Posted on 07/10/2002 12:40:21 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Former Attorney General Janet Reno told an enthusiastic crowd of homosexuals what they wanted to hear yesterday, as the gubernatorial candidate promised help in overturning Florida's ban on homosexual adoptions.
"If you can be gay and be a foster parent, if you can be gay and be a guardian, if you can be a perfectly wonderful parent to a child who's unadoptable and in so doing make them adoptable, you ought to be able to adopt them," Reno declared in reference to an effort to overturn Florida's ban on homosexual adoptions.
Making a campaign stop at a luncheon sponsored by GayLauderdale.com and Embassy Suites Hotel, the Democrat also pleased the audience with her vow to "support in every way possible" efforts to resist the repeal of the portion of the Miami-Dade County Human Rights Ordinance that protects residents and visitors against discrimination based on sexual orientation. The proposed repeal is a ballot measure that goes before voters in September.
"Janet has a special place in the gay community," GayLauderdale.com President Monte Guthrie told WorldNetDaily. "She has been somebody that has been fair and honest. She's a woman; and as gays and lesbians who feel like a minority and have been discriminated against, we appreciate a woman going out there and taking charge and putting her hat in the ring, so to speak. She's definitely somebody that we can relate to and can admire because of her courage as attorney general."
According to Guthrie, GayLauderdale.com is the largest website providing news and information to the estimated 250,000 homosexuals in Broward County and the 600,000 who visit Fort Lauderdale each year. The group also extended invitations to Gov. Jeb Bush and Reno's Democratic rival, Bill McBride, to address the regular lunchtime gathering. Reno is the first candidate to accept. While the group is not endorsing Reno's candidacy, Guthrie said it was anxious to hear where she stood on the adoption issue.
"The adoption issue is ... a very sensitive subject for gays and lesbians. We feel like we're good, honest, hard-working, taxpaying citizens," Guthrie told WND. "We feel like we're very capable of raising children in a loving and caring home and shouldn't be denied that opportunity simply because of our sexual orientation."
Florida is the only state in the nation that has a blanket prohibition against adoption by all homosexuals, whether married or single. The ban was passed by the legislature in 1977 amid a crusade by Anita Bryant against a Miami-Dade County ordinance protecting residents from discrimination based on sexual orientation. Last year, five homosexual men who have been foster parents or guardians filed a federal lawsuit seeking to overturn the law, claiming discrimination. The suit is winding its way through the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
In 1993, after then-President Clinton nominated her for attorney general, previous allegations about Reno's own sexual orientation resurfaced.
"I am not a lesbian," she stated at the time. "The fact is I'm just an awkward old maid with a very great affection for men."
"The next step is to support gay marriages," said luncheon attendee Bob Williamson. "It makes no sense that we cannot adopt children. ... These kids need good homes, and there are wonderful gay homes where they'd be reared in such a way that it'd be a perfect life for them."
After wooing the audience of about 260 with her pro-gay rights stance, Reno took Bush to task over the "public school system that ranks in the lowest tier of all the 50 states in almost every measure of educational performance," and the disappearance of Rilya Wilson, a 4-year-old Miami-Dade girl, from Department of Children and Families custody.
As WorldNetDaily reported, Rilya vanished from her foster home, and state officials failed to notice or report the incident for 16 months. Despite national media coverage, her whereabouts remain a mystery.
"Gov. Bush talks about doing a better job of addressing the issue of abused and neglected children," said Reno, "but he can't even find all the children in the state. The blue ribbon committee he appointed to investigate the case of Rilya Wilson concluded that DCF is understaffed, underfunded and underappreciated. He has made no move to correct that while cutting corporate taxes."
Reno also warned about Republican proposals to privatize DCF and other state agencies: "Government is slowly being dismantled, parts of it contracted out, equipment sold off. How are we going to maintain consistency in government? How are we going to maintain the ability to handle an emergency, when a private company goes belly up, if we don't have a system in place and a stable institution in place to deliver services?" she said.
While emphasizing her track record of over 25 years of public service, Reno touched on some of the associated "baggage," starting with her handling of Elian Gonzalez, the Cuban boy federal agents seized from his Miami relatives' home in an Easter morning raid in 2000.
"Some people say, 'Janet, you've got too much baggage.'" she said. "Well, if the baggage means that I shouldn't have returned Elian back to his father where he belongs, then I plead guilty to baggage."
Answering critics about her handling of the inferno at the Branch Davidians' Waco, Texas, compound in 1993, Reno stated: "John Danforth, the person appointed to review Waco, said I did exactly the right thing. I couldn't walk away from four agents killed and 16 wounded. Neither could I stay there forever. ... David Koresh was out to create his own Armageddon."
Reno was not pressed to delve into any other "baggage," including her controversial decision not to name an independent counsel to investigate President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore for campaign-finance violations.
"What you see is what you get with me," said Reno. "You have a track record that you can look at and judge. As state attorney, as attorney general, I've tried to be as open and as transparent as I possibly could be. I tried to call it like I saw it regardless of the consequences. ... People know the buck stops with me and I'm accountable."
"The main thing for me is her integrity," Williamson said. "I worked for Congress when she was attorney general. All the Republicans hated her, and the White House hated her – so you know she was doing the right thing. She has courage. Integrity and courage – what more do you want?"
While the folksy Reno garners support among the homosexual community, a recent poll suggests an uphill battle lies ahead of her and her signature red truck to unseat Bush. A Florida Voter poll published in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel shows Bush leading Reno 53 percent to 37 percent with 10 percent undecided.
I pray you are correct. Every time I see her on the news I can only think firing squad.
South Florida has a huge gay and lesbian community - but can she afford for her own "past," not to mention her current campaigning in the gay community, to become an issue in parts of Florida where it's not OK to be gay?
Jackboot Janet's "girlfriend" - the story she fears will hit Florida talk radio!
Now I get it. The phrase "Janet Reno" is the disgusting profanity. I agree, anyone who uses that phrase should be reported and violated.
I say there are two late-stage cancers in America and one growing cancer. We can solve a lot of our "internal" problems by cutting Florida off and floating it over to Castro and giving California and Texas back to Mexico.
Based on the intellect and lifestyle of the voting demographic we are dealing with, I wouldn't count Reno out just yet. Stranger things have happened. Look at Boxer and Feinstein for goodness sakes. Who voted for those Communist Clowns?
I'll just bet she does.
Former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, who wants to become Florida's next governor, wears a star-spangled jacket as she speaks to members of the Democratic Lesbian and Gay Caucus of Miami-Dade County, Tuesday, July 9, 2002, in Miami. Reno is opposed by Bill McBride, a Tampa lawyer, in the race for the state's Democratic gubernatorial nomination. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)
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