C'mon, Get Happy

The mayor's comments meant nothing to them. "Mayors are notorious for being stupid," Sherlock said.

Although Mayor Naugle has in past years made it clear that he does not condone a gay lifestyle, many gay people tolerated or even liked him. Often, they could agree on progressive issues like the environment or building restrictions. This time, however, Naugle seemed to have alienated them all.

Norm Kent, a lawyer and the publisher of nationalgaynews.com, was in San Francisco when he got wind of Naugle's comments. He'd been opening a West Coast law office and was getting ready to attend Major League Baseball's All-Star game. Kent has known Naugle for years; they were both active in politics. But when Naugle told the Sun-Sentinel he based his comment about unhappy homosexuals on his "miserable" friend Norm Kent, well... Kent was less-than-pleased.

"He used my name in vain," Kent says. "He used our past friendship to advance his political cause." Kent e-mailed Naugle, he said. "I told him, 'You've been very denigrating and insulting to the gay community, and you owe everyone an apology' — and he sent me back an e-mail which was even more insulting: 'Are you happy, Norm? You must be the exception.' So I said, 'Yeah, I'm very happy, and so is our very diverse gay community.' Jim responded, 'I'm in Bimini, and I'm very happy.' "

If Naugle had made an apology or clarification, Kent says, he would have published it immediately. "It would have ended everything. Instead, he wrongly and broadly labeled us as unhappy. We're so diverse — active in business, commerce, the economy, the judiciary. He could have moved on in a healthy manner. But he chose not to."

Kent felt that Naugle was also out of line for insulting the Stonewall Library "It's our Smithsonian," Kent says. "The wealth of literature it contains is only matched by the diverse talent that put it together. What he doesn't grasp is that when he's insulting the library, he's insulting the hundreds of dedicated volunteers."

Dean Trantalis, another openly gay lawyer, served as vice mayor alongside Naugle on the City Commission but is now fed up with Naugle. "The mayor has abused the position he holds. Even if he does have these feelings about groups he has now maligned and vilified, a mayor, or anybody in a position of public service, is supposed to bring people together to find common ground and establish a quality of life that benefits as many people as possible — rather than create anger, fear, and hostility."

Trantalis says that when they worked together, Naugle was "affable, congenial, accommodating." But now, Trantalis believes, "it was a superficial attitude, simply a charade. I was another vote he might need. I feel betrayed."

Alan Silva, a gay man who worked as city manager — as an unpaid volunteer — for nearly a year and is largely credited with saving the city from a budget crisis, said that "when I was there, he was a consensus builder." He remembered doing drive-bys with Naugle to check on city properties. But even Silva was disappointed in Naugle this time.

Ron Gunzburger, a longtime political junkie and son of County Commissioner Sue Gunzburger, works as counsel for the Broward County Property Appraiser's Office and operates the politics1.com political blog. He too is openly gay — and he helped run Naugle's first campaign for mayor.

"He's a quirky person," Ron Gunzburger says. "He's done good things, but he also goes off sometimes." Gunzburger remembers the time Naugle insulted firefighters who argued that speed bumps were detrimental when engines were racing to fires. "His comment was, 'What? You'll spill your coffee?' " Later, when asked to apologize, "He said, 'Well, I didn't say spill your beers. That's what I was thinking.' " Another time, Gunzburger recalls, the city hosted a convention for overweight people, and Naugle said it would be good for restaurants.

"He makes jokes," Gunzburger says. But this time, "he went too far. He's probably destroyed his legacy. With this comment and all the reaction, he'll probably be pegged as Fort Lauderdale's last homophobic mayor — and that'll outweigh any good he did."

Gunzburger envisions Naugle as "the Tom Sawyer of politics." City and county commissioners didn't find him so cute. They complained their computer systems were overwhelmed with all the e-mails about Naugle; some received viruses. Both commissions were asked to officially censure the mayor. The County Commission instead settled for issuing a letter condemning him; the City Commission is in recess until September.

The city's current vice mayor, Carlton Moore, was frustrated. Of the mayor's technique, he said, "I think it has worked very successfully — it has gotten him a whole bunch of publicity." Asked if the mayor's actions had taken away from energies that could have been better used on other city business, Moore took a schoolmarmish tone: "I don't think anything is falling into the background — for those of us interested in bringing good government."

If the mayor wanted a fight, he's got one. The group that was behind the Flush Naugle campaign and the rallies is headed by a gay couple, Waymon Hudson and Anthony Niedwiecki.