Dear Editor:

Next week on Get Out South Florida LGBT radio we are planning a discussion on how the LGBT community treats each other. It’s going to be called “Eating Our Own.” When I saw your recent issue with former U.S. Congressman Mark Foley and former Ambassador Nancy Brinker, who is also the founder of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Organization, I thought that our topic could not be more timely.

Reader responds to last week’s letter calling for gays to arm themselves

Editor, 

I cannot speak in any way for Multimedia Platforms (MMP) or its amazing team of employees who are regrettably affected by your story, but in the interest of accuracy, kindly allow me to correct just one critical point as it applies to me personally.

Dear Editor,

Thanks for printing the article about the Prayer Breakfast and for bringing it to the community's attention in such a big way!

I found James Oaksun, article “Real Estate: The New World Versus The Old” very interesting and thought I would share some thought on my experience with Airbinb.

The Electoral College was designed to prevent a demagogue from becoming POTUS.  The ‘Electors’ are not supposed to ‘rubber-stamp’ the popular vote…rather, to take their responsibility gravely by analyzing and deliberating on behalf of the best interests of our country’s health and future as well as for ALL citizens. The Republican Electoral College will be voting December 19th.  It is imperative that every citizen demand that these ‘Electors’ fully consider…with eyes and ears wide open and intellect intact… the danger that this president-elect poses to our country.  Your state has 29 Electoral votes.  Please call, write and voice your support that the Republican Electoral College not ratify this presidential election.

The negative campaigning going on in the local election is unconscionable to me and I do not condone such behavior.

Dear Editor,

Yesterday morning, I received a call from a local Senior we’ll call “Ed.” He’s taken part in a few Pride Center programs. He frequently visits Poverello next door. He has a witty sense of humor and bad neuropathy in his feet. He’s also about to be priced out of his long-term local housing. He wanted me to sign him up for the “wait list” for Senior affordable housing on our campus. He was quite disappointed when I told him we’re still a couple years away from a wait list.

Prides are some of the most vibrant and fun places on Earth

Pier Angelo, I love it! I thoroughly enjoyed your article.

To the Editor:

Dear Jason Parsley,

I am writing to you in response to the article SFGN recently published regarding Representative Bobby DuBose, not as an AHF employee, but as a constituent, who has worked with the representative on a number of issues. As always, I thank SFGN for its in-depth reporting.

Dear Tony Adams,

Screw you. 

So very often, we want to believe nice things about people, or believe the nice things they say to us are truly reflections of their feelings at all times. But Maya Angelou once said, “When people show you who they are, believe them.”

This e-mail is regarding the proposed low-income housing at the Pride Center. The following are some points to consider after reading the e-mail from the PC that went out recently.

Dear South Florida Gay News,

Pardon the pun, but the recent editorial in South Florida Gay News, The National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce Strikes Out, missed the ball entirely.

Through this new partnership between the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC) and Major League Baseball (MLB), our organization, American Meetings, Inc. (AMI), has already successfully participated in the Major League Baseball Diversity Summit held last week in Phoenix, Arizona. There we were able to meet with officials from the MLB Corporate Office and representatives from all of the teams. Additionally, we are now in discussions with several teams regarding opportunities to partner with them on future events. For us, and many other Certified LGBT Business Enterprises, this partnership will no doubt be a “home run”.

The National Gay Media Association (NGMA) does a tremendous service for the community. Long before LGBT stories were part of national news, NGMA and its thousands of loyal writers, editors, and readers were promoting the successes and triumphs of LGBT businesses and advocates. That tradition continues today, and the community is grateful for it.

There is so much positive momentum for our community that it’s more important than ever that our LGBT media be supportive of the efforts our hard-working national organizations are doing on our behalf. If it wasn’t for the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce advancing LGBT economic opportunities, our community would never have been recognized by over 1/3 of the Fortune 500, which gives us clout to be recognized by the likes of Fortune and the Walls Street Journal.  

No one is doing more to help the LGBT community gain economic strength and equity than NGLCC. Major national publications covering them is proof that our business interests are just viable and powerful as any other minority in America. For years we’ve all been demanding that ‘attention must be paid’ to our businesses—and now it is.   That should be celebrated for the visibility it’s brining us, the jobs it’s creating, and the seat at the table our community never had before NGLCC and their partners made it happen.

