Largo will discuss if the manager, who is changing his sex, will stay employed.

By LORRI HELFAND, St. Petersburg Times

LARGO - Three undecided Largo city commissioners could determine the fate of City Manager Steve Stanton tonight.

Last week, Stanton's announcement that he plans to have a sex-change operation roiled this city of 76,000, with its mobile home parks full of retirees and its feed store in the middle of downtown.

By Monday, Mayor Pat Gerard was the only member of the seven-member City Commission to say she still stands by Stanton, 48.

Three other commissioners say they intend to fire the 14-year city manager or are likely do so.

That leaves three commissioners - Gigi Arntzen, Gay Gentry and Rodney Woods - as the deciding votes. Largo's city charter requires a vote of five out of seven city commissioners to fire the city manager.

At a special meeting called to discuss Stanton, commissioners expect to face more than 500 people.

City Hall has received more than 250 e-mails about Stanton, more than 40 percent from people who identified themselves as Largo residents. Those e-mails called for his removal by a 7-to-1 ratio.

The first 520 people to arrive will be permitted to enter City Hall, with about 100 in commission chambers and the rest in the community room, staff break room and City Hall lobby.

Extra police officers will be on duty, but Chief Lester Aradi said he's not expecting an unruly crowd.

"This is a controversial issue, but we have faith that people will act accordingly," he said.

Both Stanton supporters and opponents say they plan to pack the chambers.

Charlie Martin, senior pastor at First Baptist Church of Indian Rocks, said he encouraged parishioners to attend because it's the "biggest issue facing Largo" in his 36-year tenure as pastor of the church, one of the largest in Pinellas County.

Stanton's continued employment will be devastating to Largo's reputation and future business interests, Martin said.

Moreover, he said, it would trample on the rights of religious employees to force them to call the city manager Susan, the name Stanton plans to use when he comes to work as a woman this spring.

"Do we want what's controversial or do we want what's best for Largo?" said Martin, whose church includes many members from Largo.

Brian Winfield, communications director for Equality Florida, an organization that advocates for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights, said his group will urge members to attend the meeting as well.

The discussion of Stanton's future employment is discriminatory because the topic only came up after Stanton announced plans for gender reassignment surgery, he said.

"As long as he continues to do the excellent job he's doing, there isn't any reason for his termination whatsoever," Winfield said.

A large group from the Pinellas chapter of the National Organization for Women plans to come tonight as well, Winfield said.

Tonight's meeting was called by Commissioner Mary Gray Black and could echo a bitter 2003 debate over an ordinance that would have protected gay and transgender residents and city employees.

Black was recruited to run for the commission by a leading opponent of the antidiscrimination ordinance. On Monday, she proposed placing Stanton on paid leave while the city prepares to fire him.

Black didn't return calls for comments, but in an e-mail accompanying the proposed resolution, she said, Stanton's situation "has caused stress, turmoil, distraction and work disruption" to city employees.

City staff members also are "stressed by comments, questions, and jokes made during the employees' nonworking hours," she said.

Vice Mayor Harriet Crozier said she supports Black's resolution, which is the first phase of a three-step process required by the city charter to fire Stanton.

Commissioner Andy Guyette said he may vote to fire Stanton as well.

The rest of the commission is on the fence.

"We need to determine the best course of direction for the city and our employees," Commissioner Gigi Arntzen said.

Commissioner Gay Gentry said she wanted to see how Stanton's choice will affect staffers before making a decision.

"I don't like to make my decisions in haste," Gentry said.

Meanwhile, Stanton sent an e-mail to commissioners asking them for more time.

"After 17 years with the city, I feel I should be given the courtesy to show I can still do my job and be an effective manager," wrote Stanton, who came to the city as assistant city manager in 1990 and makes $140,234 annually.

Stanton asked commissioners, before taking a public vote on whether he should be fired, to discuss the effects of a workplace transition with qualified experts, give him six months to show he can still do the job and postpone his evaluation until August.

Several commissioners initially voiced support for Stanton's personal decision, but their support for his continued employment waned after the city was flooded by negative e-mails.

