Teach Your Children Hell: Kemple Leads School Board Money Chase
A divorced family man who believes that teachers should have the academic freedom to bring God into the classroom but that they should never, ever, be allowed to mention the theory of contraception, is vying to fill one of the 7 positions on the Hillsborough County School Board, a group which is responsible for overseeing the 11th largest School District in the US.
District 6 candidate Terry Kemple was born to dirty fucking hippie parents and quickly fell prey to the evil secular elements of society - a society which forced him to choose to make himself a slave!
He continues...
And asks:
By the early 1980's, Kemple had evolved into a weak, drunken godless shell of a human being, but his pickled brain nonetheless made him a legend in his mind as he purposelessly motored the Northeast on boozy two-wheeled excursions, occasionally threatening his minor offspring with "a ride to Pennsylvania."
Kemple reinvented himself in the mid '80s. He was an alcoholic, divorced, separated from his daughters for 10 years. He would come by on his motorcycle to see the kids in Connecticut. He would say crazy things like, "Let's take a ride to Pennsylvania."...
In 1986, Kemple paid a visit to his oldest brother, Morry, headmaster of a Christian school in Jacksonville. He went to a tent revival on Sunday with Morry's family.
The star speaker was Tim Lee, the famous evangelist who had lost both his legs in Vietnam. Like Kemple, Lee had been rebellious, godless....
In the revival tent, Kemple felt overwhelmed. Tim Lee had lost his legs. He had lost his children. He went back that night to hear Lee tell the story again.
Kemple told brother Morry he wanted to change. Morry urged him to get started. "Find a church that preaches the Bible." Kemple lived just a few blocks from Bell Shoals Baptist Church. First thing he did was join the Bible class for singles.
First, Kemple leveraged Bible verses to convince his new church lady girlfriend to get a divorce. Then they married and Terry leveraged his shiny new Jesus-loving family-man cred to take on some of the most pressing issues of our times.
He has made the protection of children his mission. He has hosted sexual abstinence rallies for thousands of teenagers, lobbied for right-to-life laws, declared war on lap dancing. He cruises Christian Web sites. He collects evidence of God's banishment from classrooms, of pornographers' subversion of the First Amendment.
Kemple articulates an absolutist view — that homosexuals are stealing children from Christians by indoctrinating the young to gay lifestyles. He calls it the "homosexual agenda." Gay marriages pose the biggest threat of all.
Recently, Kemple has fought to give teachers the Academic Freedom to refute the Darwinist lies that are taught as "Biology," and he was a big part of the successful Florida campaign to deny the homosexuals their perverted marriage agenda item. Oh, and he wants kids to be taught abstinence only. In elementary school AND in college.
And how does that play out in the arena of sex education in public schools?
One of the things that's mentioned most frequently in the Bible is sexual immorality and how we are supposed to refrain from it. Much of the education that our kids get today... encourages them to become sexually involved at earlier and earlier ages....I'm old enough to remember when we weren't encouraged to have sex in school, and we didn't have sex.
So are you saying that schools are encouraging kids to have sex?
Yes....
So then I don't suppose you would agree with the proposed legislation called the Healthy Teens Act that would require school districts to emphasize abstinence while teaching students how to protect themselves from disease and pregnancy?
No....
So you're advocating abstinence only sex education for college students?
Why not? We need to turn that group around and give them some inducement not to be sexually active.
I'm not actually old enough to remember when we didn't have sex. If I ever do get that old, I hope that someone will shoot me.
The District 6 race is crowded, but only the top 2 vote getters in the 4-way non-partisan primary will advance to the November ballot. Incumbent April Griffin, backed by unions and other progressive groups, should be favored, but Kemple's church connections are proving to be lucrative.
Challenger Terry Kemple jumped to an early lead in campaign contributions, reporting $16,100 in April compared to $3,024 for incumbent April Griffin.
Griffin, 41, of Temple Terrace, is seeking her second term on the board and said she will report about $16,000 in contributions by the next deadline. Her donors include Iron Workers Local 397, the Hillsborough County Agricultural PAC, and retired principal Manuel Duran.