When their conference was in Fort Lauderdale last year, it attracted hundreds of business owners and corporate reps looking to do business with us in South Florida. We heard their conference made a $4 million impact on the local economy. The local LGBT media benefitted greatly from that impact. Just as our business, American Meetings Inc. (AMI), has from being involved with NGLCC.   Since we got certified in 2012, our business has grown over 40%. SFGN knows how powerful the LGBT family can be for connections and opportunities, and that’s what we and our nearly 1,000 certified LGBTBE colleagues around the country—and the world—find through NGLCC every day.

We remember Suze Orman being on the SFGN cover during their conference like it was yesterday. In fact, some of the most exciting coverage of NGLCC’s work we’ve seen has come from NGMA papers and websites in recent years. The more that our esteemed LGBT press can amplify and localize the wins of great groups like NGLCC, the better we’ll all be.   More positive coverage will help more business owners like us come out, get certified, and scale rapidly so they can continue advertising in your outlets and hiring brilliant LGBT talent here in South Florida.

Local LGBT press is a part of the fabric of our local communities. Just like the NGLCC local affiliates Miami-Dade Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (MDGLCC) and Greater Fort Lauderdale Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (GFLGLCC), local press makes the personal, at-home connection to the major national movements our organizations are leading for us.  

We think we should be celebrating this historic partnership with Major League Baseball as a home run for all of us--- because now we’re not just spectators at the game, our LGBT businesses are all-stars on the field. Stories like this, and the many more ahead, have so much impact to our local communities and we hope to great papers like SFGN will keep sharing them for the positive sign of growth and opportunity ahead that they truly are.

Sincerely,

Andy McNeill, Principal & CEO

Todd Bludworth, Principal & President

American Meetings, Inc. (AMI)

On Thursday, June 16, 2016, as we stood in solidarity with the LGBTQ community, during the aftermath of the Pulse Nightclub shooting, not everyone in our community stood with us.

We own and run a city and state licensed, tax paying business that brings hundreds of shoppers, tourists and future residents to Wilton Manors each year.

Dear Jason,

Former local president speaks out against OUR Fund’s cold-shoulder

On Tuesday, April 26, 2016, the Wilton Manors City Commission discussed an agenda item regarding gender confirmation benefit options being added to the city’s employee healthcare plan. The discussion included personal testimonies from members of the audience. I was moved by the struggles and tribulations transgender constituents within and outside our community are experiencing as a result of rampant discrimination within the mainstream healthcare system. And while much of the discussion was on the financial cost of coverage to the city, cost to employees, and where the money would come from, an essential fact was overlooked.

Reader responds to last week’s letter from editor “Trump is a Cancer on Our Democracy”

Vitambi Springs wasn’t accidentally omitted or forgotten, we were intentionally snubbed by the writer. We are the closest campgroundserving all of South Florida; you would imagine SFGN readers would want to know about us.

The recent Diversity Honors gala is the South Florida community’s best evidence of our beautiful humanity. On May 6, 2017, the South Florida LGBT community gathered to celebrate and acknowledge the good that our community does - both from the inside and the outside.

The 5th April 2017 edition of SFGN’s Wilton Manors Gazette posted a fascinating constellation of articles including James Oaksun’s “Who Do You Trust?,” concerning questionable practices of politicians and realtors with regard to affordable housing that degrade trust, followed ironically by Michael d’Oliveira’s “Metropolitan Faces Scrutiny at Commission Meeting: Developers Accused of Lying,” which title says it all, then his “Taking Over ‘Site 92’” about differing opinions on neighborhood parkland, and finally Pier Angelo’s tongue in cheek piece titled “Now Wilton Manors Needs An Airport,” which satirizes the current drive to put a train station in our town. Clearly, development in our island oasis and its pitfalls are on our minds nowadays.

Thank you so much for your article on Ft. Lauderdale Mayor Friend or Foe? The LGBTQ community relies on articles like this to bring to the forefront who our true supporters are. I also read in a blog that Seiler was the only S. Florida mayor to not support "Mayors for Freedom To Marry" before it became legal. Is there a pattern here?

Check out our letters to the editor.

I am in long-term recovery, and for me that means I have not consumed alcohol for almost 11 years now. Recovery has given me purpose and hope for the future, while helping me regain stability in my life. Additionally, I have lived with chronic depression for most of my adult life, and know others who also struggle with this.