Curry Hazouri Boyer and The HRO.

The failure to pass the HRO in 2012 was a major issue in the recent mayoral elections, with many people crediting Alvin Brown's razor thin loss directly to his failure to support the legislation. During January, the question of whether or not Jacksonville would remain the sole large city in Florida not to pass a Human Rights Ordinance heated up substantially.....

Published February 8, 2016 in Opinion - MetroJacksonville.com

Which is contrary to the stated wishes of the electorate in the last election, according to many observers of local politics.

The failure to pass an HRO wasn't just an issue in the Mayoral Race, it also made a major mark on the elections for City Council.

Demonbuster Kim Daniels, one of the most outspoken (and loony) voices on the Council (at one point she tried to conflate an HRO with necrophilia during an open Council meeting) lost her at-large-seat handily to the much more progressive Anna Brosche. Similarly, Robin Lumb's opposition (followed by his public commendation by the anti HRO church community) ---despite coming from one of the largest LGBT districts in the city ----also figured heavily into his failure to run for re election in his own at-large-district.

In the same election, Tommy Hazouri (also running for an at-large-seat) managed to get more votes than any other candidate for Council in the city in his race against arch-evangelical and HRO foe, Geoff Youngblood, and one of the dominant issues was LGBT rights.

The only district race pitting a progressive candidate against a conservative evangelical in which the conservative evangelical won was a district seat: Al Ferraro vs Lisa King--and passage of the HRO was simply not an issue in that campaign.

But nowhere was the issue more pronounced than in the Mayoral Campaign. Alvin Brown's campaign was gut punched by LGBT and Republican criticism of his non support of the HRO. Despite the fact that the Mayor cannot make laws and the obstructionist Council never passed an ordinance. Merely the fact that he did not speak out in public in favor of equality was the petard on which his campaign was hoisted. The inherent irony of blaming him for not passing a law which he was constitutionally unable to create was compounded by the fact that the primary criticism against Brown came from his Republican opponent, Bill Bishop. Bishop, naturally, had been the Council President during the failure of the HRO and as the presiding officer, bore direct responsibility for the outcome of that body's handling of the issue.

This did not stop Curry supporters from flooding social media, campaign events and public debates with criticism of the authentically homophobic Mayor Brown. Bolstered by active negative campaigning by HRO activists like Jimmy Midyette and Keri Kidder, the public perception became increasingly hostile to Alvin Brown. Bishop and Midyette ended up reversing themselves and endorsing the former (still homophobic) mayor, but the damage had already been done. The direct result of the niche campaigning was his historic loss to Lenny Curry.

Considering, that non passage of the legislation had been such a pervasive campaign issue, it seemed a simple and uncontroversial path to passage of the ordinance. Unsurprisingly, legislation was quickly reintroduced after the new Council was seated and the process was initiated to complete what many considered a long overdue leftover issue from the Brown years.

But things did not settle down, nor did they become less sensational.

In fact, events have became even more ludicrous over the last few months----largely through the efforts of Mayor Curry, who personally invited some of the country's most provocative and clownish players on the issue of gay rights into our local process of considering the HRO. Opening the door, so to speak, to some of the most notorious snake oil salesmen available to cloud and complicate what should have been a clearcut, non controversial issue.

Despite the Mayor's constitutional role in administering (not creating) the laws passed by Council, the Mayor announced a program of 'community hearings' to decide how he would weigh in on the proposed legislation.

It should have been clear from the beginning that the Mayor was--at the most favorable--unserious.

The community hearings took the format of panel discussions in public forums, in which the public was invited to participate in Q&A.

The first evidence of another agenda being enacted became evident in his choice of panelists. Jacksonville is a major city in the United States, the 13th largest in fact. In our city limits there are over 800k people and in our metro area more than a million. Despite having access to more than a million residents or adjacent citizens to choose from, the mayor curiously asked several out of state players to participate as his representatives in the discussion.