...Kemple, 63, of Brandon, president of the Christian-based Community Issues Council, said he has benefitted from the generosity of friends at church and in the community.
Kemple expects to report a total of $27,000 in contributions by the July 23 deadline.
Fifty-three of Kemple's 63 contributions are for $100 or more, and 20 are for $500 or more.
He received $300 from Orlando personal injury attorney John Stemberger, president of the conservative Florida Family Policy Council, whose interests tend to attract campaign money and votes, political analysts say.
Other top Kemple contributors include Bart Azzarelli of Dallas 1 Construction and Development in Thonotosassa; Mary Ott Wood of Plant City, president of Florida West Coast Credit Union; and 411 Communications of Tampa, a consulting firm whose clients have included Attorney General Bill McCollum and former U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez.
Griffin and Kemple will probably advance to the next round to face each other in November when Kemple's experience as an organizer combined with his notoriety and fundraising prowess among the local fundamentalist crowd could be enough to propel him to victory in a race that is off of most voters' radars.
He certainly has a fundraising advantage right now, and he seems to be going out of his way to appear reasonable to low knowledge voters - his official website is useless if you want to know anything about him. Luckily, some person has put together something a little more informative than the official Terry Kemple site.
But more important than making fun of him is supporting incumbent April Griffin.
The other side has been very successful in organizing to win local down ballot races such as this one for School Board. They know how important these positions really are, and they are praying to win.
Spread the word about Terry Kemple: make sure voters in November know who they they are voting for and what their candidate stands for. Kemple's fundamentalist machine is going to turn out for him. We have to turn out voters for April Griffin.
Support April Griffin for Hillsborough County School Board District 6.
And click through to this site to learn a lot more about Terry Kemple.
A quick question
And then I'll return to my silent brooding.
Why is the County Attorney's office acting as Ronda Storms' personal Minitrue?
Storms does Bay Area proud
(Note: Yes, this is the post that I promised to put up yesterday. Yes, it is late. For those of you who have been waiting with baited breath, I apologize, and I will fully refund the cost of your subscription upon request.)
Howls of derision from the usual sources are accompanying Ronda Storms' (R – Homophoburbia) testing of the waters for a possible State Senate run. Call me crazy, but I, for one, think it's a great opportunity for the Tampa area.
Look, for the past few years, due to the hard work of Rep. Dennis Baxley, Ocala has been in the legislative limelight as Dennis' wise leadership has led to numerous widely noted initiatives.
It's time for the Bay Area to stand up and send our own Dennis Baxley to Tallahassee. With the experience Ronda has in Hillsborough County's political minor leagues, she should be able to hit the ground ranting and make an immediate impression state wide that will bring our area the widespread recognition that it deserves.
Patriot Baxley chairs the House Education Panel, and one of his top priorities has been to ensure that every classroom in Florida is equipped with a properly sized American flag. Some classrooms were actually displaying non-conforming flags and buying textbooks and computers with funds that could have been used for jingoistic displays. Baxley sponsored a bill that put an end to those questionable practices.
He also led the charge for the state to save poor Terri Schiavo's productive and meaningful life. Some people, such as Terri's evil husband, felt that Terri's stated wish to die should she ever find herself absent a functioning brain should be honored. Baxley knew better, and sponsored a bill explicitly designed to derail our society's 'culture of death.'
Speaking of death, Dennis' best known effort might be the 'Cracker Git Yer Gun' law which allows a citizen to legally shoot criminals and other brown skinned types who may seem to be a threat. This law was way overdue and replaces the much weaker castle doctrine. The castle doctrine is for pussies.
Baxley is also actively involved in an effort to reign in liberal college professors and protect vulnerable young fascists from having to engage in thought while attending institutions of higher education. See, those liberal professors abuse the young republicans by basing grades on evidence that students have absorbed and retained a portion of the brainwashing reeducation that is common on our communist infested campuses. Baxley knows that this is an unfair abuse of power on the part of the professors.
These are but a few examples of the work that Baxley has done, all of which reflects back on his home district of Ocala.
Based on her local performance to date, our own Ronda, should she find herself in Tallahassee, could easily jump right in and make a splash in the Senate, bringing some much needed notice to our area.
