Fort Lauderdale's Mayor wants the city to fork out a quarter-million dollars for a toilet he claims will put an end to gay sex that he says is rampant in public washrooms on the beach, even though the police department denies there is a problem.

Mayor Jim Naugle has spent the better part of a decade fighting what he has claimed to be an attempt by gays to take over Fort Lauderdale. He has consistently fought all LGBT rights ordinances that have come before city commissioners.

Now he's turning his attention on the beach - long a favorite of gay tourists who bring millions of dollars into the city each year. Naugle says that "homosexual activity" is plaguing public restrooms at the beach.

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The police department, however, tells the paper that sex in bathrooms isn't a major problem. Sgt. Frank Sousa. tells the Sun-Sentinel that while there may once have been a problem it isn't today. "There's no evidence, no reports or arrests made for any men having sex in any restrooms," Sousa told the paper.

Nevertheless, Naugle wants the city to buy a portable bathroom called a "robo-john" and have it placed on the beach at Sebastian Street an area popular with gay sunbathers. The "robo-john" allows occupants to stay inside for only a short time before the door opens. According to Naugle it isn't enough time for "illegal sex".

Methinks that population has alot more str8 sex in public bathrooms in one week than the entire native gay folks have public, gay sex the whole rest of the year.

Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle called a news conference Tuesday to issue what he called an apology for remarks he made earlier this month about public gay sex on the beach but instead turned it into another broadside against the gay community.

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On Tuesday gays and the media expected Naugle to apologize for the remarks. Instead the conservative Democrat said he was apologizing for what he claimed was underestimating the problem.

"I want to apologize to the children and parents of our community for not being aware of the problem,'' Naugle said, calling on residents to call police if they see gays engaging in sex in public restrooms.

He also said that that a gay cruising Web site recommends to two city parks.

According to Naugle Broward County has the highest rate of new HIV/AIDS cases involving men having sex with men in the country and suggested the county tourism office should rethink its ad campaigns that welcome gays to the area.

Gay activists said they intend to step up their campaign against the mayor.

According to Naugle Broward County has the highest rate of new HIV/AIDS cases involving men having sex with men in the country

...Following 9-11 when travel in general fell off, gay travel remained relatively high, and in the year after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington gay travelers were credited with helping save Florida's tourism industry.

Fort Lauderdale ranked No. 6 among gay travelers last year, and accounted for about 11 percent of Broward's $8.5 billion tourism industry.

But over the past month Naugle has infuriated gays with homophobic remarks.

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So concerned is the tourism industry over the potential fallout the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau is using paid media watchers in New York and Europe to see how far the story is spreading.

So far it has been covered extensively in the US and European gay press, but has not attracted much attention in the mainstream media.

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For now the Visitors Bureau and local hotel operators are hoping the controversy blows over. "Right now we don't think an overreaction to what's happening is necessary,'' president Nicki Grossman told the Miami Herald.

Roger Hanavit, a spokesperson for Rainbow Carpet Lodging and Hospitality Alliance which represents about 30 gay hotels in Fort Lauderdale, told the paper Naugle's remarks do not "put Fort Lauderdale in a good light, [and] the longer we stay on this, the more damage it does."

Roger Hanavit, a spokesperson for Rainbow Carpet Lodging and Hospitality Alliance which represents about 30 gay hotels in Fort Lauderdale, told the paper Naugle's remarks do not "put Fort Lauderdale in a good light, [and] the longer we stay on this, the more damage it does."

He's an elected official and he should know better.

Ten national LGBT civil rights organizations are calling on Fort Lauderdale and Broward County commissioners to denounce recent homophobic remarks by Mayor Jim Naugle.

The letters were signed by the leaders of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the National Center for Lesbian Rights; Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation; The National Lesbian Health Organization; the Mautner Project; Pride At Work, AFL-CIO; Out & Equal Workplace Advocates; Family Pride; Faith In America.

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The letters urged members of both the Fort Lauderdale City Commission and the Broward County Commission publicly affirm the area welcomes gay tourists.

Fort Lauderdale's City Commission is on summer vacation and will not return until September. The County Commission meets next Tuesday.

A letter of gay support would not only be welcome by area gays but also Fort Lauderdale's tourist industry which depends heavily on gay money.

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So far [the story] has been covered extensively in the US and European gay press, but has not attracted much attention in the mainstream media.

Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle stepped up his war of words Tuesday over what he sees as rampant gay sex at public washrooms at the beach.

The outspoken mayor staged a news conference outside Fort Lauderdale City Hall where he was flanked by conservative Christian leaders and declared gay sex had become a major public health crisis in the city.

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uesday he reiterated his claim the county had become the area with the highest AIDS rate in the country and accused the county health department of suppressing the facts

"I think that the Broward County health people because of their constraints with the Broward County government are interested in being politically correct," Naugle told reporters. "I think the people who are here are more interested in saving lives."

Gay and AIDS outreach workers who watched the press conference reacted angrily to the Mayor's latest pronouncements.

"I am a person living with AIDS and what you are saying is wrong," Michael Rajnor of the Campaign to End AIDS yelled back at the mayor.

"He should be serving the people. He should be standing up for people. He should be fighting for funds for housing, for substance abuse, for vocational training. Who the hell do you people think you are?"

Members of the group supporting him handed out bumper stickers saying "Mayor Naugle is right."

"We want the homosexual community to know that we love them and that God loves them also," the Rev. O'Neal Dozier told the news conference. "But God hates the act of homosexuality."

This guy just can't shut up...

Ft. Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle was defiant Thursday as the city's tourist board castigated him for a series of attacks on gays.

Nikki Grossman, the president of the Greater Ft. Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau said the mayor is endangering the county's biggest business - tourism - and damaging the area's reputation worldwide.

Grossman told the mayor at the bureau's Thursday meeting that he is making Fort Lauderdale look close-minded and unwelcoming. "The damage has been done to the destination," Grossman told Naugle.

"We need to get back to work fixing it. The rhetoric needs to stop and the anger, the mischaracterizations and the hurtful mean-spirited rhetoric has to stop."

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Although no specific boycott of Fort Lauderdale by gays has been called several hotels and resorts that have a mainly gay clientele say they have contacted by guests who regularly stay with them to say they will not be coming back as long as Naugle is in office.

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But Naugle was unmoved Thursday as various visitors bureau board members called for him to stop his attacks. "I am the Mayor that’s not going to back down," he said.

"One of the things that my dad taught me,” said Naugle, “is that it isn’t always about the money, it’s about doing what’s right."

Since Naugle made his initial allegations about rampant gay sex in public restrooms nearly two months ago, the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau has been deluged with hundreds of angry e-mails from tourists. Some said they had canceled vacations, while others threatened to go elsewhere.

A gay-oriented convention that was to draw 200 attendees this fall is on hold. A group that plans black family reunions has voiced concern about whether the mayor was sending a message of intolerance. Bookings of college and high-school sporting events is also down compared to last year.