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?
Failing Doral recall, Vanessa Brito tries for marriage equality added by Ladra on
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In the wake of the decisions striking down part of the Defense of Marriage Act and allowing the trial-court ruling finding California’s Proposition 8 unconstitutional to stand, advocates in several states are gearing up efforts to expand that marriage equality map — which now stands at 13 states and DC.
The Supreme Court’s ruling last week striking down parts of the Defense of Marriage Act as well as allowing the trial-court ruling finding California’s Proposition 8 unconstitutional to stand, has advocates in Florida and several other states pushing to expand marriage equality efforts.
Voters in Maine are being asked to reinstate the marriage equality law that was overturned at the ballot box in 2009. The campaign is one of four marriage-related initiatives that will be decided in states this November, and the only one that LPAC endorsed in its inaugural slate of campaigns last month.
In the wake of the decisions striking down part of the Defense of Marriage Act and allowing the trial-court ruling finding California’s Proposition 8 unconstitutional to stand, advocates in several states are gearing up efforts to expand that marriage equality map — which now stands at 13 states and DC.
On May 6th, 2009, Maine became the first state in the country to pass a marriage bill through its Legislature and have it signed into law by sitting Governor John Baldacci. Unfortunately, six months later, Maine voters narrowly repealed that bill in a People’s Veto, denying same-sex couples the responsibilities and protections that only marriage can provide. In an effort to raise awareness and increase public support of marriage equality, Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) and EqualityMaine have partnered to create this project to share the personal stories of real Mainers and demonstrate what marriage means to them.
By Dr. (?) Meissner’s logic, there was no need for the US Supreme Court to strike down all state bans on interracial marriage through the Loving v. Virginia decision. After all — and this was actually agued at the time — all whites were free to get married, and all blacks were free to get married, they just all had to marry someone of the same race — just as in Dr. Meissner’s view straights can all get married, and gays can all get married, they just all have to marry someone of the opposite sex!
Unfortunately for Dr. Meissner, the US Supreme Court rejected that reasoning as to race, and that the right not just to get married but to get married to the partner of one’s choice, regardless of race, was as fundamental a civil and human right as there is. And we’re on track for that same reasoning to be applied by the Supreme Court to same-sex couples too.
So Dr. Meissner, enjoy this time period, because after that now-inevitable Supreme Court ruling extending the Loving decision to same-sex couples nationwide, your children and grandchildren will view your opinions from this era in the same way as the children and grandchildren of white racists who opposed interracial marriage now view *them*.
With all due respect, Dr., did you just get back from sabbatical or something?
Pushed by hate and fear, and much ado to the absence of any counter argument, voters in Florida created an amendment in 2008 that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman. How on Earth is that equality?
Please get your facts straight. Equal is equal. Anything short of that is just bigotry and discrimination.
Love, Ladra
THERE ALREADY IS MARRIAGE EQUALITY IN FLORIDA!
I am amazed how some individuals just love to spew hate and disinformation. I am equally amazed how these same individuals can so shameless disrespect and hate the will of the people of Florida democratically expressed at the ballot box in a fair, reasoned, open and democratic vote. Floridians already overwhelmingly and democratically voted for Marriage Equality when they approved the Florida Marriage Equality Amendment in 2008.
In Florida, everyone has an EQUAL right to get married under the same, objective, EQUAL terms and conditions as EVERYONE else. Because this same, objective, EQUAL criterion applies EQUALLY to everyone in Florida, it is completely false to assert that there is any discrimination whatsoever.
When will they stop agitating, and find time to understand that they simply do not have the right to invent their own subjective, private, unequal definition of Marriage, nor their own subjective, private, unequal definition of Equality, nor their own subjective, private, unequal definition of Male or Female? When will some people stop the hate and find time to respect the will of Florida’s people???