Ronda wisely micromanages public library decisions, and provided the spark that gained Tampa national recognition as the area which is morally strong enough to stand up against the homosexual agenda.
Ronda is leading the fight against nudity. As a conservative, she knows that any government which allows its citizens to practice freedom of speech by gallivanting around all nekkid is not exercising enough control.
And, much like our glorious President, Ronda recently broke the law and violated people's civil liberties in order to protect us all from severe threats. In Ronda's case, she had the moral strength to interfere with the opening of a bikini bar – an establishment that fully intended to employ scantily clad sexually loose harpies to trick good Christian men into consuming mass quantities of alcohol.
I could go on and on listing Ronda's numerous accomplishments, but her good works are just too numerous to fully document. Suffice it to say the Ronda is ready for the big leagues, and if elected, she's sure to garner tons of state and national publicity for Tampa and Hillsborough County.
So, run, Ronda, run! Let's show those hicks in Tallahassee what Tampa is made of!
Don we now our gay apparel
Joe Redner has a holiday gift for Ronda Storms and Killer B. Brian Blair.
Joe Redner, king of the strip clubs, says he's gay.
The disclosure came in his federal lawsuit against Hillsborough County commissioners, who recently banned the county from acknowledging or participating in gay pride events.
The longtime activist who has made millions from strip clubs said he included his sexual orientation to bolster his argument that the policy directly affects him.
His original suit, filed in October, didn't mention he was gay. Concerned that he needed to show a personal connection, he added the language to papers filed last week in the case.
Asked about that new information, Redner's voice shook a bit as he said he was frustrated that his sexual orientation would merit such attention. He confirmed that he is gay and denied that he would say he's gay simply as a legal strategy.
"Why is everybody so afraid to be a homosexual?" said Redner, 65, who has been married twice and has children and grandchildren. "They don't even have a right to ask the question whether I'm a homosexual or not. They don't have that right. They think you choose to be a homosexual."
Put it this way: unless someone can prove Joe Redner is not gay by producing pictures of him not in bed with a live boy, it's totally up to Joe to make the determination.
Past behavior has absolutely no bearing on the issue. Our raging Christian-led homophobia ensures that many folks remain closeted for most or all of their lives.
Further, there exists no physical test for gayness. I can truthfully declare myself gay today and straight (or cured!) tomorrow, based solely on what I perceive to be my feelings at a given moment in time.
Homosexuality is defined as attraction to members of the same sex, said Michael Cole, a spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign. It's about orientation, Cole said, not necessarily partners.
"The best way to know if someone is gay is to ask," said Cole, whose group is a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender political organization.
......But county Commissioner Brian Blair, a defendant in Redner's lawsuit, said he doesn't buy it.
"I just think it's a publicity stunt," Blair said. "Why would this have not come out before?"
This is gonna drive Ronda and Brian batty.
Radio hosts Jack Harris and Tedd Webb were grilling Redner on his recent disclosure of his sexual orientation - homosexual.
When the truthfulness of his revelation in federal court records was questioned, Redner answered: "That would be perjury." Then he laughed.
Storms flipped.
"I said to myself, "It's a court of law, it's not a circus, this is serious, the integrity of the court is serious,' " Storms told the Times on Tuesday.
Once again, Joe steps up to defend us all
Joe Redner got rich by founding Tampa's most famous attraction. The Mons Venus is known around the world, and casual tourists and businesses travelers who find themselves in the area are often more interested in the location of the Mons than the site of their meetings or reunions.
In an industry with a reputation for sleazy business practices, Joe has always stood out as a progressive minded employer – he treats everyone with respect, makes sure they earn a good living, and generally does more for his workers than the laws of competition and governments demand.
Having made a couple thousand butt loads of cash, Joe feels that it is only fair to give something back to the community in which he made his fortune. He does this through generous charitable giving and, more importantly, through his numerous fights against local bullies for what's right.
To put it mildly, he is a thorn in the side of those who would strip our rights and liberties. He knows the law, and he has the money and lawyers and experience to drive his points home. Even when he loses in court, his actions give pause to those in power who would have us living in a semi-theocratic society ruled by hypocritical moralists who lack the will power to live by their own decrees.