The mayor said she won't be swayed by e-mails, especially since many include incorrect assumptions, including that the city is funding his sex change operation.

Human Resources director Susan Sinz said the city's health insurance policy doesn't cover surgery, hormone treatments, electrolysis or anything else regarding the gender transition process.

"I'll be making this decision on what I know about this person and what he's done for the city, not on assumptions based on misinformation," Gerard said.
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Gay teenagers rejected and forced out by their families find themselves thrust into the harsh world of homelessness

By Elizabeth Baier
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Chris Moore celebrated his 18th birthday with a crash course in survival.

That day nearly two years ago, his family told him to get out because, he says, they could not accept him as a gay person.

Unprepared to face the world on his own, Moore stumbled. He dropped out of high school two months before graduating. He found refuge on the couches of friends for four months. He spent three nights sleeping in a Miami park before going to a youth homeless shelter.

"Yeah, I was scared," said Moore, 19, who now lives in Oakland Park. "I didn't call my family because I knew that they didn't want me back unless I [became] straight."

Gay youth advocates estimate Moore is one of thousands of gay, bisexual or transgendered young people who have become homeless after their families reject them. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Coalition for the Homeless recently released a report that estimates as many as 672,000, or almost 42 percent of all homeless youth nationwide, identify themselves as gay or lesbian. That is a large share of the nation's gay population, which is usually estimated at between 3 to 5 percent of total population.

Nick Ray, the report's author, said in Florida, as many as 5,000 homeless young adults aged 15 to 24 consider themselves gay or lesbian.

For many such youth, family rejection often compounds their teenage struggle with self-identity and peer pressure.

Ari Hampton knows the feeling.

The 18-year-old from Lake Worth said he left home in September, two months after his birthday, because his dad did not tolerate his sexuality.

"He told me `I'm not going to have a son that's gay,'" Hampton said.

Since then, Hampton has been staying at a friend's house, which has kept him from the streets or shelters. He hasn't spoken to his father since.

"It's been scary, but I've been trying to do my best out here," Hampton said.

Once on the street, Ray says many gay youth are more susceptible than their heterosexual peers to mental health problems, drug abuse and risky sexual behavior. Homeless gay teens often will turn to prostitution for money, food and clothing, calling such behavior "survival sex," Ray said.

"It's a vicious circle of increased susceptibility," Ray said.

In South Florida, only four shelters are licensed to admit unaccompanied youth under 21 -- Covenant House in Fort Lauderdale, Lippman Family Center in Oakland Park, Safe Harbor Runaway Center in Palm Beach and Miami Bridge Youth and Family Services, according to Paula Tibbetts, public relations director at Covenant House.

Ray estimates that no more than half a dozen facilities around the country work solely with homeless gay youth. Shelters open to all are not necessarily sensitive to gays' needs.

"For a youth who is living on the street, it may feel like a risk to go into an agency and seek help if the response is, `You wouldn't have this problem if you weren't gay,'" Ray said.

Moore came out to his family when he was 16 and for two years, they told him they were "totally against it," he said.

He sought friends at the youth group at the Gay and Lesbian Community Center in Fort Lauderdale. The center, its counterpart in West Palm Beach and a handful of gay-straight alliances in the public schools are the only places gay teens in South Florida have to meet and speak openly about their sexuality, according to Rob LaMarche, youth group adult coordinator at the Gay and Lesbian Community Center in Fort Lauderdale.

"[Gay and lesbian] kids don't know who to talk to ... so they wind up on the streets and often put themselves in dangerous situations," LaMarche said. "I think it's horrifying. It makes me so mad."

Carole Benowitz coordinates the Lake Worth-based state chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. She said her group's goal is to reunite gay teens with their families or, at the very least, improve their relationship.

"Children need to be with their families," Benowitz said. "A lot of these kids desperately want to go home sometimes. It's unbelievably scary for them."

