Fort Lauderdale approves homosexual library

Fort Lauderdale approves homosexual library
Mayor condemns plan for sexually oriented material on city site

Mayor Jim Naugle took another swipe at gays Tuesday, attacking a request that the Stonewall gay and lesbian book archive be housed on city property.

The tiff over the adult book collection brought to City Hall a war that started last week between Naugle and gays in the city. Naugle's comments about gays, published last week in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, touched off a fierce controversy. In recent days, e-mails spilled into City Hall demanding that Naugle be rebuked and that he publicly apologize.

Naugle was quoted saying he uses the term "homosexual" because gay people are "unhappy." He also said one reason he likes the city's recent proposal for a single-occupancy robotic toilet, which cleans itself and offers security features such as a time limit, is that it would help prevent men having sex with each other there, which he said is a problem in other public restrooms.

The timing of the Stonewall Library's request Tuesday provided a launching point for people on both sides of the mayor's toilet-related comments to sound off Tuesday.

Commissioners voted 3-2 to approve the Stonewall Library and Archives request to move the extensive book, magazine and video collection to ArtSpace library at Holiday Park. The county-run library is owned by the city.

Some of the titles on a list that city staff compiled: 100 Percent Beef, Arab Slave Boys, and Lesbian Bedtime Stories.

"I had no idea this was what the homosexual book collection was all about," Naugle said before the meeting, showing a pack of nude gay magazines that city staff said are part of the Stonewall collection.

"It's a shame it had to come out during this whole toilet controversy," he said. "They'll think it's some anti-gay thing — um, anti-homosexual."

Naugle and Commissioner Christine Teel voted against the request. Teel said it wasn't a smart financial move for the Stonewall collection, which will have to move again in 2009.

Commissioners Cindi Hutchinson and Charlotte Rodstrom told the crowd Tuesday that they wanted everyone to know they don't share the mayor's opinions about gays. And they said they look forward to seeing the book collection.

The Rev. O'Neal Dozier, an ultraconservative church leader who has made anti-gay comments in the past, showed up Tuesday to "speak for God." Dozier said he "loves the homosexual people" and considers them "precious."

"I have homosexuals in my church that are trying to get their lives straight," he said.

But, he said, "God is against homosexuals. OK, he's against the homosexual lifestyle. ... He destroyed two cities because of it."

Dozier ran out of time and had to sit down.

Former Commissioner Dean Trantalis, who is openly gay, spoke next.

"There's one thing I have to say. I agree with the reverend, I love homosexuals, too."

Trantalis said the collection is in cramped quarters on Andrews Avenue. Redevelopment is chasing the collection out. He asked commissioners to help.

"Reach into your hearts tonight and make this gay man a happy gay man," he said.

Naugle said Tuesday he's not going to apologize for his comments about gay sex in bathrooms, or gay people being unhappy. But he did say he was "impressed" with the number of "happy homosexuals" in his city.

"If I've learned one thing through this," he said, "it's that there are a lot of happy homosexuals in Fort Lauderdale."

Responding to the mayor's inflammatory comments from last week, gay activists scheduled a Town Hall meeting for 7:30 p.m. today at the Gay and Lesbian Community Center, 1717 N Andrews Ave., during the Dolphin Democrats meeting.