The woman who asked Charlie Crist that question
What sort of woman would ask the state attorney general if he's gay?
By CHRIS TISCH, Times Staff Writer
Published January 17, 2005 MADEIRA BEACH - When Lee Drury De Cesare asked Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist whether he was gay Friday, it wasn't the first time she has silenced a room.
Since founding the Tampa chapter of the National Organization for Women in the 1970s, De Cesare has nipped at the heels of the Tampa Bay area's powerful. For the most part, she focuses on women's rights, but she reserves a special measure of scorn for politicians and journalists guilty of grammatical errors.
In the 1970s, she fought with then-Hillsborough Sheriff Malcolm Beard about the hurdles faced by women in law enforcement.
"He hated me so badly he wouldn't step in the same room with me," she says of Beard.
In 1978, she filed complaints with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, claiming that two landmark Tampa restaurants - Bern's Steak House and the Columbia Restaurant - had all-male wait-staffs.
She established the Barefoot and Pregnant Awards for the people or institutions she deemed the most sexist. She called strip club owner Joe Redner a pimp.
For all of that, her question Friday to Crist at a meeting of the Tampa Tiger Bay Club was still astonishing to those in the room.
"I have heard that you were gay, sir, and I wanted to know if that was true," De Cesare asked.
Crist replied: "I'm not."
FV SAYS: Crist is unattached and he's in his forties. He has strong sisters in the school system. He campaigns with trophy girls sometimes.
Certain voters tied to adult businesses donated to Greer's campaign last year.
Sembler the father was Greer's cty commission campaign mgr. before Greer ruined the Sixth Circuit Court. Sembler the son is Crist's governor's campaign mgr.
That is, until now. It is a gift to know something you should know in order to act on it effectively. For Crist to call these men "heroes" is a travesty.
I had planned to work for Crist in his governors bid. Now, I will work against him. He has lost four votes in my immediate family.
I plan to see that he loses a lot more.
LOL! Good for her. That is all Florida needs is a gay governor. Next thing you know, you will have same sex marriages down there.