Roger Gannam and his client, Kim Davis

Enter Roger Gannam

At first blush, the most controversial of these was Roger Gannam, a fringe movement attorney attached to the Liberty Counsel (labelled an official hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center) was...odd. Gannam was fresh from gaining infamy for his involvement in the Kim Davis case in Kentucky, during which (incredibly) his group advised Ms. Davis to ignore and disobey rulings from both the Supreme Court of the United States, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky and the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Davis_(county_clerk)

Gannam's (expensive) legal advice to Ms. Davis to basically ignore the rule of law, making the rather pedestrian Clerk of a County Court into one of the nation's most notorious scofflaw--and his advice was predictably disastrous. Ms. Davis was jailed, and eventually released under strict orders to cease and desist in her campaign to nullify the laws of the United States based on legal advice from Gannam's Liberty Counsel. Gannam left Kim Davis' side at Curry's invitation. Insiders maintain that Gannam's close relationship with former Councilman Robin Lumb is why Mayor Curry picked him.

What made the odd appointment of Mr. Gannam (who has family ties to Jacksonville) even more questionable was the timing of the appointment in connection with the overturning of Houston's HRO, November 3rd of last year. Consider how the webpage of the Florida Family Council's legislative webpage frames the Jacksonville HRO as part of their national effort to fight against the LGBT community:
http://floridafamilyaction.org/2015/12/04/jaxhro/

On the site's official webpage, they tie their attention (and inevitably, their resources) to Jacksonville immediately after their successful campaign in Houston (Florida's group is itself an affiliate of Focus on the Family), more importantly they link to a related New York Times article naming Gannam as their player on the ground here in Jacksonville.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/29/us/after-a-defeat-in-houston-the-fight-for-gay-rights-shifts-to-jacksonville.html?_r=0
If Christian conservatives are not as well organized here as they were in Houston, they soon would be, Mr. Gannam said in an interview. He helped lead the opposition that defeated a similar effort in Jacksonville in 2012, and is now working with a coalition of pastors and conservative groups, including the Florida Family Policy Council, a statewide group affiliated with Focus on the Family.

Gannam was invited by Mayor Curry as a panelist on two of the three community discussions. The question as to why the Mayor would appoint an out of town, highly controversial, radical activist in the national anti LGBT community was asked repeatedly by Jacksonville media, including Florida Politics, Folioweekly and CityXXtra magazine. When he was appointed to a second panel, LGBT activists like Karrissa Wade began to cry foul.

Bishop Elect, Ken Adkins

All but unnoticed at the time, however, Curry appointed an even more strident anti LGBT panelist: a highly questionable misadventuring 'Bishop Elect' from Brunswick Georgia, Kenneth Adkins. Also not part of the Jacksonville community, Adkins clownish and highly offensive behavior would end up causing a scandal when he posted photos online of Councilman Tommy Hazouri doctored into gay porn and of him peeking over the top of bathroom stalls at very young boys using the bathroom. Subsequent digging into Adkins' background made many question the Mayor's judgement in having appointed him in the first place. For a more detailed account of the shenanigans, fraudsterism and hijinks, click here:

The Panels, predictably, were circuses, and basically served to provide a platform for the talking points of the two hate groups (Liberty Council and Focus on the Family) represented by Roger Gannam.

City Councilman Bill Gulliford

Competing HRO Bills Introduced

The moment they were over, Bill Gulliford filed legislation to circumvent the council from having to pass an HRO, setting instead for a public referendum. Councilman Tommy Hazouri immediately filed a counter bill to expand the HRO to include gender identity and be taken up by the Council rather than go to referendum.

Which presented a bit of a quandary.