Yesterday, Joe filed suit against the members of the Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners over their hateful Hillsborough Homophobia campaign. Some say he has a weak case because he personally has not been harmed by the ordinance that mandates the county "abstain from acknowledging, promoting and participating" in gay pride events, but Joe and other thoughtful folks realize that on ordinance of this nature hurts all county residents by legislating hatred and fear and encouraging discrimination.
Oh, and since Joe still runs one of Tampa's top tourist destinations, an argument can be made that negative national publicity could very well harm him personally.
Redner said he will serve the nine-page lawsuit to commissioners at 9 this morning as they gather for their regular board meeting at the county center.
"Our county commission members need to be taught a lesson, so I'll try to do it," Redner said Tuesday.
The lawsuit in Hillsborough Circuit Court seeks an injunction against the policy for violating constitutional free speech and equal protection rights.
"Too bad in your law school days you didn't learn about the First Amendment and content discrimination," the lawsuit quotes Redner as saying during the meeting in June when commissioners approved the policy.
His remark was aimed at Commissioner Ronda Storms, who proposed the policy after a few parents complained about a Gay Pride Month display at West Gate Regional Library.
Commissioners Jim Norman, Ken Hagan, Tom Scott, Brian Blair and Mark Sharpe also voted for the policy and a second motion to require a public hearing and supermajority vote by the board to overturn the policy.
Commissioner Kathy Castor voted against both measures and is not named in the lawsuit.
County Attorney Renee Lee said late Tuesday that she hadn't seen the lawsuit.
"I don't know how [Redner] is affected by it," Lee said. "To make these things stick, you've got to generally show you've been affected differently than others."
The SP Times has more.
Activist and strip club owner Joe Redner on Tuesday sued Hillsborough County, saying a June 15 vote by county commissioners to abstain from acknowledging, promoting or participating in gay pride events is unconstitutional.
The suit also names six commissioners individually - Brian Blair, Ken Hagan, Jim Norman, Tom Scott, Mark Sharpe and Ronda Storms. Commissioner Kathy Castor, who voted against the measure and has spoken out against it, was not named.
Redner argues that the policy violates his First Amendment right under the U.S. Constitution to receive information at local libraries. He says the commissioners "imposed a ban on one particular group but not on any other groups" and their actions constitute a "prior restraint on protected speech" that fails to "further a compelling government interest."
Redner's complaint also argues that the policy violates due process and equal protection provided by the Constitution by singling out a group. Commissioners "have not targeted other groups or topics featured in library displays," the suit says.
Redner is asking the court to declare the policy unconstitutional, issue an injunction until a trial is scheduled and require the county to pay court costs.
"They should have known they were violating the Constitution," he said Tuesday. "My goal is to show them they are liable for doing that. . . . Someone has to call them on it."
BlogWood Hillsborough Homophobia coverage.
Building schools and hatred
Yesterday, the Hillsborough BOCC, led by female female impersonator Ronda Storms (seen here in a fruitless search for an Adam's apple), decided to deal with the county school construction funding crisis by ''studying'' the problem to ensure that a larger regressive sales tax is enacted to ease an increase in school impact fees that would have to be paid by developers – money that would no doubt come right out of the commissioners' pockets in the form of lower campaign contributions in the coming months.
A panel of Hillsborough officials, builders and parents will explore whether to raise sales taxes, impact fees on new homes or both to ease classroom crowding.
Hillsborough County Commissioner Ronda Storms proposed the task force Wednesday as the commissioners discussed whether to restrict development to match classroom capacity.
......Only Commissioner Kathy Castor opposed Storms' proposal for a task force, suggesting it would only delay dealing with growth.
Castor said impact fees could be increased immediately, as recommended by a 2004 study. Hillsborough's $196 impact fee for school sites, the lowest in the state, hasn't been increased in 20 years. The study said a $3,800 fee was necessary to catch up with growth.
But Storms said that if impact fees were increased now, voters wouldn't be willing to approve a sales tax increase referendum next year. "We need both," Storms said, and the tax would "go down in flames."
......Most county schools aren't over capacity, but many in popular growth areas are experiencing severe crowding.
