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County rushes vote to affirm hatred

The rally and press conference outside actually drew a hundred or more people. 5 or 6 county police officers were also milling around. I asked one if he saw the irony in the fact that the county seemed to be spending money to acknowledge gay pride simply by paying the officers to be there, thus violating their own ban. He declined to comment.

County quashes gay issue

Hillsborough commissioners touched off a tempest last month when, without discussion, they distanced themselves from gay pride events.

Wednesday, again without discussion, they quashed an effort to revisit the issue.

And they did so out of agenda order, while scores who showed up to speak on the issue were temporarily distracted by a gay rights rally outside.

Nadine Smith, leader of a gay and lesbian rights group, called the silent vote disrespectful, evidence that commissioners know their position is indefensible.

"There is victory in your silence," said Smith, executive director of Equality Florida, in addressing commissioners at the end of the meeting. "I think your silence comes from an inability to justify what you have done."

Commission Chairman Jim Norman said he decided to consider the issue out of order because County Center officers worried about their ability to keep the building secure with so many people lingering. The vote came shortly after the 10 a.m. gay rights rally began, not later in the day, as the agenda placement suggested.

"I did not want any at-risk situations to occur," Norman said. "I'm always going to put public safety before other issues."

It was an unusual step for a commission accustomed to drawing large crowds eager to weigh in on contentious issues. The commission has entertained standing-room-only crowds repeatedly in recent years, often setting up chairs in the County Center library to accommodate the overflow.

There were no chairs set up Wednesday.

The crowd came after commissioners received a request from the president of the Friends of the Library of Tampa-Hillsborough County Inc., who asked the board to review a June 15 vote banning gay pride acknowledgment by county government. That 5-1 vote, led by Commissioner Ronda Storms, followed a published account about the removal of a gay pride display at West Gate Regional Library.

Friends of the Library president Karen McClure called it "disturbing" that the board would "cease to acknowledge ideas of a segment of our community."

Expecting the issue to come up later in the meeting, even McClure arrived after commissioners dispensed with it.

As was the case last month, Kathy Castor was the lone vote of dissent when the rest of the board voted simply to "receive and file" McClure's letter without debate.
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Wednesday's meeting drew a crowd that filled nearly every seat in the chambers, with another 40 or so people protesting outside the building.

The meeting opened, as usual, with 45 minutes for public comment on agenda items. Perhaps a dozen or more were able to speak, a fraction of those who signed up, most protesting the commission's position.
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The crowd left the room, many planning to return to hear discussion of McClure's request.

Outside, Bart Birdsall, a Greco Middle School librarian who is gay, used a bullhorn to read from books on a gay pride display that was taken down at the West Gate Library. As Birdsall read, about a dozen people carrying rainbow flags and antiban signs marched in a circle around him.

Smith, of Equality Florida, was among them.

"This is about singling out a group of people for discrimination and putting the county's seal of approval on that discrimination," she told the crowd.

Wearing a name tag that read "Human Being," she asked business owners who disagree with the county ban to place signs in their windows to let patrons know they support diversity.

Instead of a boycott, she advocated a "buycott," directing spending at gay-friendly businesses.

Equality Florida plans to post a list of those establishments on the Web site www.buycottfl.org "Nationwide, people are already calling to boycott this area," said Michael Brill, president of the Tampa Bay Business Guild.

Local business owners, who had signed up to speak to commissioners but didn't get a chance, spoke to the crowd outside.
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Upstairs, inside their nearly empty chambers, commissioners quietly accepted McClure's letter.

That's right: Hillsborough County's version of democracy includes severely limiting public comment and holding sneaky votes to avoid debate over a policy that may well be illegal under a Florida statute designed to protect libraries from moralizing politicians.

Commissioner Kathy Castor, the only member to vote against the ban, opened the door for the board to ditch the policy. She said the board violated state statutes with the ban. That's because it prompted the director of the county library system to strip displays of gay-authored books, even though it didn't specifically target libraries, Castor said.

She quoted Florida statutes, approved in 1984, that created a volunteer library advisory board and gave it sole authority to select books and make its own policies.

Interruption of that process requires filing a grievance to the panel, the statute states. Commissioners do have leeway to change library rules, but only upon recommendation by the county administrator, the statute states.

Because the county did not follow that procedure, the policy is not valid, Castor told commissioners. County Attorney Renee Lee did not return calls seeking an official interpretation of the 1984 statute.

Former Commissioner Jan Platt, who helped write the statute 20 years ago and is a member of the fundraising group Friends of the Library, agreed with Castor. The statute was intended to build a buffer between elected officials and libraries. It's crucial, she said, to take the authority to decide library content ``out of political hands.''

Without commenting, the board moved on to the rest of its agenda.