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$100,000 Spent by NGLTF/ No to Discrimination/Save DADE Groups Call for Investigation of Florida's Voting Irregularities NGLTF
Joining a chorus of approval throughout the GLBT community and among fair-minded people everywhere, Executive Director Lorri L. Jean hailed the win-53% to 47%, with 87% of precincts reporting - as both a turning point in 25 years of struggle against the right wing's vicious campaign of antigay ballot measures, and a validation of the mission and political strategy of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. The victory occurred despite widespread voting irregularities and reports of illegalities that effectively disenfranchised swaths of Miami Beach and other GLBT voting strongholds in Miami-Dade County. Victory notwithstanding, the NGLTF called on Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the failures of the Florida election system "so that the GLBT community and indeed all Floridians will never again be denied the opportunity to vote and have those votes counted," Jean said. Georg Ketelhohn, co-chair of No to Discrimination/Save Dade, added: "With 87% of the votes counted, we can now say with confidence that the will of the vast majority of people in Miami-Dade has prevailed. Question 14 has been defeated. It's a shame that so many of the votes of our supporters were not counted. Had the election gone properly, our margin of victory would have been even greater." "We have made history with this campaign," Jean added. "Twenty-five years ago, Anita Bryant passed an anti-gay ballot measure virtually identical to the one that was resoundingly defeated tonight. Thankfully, this time, the people of Miami-Dade County have sent the Christian Coalition and its small band of gay-obsessed zealots packing! "Best of all, tonight's victory signals the death knell of what has been the favored tactic of religious political extremists for the last decade-trying to foist their brand of bigotry on everyone through anti-gay ballot measures. "The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force is proud of the role that we have played in tonight's victory. We began working with No to Discrimination/SAVE Dade more than four years ago. And, in the past year alone, we have made an unprecedented investment in defeating Ballot Question 14. "We were the campaign's largest single donor, giving nearly $100,000. But most importantly, we worked in partnership with No to Discrimination/SAVE Dade to conceive and implement a voter identification and mobilization program that enabled us to win. And it's the same strategy that the Task Force used last year, winning 5 out of 6 GLBT-related ballot measures in the November, 2001 elections. "Good old-fashioned organizing-talking to voters one-on-one-is the only way to win against often better organized and better funded religious fanatics. That's what we did in Miami-Dade County. And the answer was loud and clear. The people of Miami-Dade oppose discrimination against gay and lesbian people. Period. The Christian Coalition's campaign of outright lies and scare tactics didn't work." "Tonight's victory establishes beyond doubt that the Task Force program works," confirmed Dave Fleischer, the NGLTF Director of Organizing and Training who oversees the Task Force field program. "Until last November, our community was losing GLBT-related ballot measures 75% of the time. " In preparation for the 2001 elections, the Task Force worked with local partners to implement its new program, and we began to turn that tide. The Miami victory gives us all the confirmation we need that we can win these measures if we'll only fight them the right way." Jean continued: "Tonight we are putting right-wing extremists on notice. Whenever they attack our rights, whenever they try to enshrine discrimination against us in the law, we will respond as we did in this campaign. We will not stand idly by while they pursue campaigns of bigotry and lies. We will educate the voters, we will organize, and we will get fair-minded people to the polls to ensure that freedom, justice and equality are realities for all of us! And we will win!" |
Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Pinellas speaks out in support of equal rights in his county