Failing Doral recall, Vanessa Brito tries for marriage equality

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Fresh off the epic fail that was the botched (read: fake) recall effort in Doral, local “activist” and gypsy con artist Vanessa Brito has moved on, yet again, like the locust she is. This time, she says she formed a PAC to collect signatures for marriage equality in Florida.

While the effort is worthwhile and one that Ladra supports unequivocally, the LGBT community, of which I am a proud member, could be doomed. Despite the oohs and ahhs you may hear from apologists who just want the little firecracker that Brito is to help them, the champion of the latest effort is a tainted campaign operative who has multiple lawsuits against her for theft and defamation and whose non-transparent tactics are questionable, if not outright unethical.

What makes La Brito, or anyone funding her, think she can do this anyway? The effort needs to collect  681,000 signatures from across the state to put marriage equality back on the 2014 ballot, to repeal a ban passed five years ago on anything except a union between a man and a woman. The effort needs 10 percent, or a little more than 68,000 signatures, by Aug. 1. Brito couldn’t even get the measly 2,000 signatures needed for a recall of Doral Councilwoman Bettina Rodriguez-Aguilera (who must be sighing relief that Brito has moved on). And then, the practiced liar cried foul when she couldn’t follow through, accusing a longtime public servant with absolutely no complaints of stashing signed petitions away to thwart her. She had been “robbed,” of course, but in order to cover up her own thievery. She stole money from whoever funded that effort and Ladra fears this is yet another scam of hers.

Or could it be that she is just glomming on to a movement that is already underway to take credit where it is not due again? We don’t know yet. But earlier in the week, Equality Florida, the state’s largest gay-rights organization, and the national Freedom to Marry group announced their Get Engaged educational awareness effort in Florida — a completely unrelated campaign. Think it may have sparked an idea in the gypsy’s head?

Even respected LGBT activists like Nadine Smith of Equality Florida say it may be too soon to put the question back on the ballot.

But, already, she is being hailed as a hero. Again. Reports of her new pretty endeavor are filled with underlying praise and references to her claimed victory in the recall of Miami-Dade Commissioner Natacha Seijas — even though she tried  to recall five commissioners and only got Seijas on the very well-financed coattails of the Mayor Carlos Alvarez recall. There is no indepedent confirmation of this group. There is a website for Equal Marriage Florida, sure, but anybody can put one up nowadays and there is no PAC filed with the county or the state to pay for such an effort. There are no “others” listed for a board. Just Brito and “honorary chairman” and former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, a Libertarian candidate for president in 2012 who may not even know about this.

Really, Ladra has to think that Miami Herald reporter Steve Rothaus is in love with her by the way he keeps writing about her, not just because there are these glaring omissions but also because he knows about her history and track record. I know he knows because we’ve exchanged emails about it. Still, he always gives her a pass.

And I expect the hate mail and comments about me having any issues with this. But let’s get one thing straight. Er, I mean solid. I support marriage equality and everyone that knows me knows that. I support it so much that I hope Brito is successful, despite the fact that it will vindicate her and lead to further collective memory loss about all the havoc she has caused.

Hell, maybe even because of it. Ladra may be a hard ass, but after watching four whole seasons of Glee with my daughter, I now believe that people can change. I want to think that this crazy, heartless scam artist has learned her lessons and turns out to really have a heart of gold.

And let’s face it: Despite her past transgressions and a horrible train wreck of a track record, Brito was born for this role. She is best when selling something she really believes and is a darling of the gay community, which is always quickest to forget her sins, no matter what she does politically, like selling endorsements from a LGBT non profit to the candidates she worked for. Yeah, she did that too.

But, eh, we’ll forget about that if she can get the ban on same sex marriage overturned. Right?

But we worry. We worry that whoever gives her money for this — auto magnate Norman Braman, who paid her for the recall effort, told Ladra he is not involved with anything Brito does anymore — is going to be throwing it away. We worry that her half-assed efforts — porque nunca ha quedado bien en nada — will hamper any real campaign done by real professionals who could pull it off. After all, several polls show huge support across the state for marriage equality and the times, they are achanging. The bigoted and wrong constitutional amendment passed in 2008 was a fluke, perhaps largely due to the fact that the only campaigning was done for the anti equality side, not the pro side. 

So, I’m going to keep one eye open on Ms. Brito — who did not return a message left for her to comment — and wait for the con job that I think is inevitable.

But, at the same time, where do I sign?

  Doral, Equal Marriage Florida, marriage equality, Vanessa Brito