Last week county planners tried to deny rezonings to three developments near crowded schools in east and south Hillsborough under a planning policy adopted in July 2004.
County Attorney Renee Lee stopped the effort, saying the county needs an ordinance to enforce the policy.
Ronda continued her recent attacks against the school board, somehow trying to lay blame for being underfunded at the feet of an agency for which she and her board control funding.
Hillsborough County Commissioner Ronda Storms scolded School Board officials Wednesday for failing to ease a classroom congestion problem that they now call a crisis.
The former high school English teacher criticized them for taking four years to ask commissioners to impose a sales tax or raise impact fees despite knowing for some time that they needed to overcome what has become a $364-million deficit in the school district's five-year construction plan.
Storms also chided School Board members and superintendent MaryEllen Elia for missing Wednesday's County Commission meeting. They were at a workshop on team building that they said had been scheduled for months.
"If the School Board thought this was important, they should have been here," Storms said.
She and five other commissioners approved forming a task force in two weeks, with commissioners, School Board members, builders, parents and activists, to discuss ways to ease crowding.
...and the school board shot back.
"We were told everything was fine," Storms said.
Past school officials' statements about capacity "were true at the time they made those statements," but no longer are, Olson responded. "Surely Ronda knows the difference between then and now."
Rapid growth and the class-size amendment have worsened the problems recently, school officials have said.
Olson said it wouldn't be appropriate for the school board to attend the county board's meeting, and that school officials have tried to schedule a joint meeting with county officials to discuss concurrency. She said Jim Norman, chairman of the commissioners, asked today to delay a meeting scheduled for Nov. 10,
Olson tried to sound a conciliatory note.
"I hope the commissioners and the school board can work together on this," she said. "I know we all care about kids."
School board member Jennifer Faliero, who has tangled with Storms recently, was more blunt.
"This is a deflection tactic this commissioner chooses to engage in when the arrow of accountability is pointed at her," Faliero said.
She said school officials have kept the commissioners fully informed about school capacity problems. "They have our five-year plan, they know our deficit. ... It's ultimately up to the commissioners -- they are the only ones who can approve a zoning permit."
Has Miss Ronda become a tax and spend liberal? Don't worry – she hasn't lost her instinctive hatred toward anyone who does not conform to her narrow notions of normalcy.
Hillsborough County Commissioner Kathy Castor said she was only trying to repair Hillsborough's reputation as unfriendly to gay rights when she asked commissioners Wednesday to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation for private and public employees.
But the request backfired when commissioners, led by Ronda Storms, not only refused Castor, but voted 5-2 to make it harder for voters to decide the issue.
They required that the workplace protection of gays can't be put on a referendum ballot unless at least five commissioners approve it. Before Castor's request, only four votes were needed. Castor and Tom Scott dissented.
......"Don't be mean-spirited," Castor pleaded, but commissioners approved it with little discussion. Two South Tampa residents, Jeanine Minge and Melissa Lewis, waited all day for commissioners to vote, and when they did, shortly before 5 p.m., they shook their heads in disgust.
"It just shows that when they said they weren't discriminating against gays, they in effect were discriminating against gays," Lewis said. "They're doing everything they can to silence a community," Minge said. "It's appalling."
Gay club membership restricted
The club exists, for now, but students must try harder to join.
In a social studies classroom at Newsome High School, 37 students gathered Wednesday to form the school's first Gay-Straight Alliance.
The club is now official - over the protests of parents who were trying to stop it from forming.
But Newsome's Gay-Straight Alliance will have to follow a rule that doesn't apply to any other club on campus. All the students in it have to get their parents' written permission to join.
Principal Rebecca Anderson created the rule after getting phone calls from parents concerned that students would use the club to talk about sexual issues, school spokesman Steve Hegarty said.
"She thought it would be wise to take this extra step to make sure the parents knew what was going on," Hegarty said. "It seemed like a reasonable safeguard."
Sandy Davis, who was among the parents concerned about the Gay-Straight Alliance, said she wasn't satisfied with the compromise.
"I'd rather be the person to talk to my children about sexual issues," said Davis, who has two sons at the school. "School is not the place."
