03/02/2007
Female Gay Rights Leader "Manhandled" in Brutal Arrest
Was Handing Out 'Don't Discriminate' Flier
HRC and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force today condemned the brutal arrest of Nadine Smith, the executive director of Equality Florida. Smith was arrested while trying to hand out a "Don't Discriminate" flier at a hearing over Steve Stanton, the city manager recently fired because he had a sex change operation.
According to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force: "The arrest occurred when Charlie Deppish of Tampa approached Smith and asked her for a flier that said only 'Don’t Discriminate.' According to witnesses, Sgt. Butch Ward confronted Smith in the lobby and ordered her to take back the flier. When Smith asked why, Ward reportedly forced her into a side room where several officers violently shoved her to the floor and arrested her. She has been charged with resisting arrest with violence, a felony, and disturbing others' assembly, a misdemeanor. Smith has been executive director of Equality Florida, the state’s leading LGBT advocacy organization, since 1997 and is nationally recognized for her leadership."
Deppish told the St. Petersburg Times: "If she was upset and struggling ... I wouldn't blame her. She was being manhandled."
Matt Foreman, exectuive director of the NGLTF, blasted Largo law enforcement: "We condemn this outrageous and unprovoked attack on one of our community’s leading advocates. This directly associates the Police Department of Largo with the appalling bigotry expressed by the hundreds attending the poisonous hearing attacking an outstanding public servant, Steve Stanton. We honor Nadine’s courage and dignity through this ordeal.”
Posted 2:04 PM EST by Andy Towle in Crime, Florida, Gay Rights, News | Permalink
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Thanks Leland. Been very busy lately but I had to comment on this one.
3QUEERS, where are you commenting from? Focus on the Family headquarters? Your comments about Nadine are totally off base, and I suspect, totally made up. I have NEVER heard ANYONE speak negatively of Nadine. If she speaks poorly of HRC and other national gay organizations it's because they deserve it and most gay people I know agree that they have become party heavy and results small.
Unless you have some specifics that you're willing to share, I suspect that you are a troll and I suggest that Towleroaders ignore you.
Posted by: Zeke | Mar 3, 2007 5:09:13 PM
Alex, you beat me to it. I have worked with Nadine for years and have never heard anyone accuse her of being hard to work with; not even anti-gay Republicans in the Florida state legislature.
Posted by: Zeke | Mar 3, 2007 6:19:29 PM
"If Jesus was here tonight, I can guarantee you he'd want him terminated," said Pastor Ron Saunders of Largo's Lighthouse Baptist Church. "Make no mistake about it."
In an effort to refute this hate-speading bigot borrowing the name of Jesus to work his evil, let us (at least those readers who are willing to tolerate Christianity) take a look at something that Jesus really said:
Not everyone can accept this teaching, but only those to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdon of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can."
--- Matthew 19:11-12, NRSV
The most popular understanding of the word "eunuch" among evangelicals is that eunuchs are castrated human males. In this passage Jesus makes no hint at condemnation --- and the similarity between castration and a sex change operation can hardly be denied.
More germane to Pastor Saunders might be this teaching of Jesus:
Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bring forth evil fruit. ... Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them."
--- Matthew 7:15-20 KJV
My point is not to be a religious fanatic, but to remark that ravening wolves, like Rev. Saunders and his ilk, who use the Bible to justify their hatreds, need to have the Bible thrown back at them --- you can't vilify your neighbor in the name of Jesus, you can't be a true Christian and stir up hatred at the same time. And the sooner the GLBT community gets good at refuting the hatemongering of the Religious Right, the sooner we will succeed at prying America from their grasp.
Posted by: Allen | Mar 3, 2007 8:45:48 PM
point of information:
Steve Stanton hasn't had the sexual reassignment surgery, yet.
In the press conference that started this off, he had announced that his plans to begin his assimilation into "Susan" would begin shortly with him wearing women's clothing and what-not.