Nowadays, Moore lives in an apartment paid for by Covenant House and is finishing his GED. He works at a bakery and is saving to buy a car when he moves out on his own in August. He has not spoken to his family in more than a year. Instead, Moore is developing his love for music and acting, performing at special events at the community center.

"I told myself, `I'm not going to let my family put me down. I'm going to make it,'" he said.
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By David Crary
The Associated Press

NEW YORK - Anti-gay bias has flared up in Hollywood and pro basketball recently, and soon the topic will be thrust dramatically into a new forum -- a reshaped Congress likely to pass the first major federal gay-rights bills.

Wary conservative leaders, as well as gay-rights advocates, share a belief that at least two measures will win approval this year: a hate-crimes bill that would cover offenses motivated by anti-gay bias, and a measure that would outlaw workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Also on the table -- although with more doubtful prospects -- will be a measure to be introduced Wednesday seeking repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that bans openly gay and lesbian Americans from serving in the military.

All three measures surfaced in previous sessions of Congress, at times winning significant bipartisan backing but always falling short of final passage. This year, with Democrats now in control and many Republicans likely to join in support, the hate-crimes and workplace bills are widely expected to prevail.

"With liberals in control, there's a good possibility they'll both pass," said Matt Barber, a policy director with the conservative group Concerned Women for America. "They're both dangerous to freedom of conscience, to religious liberties, to free speech."

If approved by Congress, the bills would head to the White House. Activists on both the left and right are unsure whether President Bush would sign or veto them.

For gay-rights leaders -- whose efforts to legalize same-sex marriage have been rebuffed by many states -- the congressional votes are keenly anticipated after years of lobbying.

"This is a major step in our struggle," said Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign. "I know there's a lot of despair on the other side."

The workplace bill -- titled the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA -- is the subject of behind-the-scenes negotiations. The bill that emerges is expected to expand on earlier versions to cover not only sexual orientation but also gender identity, thus extending protections to transgender employees. Churches and small businesses would be exempt.

For many Americans, ENDA's provisions would be familiar. More than 85 percent of the Fortune 500 companies include sexual orientation in their nondiscrimination policies, as do 17 states and many local governments.

And publicly, there is increasingly little tolerance for overt anti-gay bias. The National Basketball Association swiftly repudiated retired Miami Heat all-star Tim Hardaway after he spoke this month of hating gays, while TV actor Isaiah Washington apologized and sought counseling after using a gay slur in reference to a fellow actor on Grey's Anatomy.

Advocacy groups also say there have been huge strides in regard to protections for transgender people -- with nine states, scores of major corporations and more than 70 colleges and universities now banning discrimination based on gender identity.
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HRC Urges Ads Be Pulled from Campaign

WASHINGTON -The Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, is calling on the makers of Snickers, and its parent company Mars Inc., to pull the ad campaign launched yesterday during the Superbowl. The ad features two presumably straight men who accidentally engage in a kiss and then try to distance themselves from any perception of being gay by "doing something manly."

Three alternate endings to the commercial spot are posted on the Snickers website, one of which includes the two men violently attacking one another - which sends a dangerous message to the public condoning violence against gay Americans.

HRC President Joe Solmonese issued the following statement:

"The makers of Snickers and its parent company at Mars should know better. If they have any questions about why the ad isn't funny, we can help put them in touch with any number of GLBT Americans who have suffered hate crimes."

Two other video clips posted on the Snickers website feature players from the Bears and the Colts watching the ads and responding to the two men kissing.

Solmonese continued:

"This type of jeering from professional sports figures at the sight of two men kissing fuels the kind of anti-gay bullying that haunts countless gay and lesbian school children on playgrounds all across the country. Eighty-four percent of GLBT students report being verbally harassed at school, and this type of ad only reinforces that."

"Is Snickers suggesting that people who eat their candy bars are cavemen? It's an odd market to court, particularly after the Isaiah Washington flap a couple weeks ago, which clearly showed that there's a strong distaste out there for people who portray themselves as anti-gay or holding on to old prejudices and stereotypes."

"Mars and Snickers need to pull the 'Wrench' ad and the footage of the NFL players out of their campaign immediately."
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