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Lauderdale NAACP, local pastors at odds over gay rights |
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Written by ELGIN JONES
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 Fort Lauderdale NAACP President Marsha Ellison and a group of black pastors took opposing sides at Fort Lauderdale City Hall this week on the issue of gay rights.
The dueling press conferences are the latest fallout from Mayor Jim Naugle’s recent criticism of gay sex in parks, public bathrooms and other public places in the city.
“All races are affected by AIDS – the young, the old, and a true leader seeks real problems and real solutions,” Ellison said on Wednesday, flanked by gay activists.
“The NAACP says this is not about AIDS, it is about his hate for the gay community and that’s why we’re here today,” said Ellison, who stood under a silk umbrella emblazoned in the rainbow colors of the gay community while the speakers she introduced made their cases.
A day earlier, on Tuesday, a predominantly black coalition of pastors met with Naugle at city hall, and held their own press conference to denounce gay sex.
“Broward County is on a collision course with Satan,” said Mathes Guice, an elder at Koinonia Worship Center, a black church based in Pembroke Park. “Christian men and women are going to have a revival here in Broward County because we cannot let sin prevail. We wholeheartedly support the mayor.”
The black pastors supported Naugle’s position during a closed-door session with the mayor and the press conference that followed. They vowed to do whatever it takes to fend off the campaign waged by gay activists against Naugle.
The pastors said their congregations would no longer stand idly by as the public debate – which began this summer – escalates.
“A lot of us were on vacation and were not totally aware of what was going on, but now we know,” said the Rev. Aaron Wiggins, pastor of Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Pompano Beach. “This will not stand and we will stop it by any means necessary, even if it means a boycott.”
The Rev. Dennis Grant, pastor of Restoration Ministries in Margate, agreed during the press conference.
“Being Christian doesn’t mean we have to lay down and be walked on and be trampled on,” Grant said. “If this is the first of it, then mayor, we are standing up with you.”
Some of the black pastors stressed that their support of Naugle was biblical and based on scripture, and has nothing to do with politics.
“This is not a bashing of the homosexuals,” said the Rev. O’Neal Dozier, pastor of the Worldwide Christian Center in Pompano Beach. “If you are going to quote this, please quote it that we are here to help the homosexuals and we’re here to help this mayor to maintain public decency and good health in this area.”
The issue began to unravel earlier this year after Naugle opposed a homosexual library that includes explicit pornographic magazines, book titles and videos, in a taxpayer-funded building.
A short time later, he expressed interest in having the city purchase a $250,000, single-occupancy toilet for the beach area to reduce gay sex in bathrooms there.
Naugle said the new toilet might also help reduce the number of AIDS cases in the county. Broward leads the nation in AIDS cases stemming from men having sex with men, according to a recent study conducted by the state Health Department.
Naugle also expressed concern over the county tourism board’s marketing campaign to attract tourists to the area’s gay bathhouses.
Gay activists were outraged and demanded an apology. Naugle, however, responded by holding a press conference to apologize to families and parents for not having addressed the sex in public bathrooms and city parks sooner.
Incensed gay activists insist Naugle’s stance is discriminatory and based on indifference. They mounted a successful campaign to have him removed from the county’s tourism board.
This week, a day after local pastors met with, and expressed their support for Naugle, Ellison joined gay activists and clerics who support homosexual rights on the steps of city hall for a prayer vigil and rally to condemn the mayor.
The speakers included Archbishop Bruce Simpson of a Catholic sect called the Benedictine Order of St. John the Beloved. Simpson is also the author of several books, including one titled, The Gay Face of God.
Simpson’s organization is not affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church.
“I urge the people of Fort Lauderdale to shun the religious right, reject their message, and pull the plug on Mayor Naugle’s abuse of power and flush his political career down the toilet,” Simpson read from a prepared statement.
Ellison and others at the rally acknowledged Simpson’s remarks by applauding.
Ellison was the only member of the NAACP present for the event.
Some of the black pastors questioned the relevancy of the civil rights organization’s involvement in what they said is a moral issue.
“Based on the calls I’m getting, people are asking why is the NAACP presenting this as a civil rights issue, which it is not,” said Guice, a former vice president of the Fort Lauderdale NAACP and a life member of the organization. “[Ellison] has been confused into presenting it as a civil rights issue, when it is actually a spiritual and sin issue, and she is not capable of understanding the difference.”
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Photo by Elgin Jones/BT STAFF. Eric Jones, pictured at left in camouflage, the Rev. Dennis Grant, center, and the Rev. O’Neal Dozier, in suit and pink tie, join other ministers at
Fort Lauderdale city hall in defending Mayor Jim Naugle’s stance against gay sex in public places.
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