July 18, 2007 | Sex & Society

Bathroom brawl in Ford Lauderdale

The Mayor of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, recently angered local queers when he suggested that expensive public toilets be set up in the city. They would be equipped with automatic doors that suddenly open after a set amount of time. The biggest benefit? It would discourage gay sex.

"We're trying to provide a family environment where people can take their children who need to use the bathroom without having to worry about a couple of men in there engaged in a sex act," Mayor Jim Naugle claims.

The first location for a trial run of the $250,000 self-cleaning robo-john? 

A parking lot next to a gay beach. "The homosexual newspaper said it's the 'gay parking lot.' That's not me saying that," Naugle told the Sun-Sentinel, "that's what they said. I don't use the word 'gay.' I use the word 'homosexual.' Most of them aren't gay. They're unhappy."

This from a man who considers the ACLU to be the "Atheists and Criminal Lobbying Union," and that global warming was made-up by "a bunch of scientists meeting in Paris who've had too much wine.”

UNITE Fort Lauderdale is calling for James Naugle's resignation, arguing that the Mayor has a history of using bigoted comments to score political points. They are using the "Flush Naugle" campaign as a "reminder of the ugly stereotypes Naugle used during his latest rant calling most gay people "unhappy", while proposing the purchase of $250,000 toilets to prevent a non-existent problem." 

Part of their protest included encouraging people to send the Mayor a cyber-roll of toilet paper.

Similar toilets have been established in San Francisco, Seattle, Atlanta and New York. We'll take one, too. Cleaning toilets is such a drag!

• Lauderdale mayor shrugs off gay protest [Miami Herald]
• Mayor Jim's tipping point? [New Times]
• Flush Naugle homepage [flushnaugle.org]
• Gay issues don't equate to sex [Sun-Sentinal]