On January 6, City Council President Greg Anderson released his plan to deal with the competing HRO bills that had been filed. He formed a "Committee of the Whole", which would consist of three special meetings in which all 19 council members are expected to participate. These special meetings were scheduled for February 4, February 18, and March 3rd. This seemed to be satisfactory to all sides

However things went far afield of satisfactory during the next regular Council Meeting as both sides of the HRO showed up in numbers to show support for their cause. During an extraordinary moment, an employee of Evangel Temple, the home church of Pastor Gary Wiggins (one of the primary organizers of the anti HRO effort) stood up for a galvanizing five minutes, during which he claimed to have been a child predator who had committed multiple instances of Child Molestation in bathrooms. The church employee, Roy Bay, explained that allowing transgendered people to use the bathrooms of their choice would enable and normalize child molesters like himself. "And I was never caught', he electrifyingly informed the crowd.

See for yourself in the video below:

Roy Bay's Testimony before City Council.

The Roy Bay Child Molestation claims followed so closely by the politics of posting bizarre child based semi pornographic images by Pastor Adkins were shocking and galvanizing to the community. A hunt for possible victims was initiated, Bay left town, Adkins was disgraced in local politics. But the narrative which tried to recast the issue as an ordinance concerning mostly the bathroom had commenced.

The city was glued to the ensuing controversy for the next few weeks, with pastors threatening to demand that the HRO be put up for approval at referendum.

In a Friday Afternoon news dump, on January 29th, with six days before the first Council Meeting was supposed to convene, Mayor Curry decided to make his move. He issued a statement that the city would apply the new Federal Guidelines in its hiring practices (a move which includes all city approved vendors) requiring anyone who works for the city to have non discrimination policies in place. He ended the statement with his opinion that passing an HRO wouldn't be 'prudent', and announced his intention instead to work on Pension Reform.

NEXT: HOW THE NEWS LANDED WITH EVANGELICALS AND THE ARRIVAL OF THE NATIONAL ANTI LGBT INDUSTRY

As it happened, that particular Friday, this reporter was covering the annual Pastor's Conference at First Baptist. It is an event which draws thousands of evangelical pastors every year for four days of discussion and focusing on the task of pastoring churches across the country. Collectively, the attendees represent millions of church goers in their congregations. The news that the Jacksonville Mayor had spoken against a Human Rights Ordinance protecting LGBT citizens happened on the second day of the Conference, and despite the fact that Jacksonville was figuratively ground zero for the Evangelical leadership of the United States the story barely caused a ripple. Throughout the course of the next few days, I overheard several mentions of the issue, and a couple of conversations. Two groups of pastors thought it was unchristian to deny housing and employment---as long as churches were exempt from the hiring provisions, and one group felt like it was a good sign of the moral compass of Jville. No one was passionate about it, there was no measurable enthusiasm.

Perhaps this is due to the growing general Evangelical distaste for politics, which is nowhere more evident than in the Pastor's Conference. The entire denomination has been in decline for a decade. Most troublingly, the evangelicals are being abandoned by millennial and centennials. In terms of church growth, evangelical analysts and leaders look to a key number to determine their effectiveness: Baptisms. Because they practice believer baptism (once you convert, one of the first steps is to publicly confess your conversion and be baptized) this number reflects the number of new converts. And that number is very, very troubling in one all important demographicAccording to Christianity Today:

In last year's Annual Church Profile, 60 percent of the more than 46,000 churches in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) reported no youth baptisms (ages 12 to 17) in 2012, and 80 percent reported only one or zero baptisms among young adults (ages 18 to 29).

For any organization with hopes of future viability, these kinds of numbers are frankly appalling. Millennial and Centennial generations are not responding to the hybrid of politics and religion that attracted their parents and grandparents. They have multiple sources of data and information, and declining resources for helping manage their personal lives. Churches across the country have been slowly course correcting to get back to the basics of dogma and personal involvement with their congregations. Given the political radicalization of the old religious right campaigners and the optics of people like Roger Gannam actively encouraging a Court Clerk to flout the Supreme Court (and then lose), younger generations simply do not respond to 20th century style politics. At places like the Conference, you can literally see this fact reshaping the way that the churches relate to the world around them.

Perhaps this is why the news of Curry's stance on the HRO didn't really land at a gathering that would have welcomed and cheered the news just a decade earlier.

