diffidently in 2003 and 2004.
Some were fired by bigoted employers after "coming out" on television.
I watched from the comfort of our home.
But after the 2005 Nuremberg-style hate rally, I was well-motivated.
Yes, on the way home, crossing the Matanzas River, I told both Brian and our visiting friend Terry from Texas (a/k/a "Goober") that this was the year we would get Rainbow flags on the Bridge of Lions.
So we did.
The next day, I started the historical research and lawyer recruitment that helped St. Augustine's Gay Pride committee leaders to win a federal court order under the First Amendment requiring flying of Rainbow flags in honor of Gay Pride on our historic St. Augustine, Florida Bridge of Lions in 2005 (a First Amendment victory that was achieved by showing GLBTQ history, including the 1566 order of a Gay French interpreter of the Guale Indian language on orders of our City's founder, because the translator was a “Sodomite and a Lutheran” in an intimate relationship with the son of the cacique (chief). Read more on our American journey on Gay rights here.
The June 8, 2005 U.S. District Court victory on Rainbow flags on our historic Bridge of Lions was the first of some seventy (70) public interest victories here in St. Johns County.
As Ronald Reagan would say, "You ain't seen nothin' yet."
As Thomas Jefferson wrote "I have sworn upon the altar of Almighty God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind" of humankind.
Footnote: I give Ambassador KEYES credit for two things: he spoke in complete paragraphs and sentences, and he knew the words and could sing our National Anthems, which most of the knuckle-dragging KKK sympathizing attendees at KEYES hate rally did not know.
KEYES had recently disowned his own daughter for being a Lesbian.
What a maniacal jerk.
Postscript: In 2004, ALAN KEYES was defeated for U.S. Senate by Barack Obama, by margin of 70-27%, KEYS ran as a proverbial "sacrificial lamb" after disgraced Republican nominee John Clemens "Jack" Ryan (born October 6, 1959), kinky former Goldman Sachs investment banker, dropped out of the race amidst his wife's allegations in court records about his sex club antics. KEYES was a "carpetbagger" as well as a hater, trounced by our future President.
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