Residents of Jacksonville, Fla. said leaflets declaring "Stop AIDS, Support Gay Bashing" are showing up in driveways, just days after the first in a series of forums to discuss LGBT protections, reported Pink News.
Jacksonville TV station WJXT reported a champagne-colored pickup truck was spotted by one resident's surveillance camera Friday, as someone in the truck tossed the flyers in bags filled with rice, to weigh them down. More leaflets turned up Monday.
The leaflets feature an offensive stick figure drawing of one man bent over in front of another man, with the international symbol for "do not," as well as the words: "Homosexual Men And Their Sex Acts Are Disgusting And Inhuman."
The flyers also call for an end to "non-white immigration," for Haitians to be outlawed, and for the deportation of "mud people." It is signed by the "Loyal White Knights of the KKK," and lists both a "hotline" and a website.
Callers to the hotline are greeted with a racist message which contains slurs and concludes with the slogan, "If it ain't white, it ain't right. White power."
The appearance of these leaflets followed a contentious forum in Jacksonville, set-up by its Republican mayor, to fulfill a campaign promise to consider expanding existing laws to include non-discrimination provisions for LGBT people.
The New Civil Rights Movement reported about 400 people crowded into a room at Florida State College on November 17. The issue was considered in 2012 but the city council rejected it.
Among the panel selected by Mayor Lenny Curry was Roger Gannam, an attorney for Liberty Counsel who recently represented antigay Kentucky clerk Kim Davis in her fight to avoid issuing marriage licenses to same sex couples.
"In Toronto, a man posing as a transgender woman attacked women at a shelter," Gannam, according to Florida Politics blogger A.G. Gancarski. He referred to the 2012 case of Christopher Hambrook, a heterosexual cisgender [not transgender] man who was jailed "indefinitely" as a sexual predator after sexually assaulting women. He falsely claimed to be trans, reported the Toronto Sun.
He contended it was not "hypothetical" or "alarmist" to raise "bathroom" concerns of the kind used in Houston to defeat an equal rights ordinance earlier this month.
One of the supporters of this effort asked for a show of hands of those discriminated against because of gender identity or expression. About one-third of the crowd raised their hands.
Jacksonville attorney Joey Vaughn, who helped organize the opposition in 2012, dismissed them, saying, "There's no evidence of widespread discrimination," according to TNCRM.
"Jacksonville is still a friendly, receptive place." Vaughn told the crowd, saying a law protecting gender identity or expression would be like "allowing people who are white to say they identify as African-Americans."
The first round of public speakers were all in favor of protections, reported TNCRM, ranging from those who had experienced discrimination to medical professionals citing the grim statistics of depression and suicide among LGBT youth.
Even though speakers were called in the order in which they turned in sign-up cards, those opposed to expanding protections grew restless. At one point, a retired Air Force pilot who heads a Christian men's group called Crossover Jacksonville stood up, out of turn, and declared: "This is a sham!"
Maj. Marshall Wood (USAF, Ret.) complained to Mayor Curry he was not able to share his views and threatened to organize his own forum where those against granting LGBT protections could be heard.
The next "community conversation" will be held on December 3 at Edward Waters College and will focus on "religious freedoms." The last forum will be held at Jacksonville University on December 15 and will examine the effects the non-discrimination law would have on business.
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