Chevarra Orrin at a recent Tedx Talk

However it did land in the LGBT community. Many politically aware people were angry at the Mayor, and then puzzled by the servile reception of Equality Jacksonville, which greeted the Mayor's attempt to stifle the HRO as a victory of all things. The Mayor's decision to comply with Federal hiring practices, they announced, was a step forward. Whether or not they intended to, it gave the new mayor cover for not supporting the HRO that was not extended to the previous Mayor. At a fundraising party at the gracious springfield estate of Chevarra Orrin, Tommy gave an impassioned and fiery pledge to continue supporting equality, and to reintroduce the bill as many times as it took to get it passed.

Tommy Hazouri

But the main group organizing for the HRO declined to make any public statements encouraging the same amount of passion from LGBT community members.The group published a blog post/press release claiming that the mayor had 'stood up' for equality. The way the release was written, it would be very easy to think that the Mayor had basically passed non discrimination for Jacksonville with a few loose ends to tidy up: Keep in mind that the following was issued by the organization fighting for Equality. Not the Mayor's Public Relations Office.

Mayor Curry’s Executive Order prohibits discrimination in the City of Jacksonville based on sexual orientation, gender identity and expression. The order will cover employment by the city and will require contractors to also have policies in place. This is an important step and a clear recognition of the need to protect LGBT people in Jacksonville, by requiring the same level of protection in employment as that provided by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). We are pleased that the Mayor has recognized the very real problem of discrimination in our City. We are heartened that Mayor Curry has taken the first step.

Mayor Curry has shown leadership on this issue after hearing directly from people in Jacksonville.

“The Mayor pledged to listen to the community and find a Jacksonville solution to the discrimination that those conversations revealed,” said Dan Merkan, chair, Jacksonville Coalition for Equality. “We thank Mayor Curry for keeping his word and for taking this important step in providing protections for those who work or do business with the city. Now we are focused on ensuring that those same protections extend to all who live and work and visit our city.”

“We will continue to support bill 2016-002, oppose the 2016-001 referendum bill, and work for full equality for all LGBT citizens of Jacksonville. Our City Council has been extremely professional in their handling of this important issue, and we will continue to work with our 19 members towards a successful conclusion to this process,” said Merkan.

Jacksonville City Councilman Jim Love, a Republican who represents District 14, also announced that he would be co-sponsoring 2016-002. Love is joining Councilmembers Tommy Hazouri (D) and Aaron Bowman (R) in co-sponsoring legislation that will create lasting protections that the LGBT community and businesses can count on for years to come.

In reality, the Executive Order (which can be repealed at any point the Mayor decides to change direction, either by himself or succeeding Mayors) merely complies with the newly written Federal Hiring Policy, which is fairly standard for any City of Jacksonville's size, dependent on Federal Funding---especially with so much military presence. While a symbolic and time consuming policy to implement, it doesn't protect anyone else in the city from being fired or evicted or refused service on the basis of sexual orientation-----the entire point of the Human Rights Ordinance.

Curry didn't create any lasting change or protection for LGBT residents. He simply decided to mollify a group whose disaffection with Alvin Brown helped him to narrowly win an election.

Enter Barronelle Stutzman and the Anti Gay Industry

Meanwhile, during the week of Mayor Curry's announcement, fliers and emailed invitations began circulating that a special meeting was being convened for pastors wanting to oppose the HRO bill. The person doing the inviting was former City Council President, Ginger Soud (whose husband, A.C. Soud is a well known judge made famous by Matt Taibi's coverage of the "Rocket Docket" for Rolling Stone Magazine) a prominent political Baptist. The meeting was to be held Thursday, followed by a press conference immediately prior to the first of President Anderson's Committees of the Whole.

This reporter attended the press conference at First Baptist (who did not organize or sponsor the group, and is a separate, though sympathetic organization from the Florida Family Policy group) He did not however, attend the meeting as it required that one sign a loyalty oath to defeating the HRO. And while a better snoop would have just signed the damn statement and cynically attended, it seemed like the wrong thing to do.

