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Former Porno Addict Leads Charge against Gay Rights

David Caton Plans Ending Miami Protective Ordinance

Tampa-Based 'Family Association' to Launch Petition

By Jack Nichols

David Caton

Dade County, Florida�David Caton, a man whose faith in Jesus saved him from a life of addiction to pornography that had become a $300 monthly habit, and who has since emerged as a major opponent of gay and lesbian rights in Florida, plans, he says, to lead a Central Florida charge from his Tampa headquarters on Dade County in South Florida, which includes Miami and Miami Beach.

Caton's organization seeks, he says, to rescind Dade's 1998 ordinance�passed by the Miami-Dade Commission and which protects gay males and lesbians from discrimination. The Miami Herald, now under a new editorial chief who was formerly with the New York Times, spoke out vehemently against David Caton's plans.

Quoting Dade County Commissioner Dennis Moss, identified as a politician who had " the guts and integrity to support the (gay) human-rights ordinance" a year ago, The Herald staff wrote: "Discrimination is discrimination, no matter where you find it.'' (December 16).

Miami Beach activist Bob Kunst says David Caton hopes to be an Anita Bryant in male drag throughout the politically-charged year of 2000.

Kunst, in an open letter to Caton, predicted doom for the fundamentalist's hate project:

"With all the horror Miami-Dade deals with in crime, refugees, Cuban politics, etc., your 'hate' campaign will garner only massive revulsion from the overwhelming majority, we are most confident of this."

Kunst, in fact, welcomed Caton into the political arena, pointing to his own article critiquing the Rev. Jerry Falwell that appears in the current (December) issue of Falwell's National Liberty Journal, but was first published in GayToday. He reminded Caton how Floridians had�head-on-- met the 1977-1980 forces of an Anita Bryant backed by Rev. Jerry Falwell and his Moral Majority.

Related Stories from the GayToday Archive:
Miami-Dade Commissioners Ban Anti-Gay Discrimination

Miami Christian Coalition Resorts to Gutter Politics

Miami-Area Police: A Scary History of Homophobia

Related Sites:
Florida Family Association

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Kunst, who founded The Oral Majority, challenged Florida's Family Association director to an immediate debate over what he called Caton's "sinister attempts to bring more 'hate' into Miami-Dade," and indicated he thought these attempts could be used to highlight the less compassionate side of Republican Party politics in the 2000 elections.

Kunst relished, he said, exciting opportunities to discuss the very issue�"porno addiction"� which had originally catapulted Caton into the camp of the Christian Reich. "His problem with porno," Kunst suggested in a flippant foray into pop psychology, "is the tip of the iceberg of 'the real Caton', we're delighted to expose."

He reminded the Florida Family Association of what had happened to the Rev. Garnicki, leader of Miami-Dade's anti-gay opposition in 1998. "He is now in jail for 30 years for 'raping' a 15 year old girl parishioner in his congregation."