Davis said parents tried to meet with the principal as a group, but Anderson would not hold the meeting. She said Anderson told them she'd spoken with parents one on one and knew their concerns.
The compromise rule didn't please groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union either.
Michael Pheneger, who chairs the Tampa chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said placing a special restriction on only one club might violate the federal Equal Access Act.
"It seems to me that the whole idea of equal access is equal requirements," he said. "Singling out one club for parental permission seems to me an effort to discourage that club."
ACLU lawyer Rebecca Steele said the law prohibits schools from restricting clubs on the basis of the speech at meetings.
"If they require parental consent for this club, they'll have to for all clubs," she said.
......Parents opposed to the Gay-Straight Alliance wanted it to meet without official school sponsorship, outside of school hours and off school grounds - which, according to school rules, would mean it would not be a club at all.
Otherwise, Davis said, the club should become a "tolerance" club without a specific focus on sexual orientation.
"If you're going to teach tolerance, teach tolerance about being nice to everybody," she said.
Davis said that one of her sons has suffered discrimination throughout his life because he has a cleft palate.
"It's ridiculous to sit around and complain about being picked on because of sexual preference when you have kids like (my son) who are picked on for no reason," Davis said.
She said that Anderson's decision to require parental permission was not enough.
"That doesn't mean a thing to me," she said. "You have parents that aren't making such real great decisions ... I do not think the club has a place in the school system at all."
Vulnerable students would be drawn to the Gay-Straight Alliance, which she said the gay community was trying to place in the school.
I wonder if Davis and her ilk have any problems with these Newsome clubs?
Remember: Jesus hates fags, but thinks that football players in their tight little pants are really cool. Playing with guns is fine, but don't ever touch your best friend's little rifle, cause you'll burn in hell or end up like this poor boy.
Dear AbstinenceOnly,
I never thought something like this would happen to me.
A bunch of us from our church group got bored one day and started masturbating each other through our clothes in the rectory. Guys were rubbing girls who were rubbing guys in a great big daisy-chain of abstinence I'll remember for as long as I'll live.
Anyway, I was nestled between the legs of this girl I'd been watching in Bible study, while somebody else was rubbing away at my crotch. There was another girl laying across my chest and I had this great view of her breasts. Suddenly I felt this surge of energy, like a great white light. The Holy Spirit had entered me and immediately exited into my pants.
But then the girl who's breasts I'd been lusting after got up and I discovered that I'd just been masturbated through my jeans by my cousin Karl.
Does this mean I'm gay? Is it gay if you don't know it's a guy? To make matters worse, my dog has started humping my leg a lot, and I think I'm enjoying it. What does that mean?
A letter to Doris
Dear Mr. Doris:
Having read the recent St. Pete Times article about your quest to quash the nascent Homo Haven at Newsome High School, I was moved to write these words of encouragement.
First of all, I agree with your central thesis that it is truly shocking that high school kids might want to talk about sexual issues. Sexual urges, curiosities, and abnormalities are highly personal issues that should never be mentioned, much less acted upon. Sodomy is for suckers, and non-procreative coupling should only be practiced by experienced professionals.
Secondly, I am incredulous that the students who are proposing this so called support group have been allowed to remain in school. I hereby call for the immediate dismissal of these unnaturally urged rabble rousers. If they want to practice their aberrant alternative lifestyles, let them do so in an alternate county!
Finally, I wholeheartedly endorse your assertion that there is no tolerance issue around here. Deviants will not be tolerated, and troublemakers will be dealt with. Period!
Thank you for standing strong and tall and manly against the rising tides of tolerance and understanding in our society.
Sincerely,
Norwood
Ronda Storms’ growing legacy of hatred and violence
When local leaders preach fear and loathing, it should come as no surprise when ignorant, thuggish constituents feel empowered to act out violently.
A mobile home belonging to a gay couple was torched and an offensive epithet was spray-painted on the front steps, authorities said.
Paul Day, 25, and Christopher Robertson, 23, returned home from errands Monday to find their house in Kings Manor Mobile Home Park in Lakeland burned and the words "Die Fag" spray-painted on the front steps.
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.
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.
......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.
......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.
......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.