There were very many well meaning wonderful people in the room who showed up in response to the same rapist in the bathroom warnings that had been deployed by Ken Adkins smear campaign two weeks earlier. Then there were the organizers. Ginger Soud is truly a delightful and competent no nonsense kind of lady. She is also from an older generation and standing where one might expect her to stand. Which was also another important point to realize about the pastoral support on this issue. In a group of 140 pastors, there were exactly five people in the group under the age of 30. The lions share of the men gathered were well past fifty.

The showpiece speaker of the Press Conference was Barronelle Stutzman, the Washington State florist who refused to create flower arrangements for a gay friend and was subsequently fined 1,000 dollars and privately sued for discrimination. Barronelle's story has been covered extensively by the national press, and her presentation here in Jacksonville was convincingly maudlin. For her Faith, we were informed, she had been called names, vilified, and was facing financial ruin with a hundred thousand dollars at stake.

Left out of her presentation was the 174 thousand dollars that she raised on GoFundMe, and the money she's making as a speaker on the lecture tour. When asked about how Ms. Stutzman had racked up 100k in damages, her attorney explained that they were legal fees.

"So...Your fees?" this reporter asked. The attorney nodded yes and then smoothly re-estimated her client's damages significantly upward to a potential Million Dollars in costs.

In response to our question about whether or not Ms. Stutzman was being paid for her appearance in Jacksonville, her attorney flat out said 'No'.

We then listened to about 30 minutes of thunderation about the 'bathroom ordinance' and the dangers of mixing sexual predators with defenseless women in bathrooms.

At the front of the lectern was a stack about four feet tall of papers. It consisted of thousands of signed petitions to repeal any Human Rights Ordinance which might pass council. We were not given any proof that the petitions were all signed, or certified or anything else.

And so the entire alliance of pastors, lawyers and agenda crusaders announced the formation of the official effort to block any attempt at passing an HRO. All sewn together by the common thread of Roger Gannam and the Radical Extremists of the so called "Liberty Counsel". Mayor Curry's appointee to the very panels which were to help the city arrive at a fair outcome for one of the most important issues of the last election.

Surprisingly, the group of pastors claimed that they were not going to seek to force a referendum to pass the HRO. Only to repeal it.

Turns out that they might not have even bothered. What happened next was a surprise to everyone.

The Committee of the whole began with the opening arguments of the two bills: One seeking to pass the Human Rights Ordinance by a vote of the City Council, and the other seeking to evade the responsibility and let the city be consumed with a referendum on the Ordinance. The two sides finished their opening arguments after about an hour, and before the floor could be opened to public commentary, Councilwoman Lori Boyer recommended that Tommy Hazouri's Bill be removed from the agenda entirely.

But the debate did not go as expected.

Despite repeating the same talking points publshed by the local Equality group (Mayor Curry had already taken an 'important step forward', therefore the HRO could wait to see how that went first) and reasoning that the council had more important things to do, very worthwhile speeches from the military men on the Council gave a heartfelt warning that the issue was important to the armed forces as well (at least as important a constituency as the politicized evangelicals) Also it was clear that the African American council representatives were not going to walk away from an issue of Civil Rights. The vote to remove the bills altogether came down in the picture below:

http://jaxgay.com/news/an-attempt-to-kill-hro-bill-2016002-fails

After the Committee of the whole (with an hour wasted on the attempt to withdraw Hazouri's Bill) had completed, the slick, well oiled group of Roger Gamman, Liberty Council, Barronelle Stutzman, her attorneys and the Focus on the Family affiliated group departed for the return trip back to Orlando.

Its clear that the city is being set up for a re enactment of the campaign that the identical players waged in Houston.

Here is a foretaste of whats to come.

Houston Campaign disseminated by the same team of anti LGBT activists invited to Jacksonville's conversation by Mayor Curry.

Stephen Dare

This article can be found at: http://dev.metrojacksonville.com/article/2016-feb-curry-hazouri-boyer-and-the-hro