The Mayor of Largo publicly gave their support to Steve Stanton, only to be fired by the city commissioners less then a week later.
Funny, how a man doing the same job for 20 some-odd years is "doing fine." Yet, when he announces this plan, his work is thrown out the window in under a week. This, by people who haven't been in office, or maybe even living in the city of Largo for the amount of time that Mr. Stanton has been a civil servant to that city.
I hope that Steve Stanton sues the balls out of the commission. In turn the retribution would include:
1. The city to pay for his medical needs over the next few years.
2. The entire commission be thrown out, and newly-elected officials to take their places.
3. THE MOST IMPORTANT
A city-wide, out-reach program used to education the population about Trans-Gendered people, and the discrimination they face in our society.
I have lived in Flori-duh for most of my life, and things like this reinforce why I still consider myself a yankee.
Posted by: Steve Florio | Mar 4, 2007 1:10:25 AM
Re: The "T" in "LGBT"
Most of the time when a guy gets called a fag, it has little to do with his sexual oriention and almost everything to do with the way he is expressing his gender. When I was in grade school the 80s I got called "gay" and "fag" because I didn't act like the right kind of boy (ie, didn't play sports, read books, liked to sing, probably acted a bit nelly, etc). My classmates didn't know my sexual orientation -- they called me those names to try to force me back into a narrowly defined definition of gender.
Trans and gender-noncomforming people are on the front lines of challenging those gender expectations. The more space we have to be whatever kind of guy we happen to be, the less hate and fear will be directed at us. Trans folks are making things safer for LGB folks. If anything, it's unconscionable of us not to stand up for the "T"'s.
Posted by: Brian | Mar 4, 2007 12:35:04 PM
A website has been set up to support Nadine and fight what is happening in Florida. Check out www.justiceinlargo.org and take a stand.
Posted by: Justin | Mar 13, 2007 1:18:25 PM
I'm with Matt. I enjoy being a man, have never wanted to be a woman (well, unless there was a reeeally cute straight guy in the mix), and can't relate to the trans-gender thing at all. Gay=who you love, gender issue=gender issue. Not the same.
Posted by: shane | Mar 14, 2007 1:35:35 PM
Largo(City of Regress, not Progress)
All I could do after seeing this is shake my head and cry. Its sad that here we live in country that offers freedom to those who seek it. But yet when it comes to beliefs, views, or differences that freedom is easily taken away. Brandon Pride started because Hillsborough County faced similar bigotry, and hatred 2 years ago when commissioners passed a policy that Gay Pride was no longer allowed, or recognized. The question still remains to this day...Are we truly free to live our lives the way we want to live them, or not?
Former Hillsborough County Commissioner, and newly elected Tampa City Council member Tom Scott once said quote "Civil rights, and Gay Rights are not the same." But this is not about Gay Rights. This is about Equality, nothing more, nothing less. By what Hillsborough County Commissioners, and Largo Commissioners have done is a great injustice to our county by spiting on the Declaration of Independence, and the US Constitution. Most of all they do not represent the districts they serve. Many people in both Hillsborough County, and Largo have stated that they are supportive of the GLBT community. But those commissioners have put their own interests ahead of their constituents, and that is wrong. I have decided I will no longer be confined to a prison camp created by those who spread bigotry and hate. I will continue fighting for Equality by speaking out, and standing my ground. If anyone discriminates against me for who I am my warning is this: "DON'T TREAD ON ME!" I am who I am and I will fight for my freedom and independence to my last breath.
Mark Ferguson
Brandon Pride President
(attached links:)
http://blogs.tampabay.com/breakingnews/2007/03/largo_police_cl.html
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/webspecials07/photo_galleries/stantonfire/index.shtml
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/03/24/Tampabay/Despite_outcry__Stant.shtml
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/webspecials07/special_reports/stanton/
Posted by: Brandon Pride | Mar 24, 2007 3:54:10 PM