Inside Florida’s Republican Death Panel

How Florida Conspired To Set Up an ADAP “Drop Dead List”

Florida’s mostly Republican leadership has conspired with private conservative advocacy groups like AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) to defund and demoralize people receiving their HIV medications through a Federal/State program called ADAP (AIDS Drug Assistance Program).

People who receive ADAP medication are generally low-income members of the workforce. The ADAP programs were originally set up as a partnership between the Federal Government and States to address the problem of HIV drugs being too expensive for the average person to afford out-of-pocket coupled with the “pre-existing conditions” clause in most health insurance programs which would deny coverage for HIV drugs.

Over the past decade, it has been customary for the Federal Government to increase ADAP funds by about 13.33% per year. Both George W. Bush and Barack Obama have done that (although Bush only increased ADAP funding to appropriate “catch-up” levels when a Democratic Congress took over during the latter part of his Presidency as he had previously cut domestic HIV spending in favor of global HIV spending). But according to Michael Weinstein, President of AHF “Obama has done very little to support domestic HIV/AIDS funding” and “he’s only good at making nice speeches on the subject” which don’t solve the funding problem.*

This is the message being transmitted to the mostly gay and African American communities affected by HIV/AIDS in South Florida. Both Weinstein and Joey Wynn of The Broward House (another state-funded HIV care and advocacy organization) snarl Obama’s name through pursed lips as if they are speaking about a fascist dictator and their message isn’t any kinder when it comes to parting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.**


In fact, Michael Weinstein and his highly paid employees at AHF routinely protest the Federal Government with picket lines and chants like “Hey Feds, Give Us Back Our Meds”. One such stunt had them all carrying faux coffins and crosses and dressed like Grim Reapers while walking in circles around Nancy Pelosi’s California office.

But what AHF and the Broward House absolutely will NOT tell you, is that Obama and the Congress have done business as usual on ADAP and that it’s actually Florida’s Republican legislature that has made the cuts to the program which resulted in the infamous “ADAP waiting list” and ultimately, the far worse “ADAP drop list” which FL Health Department officials like Tom Liberti swore just a couple of months ago would not occur…

When AHF protests outside of Pelosi’s office (invariably at the peak of her re-election campaign) with signs and displays indicating that people are dying because of her actions, a subtle lie is being communicated to passers-by. California has no “waiting list” for ADAP medications and is better-funded than South Carolina where at least three people have already died waiting for medication. California is better funded because their Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger eventually stepped up to the plate and delivered the $27 million in funds. So it’s intellectually dishonest for Weinstein and his merry crew of tea-party style “deathers” to imply that this is a Nancy Pelosi problem. South Carolina’s Republican government completely de-funded its own contributions to ADAP voluntarily. That is what killed people – not Pelosi.

Weinstein does not seem to care that his message is based on a false notion of the Obama Administration supposedly “cutting funds”*** for HIV. He is working with the State of Florida on a number of proposals which would elevate his organization’s stature and authority in the United States. One such proposal would allow him to police the pornography industry for safer sex practices and allow him access to confidential medical information which he is currently not given access to.

Another proposal is one by where AHF works with Pharmaceutical companies to negotiate prices and “freebies” called PAP’s (Patient Assistance Programs) so that the “free market” can step in and take care of what the big, bad Federal Government supposedly would not.

Weinstein’s Republican favoritism shows itself quite readily when you look at his supposed solution to the ADAP crisis. His protests are meant to draw negative attention to Democrats while drawing positive attention to a bill drawn up by far-right Republican Senators called the “Access ADAP Act” (S. 3401).

The bill, which was introduced by Sen. Richard Burr R-NC (whose last campaign was funded by BlueCross/BlueSheild), aims to take a huge chunk of Obama’s stimulus package and divert it toward ADAP. In essence, the withdrawn funds would damage the effectiveness of the stimulus (sending them into a category which does not produce a return on the investment) but it would also alleviate Republican-controlled states from their fair share of a national burden.

Incidentally, 3 of the co-signing Republican Senators on the bill (which has already died in committee and was never expected to be plausible) have anti-gay legislation languishing in various committees too. In fact, all 5 of the Senators who co-sponsored the legislation that AHF’s Michael Weinstein is urging his followers to support were also co-sponsors on a Senate Bill last year which would have outlawed individual states from making their own marriage laws – in direct conflict with the United States Constitution.

The sunshine state is not exactly forthcoming with information on exactly which aspects of healthcare funding were cut and by whom specifically. Florida has a set of what are called “Sunshine Laws” (transparency laws that make legislation available and accessible online) which sound just brilliant but are not very effective at all in this situation. Browsing the budget reports from over the last 10 years, it shows that decisions like this are made in sub-committees. Sub-committees in Florida are allowed to, for whatever reason; block their procedures and committee notes on “certain items” from view by the public. This is of course what has happened with the specific itemized budget cuts that resulted in the ADAP Drop List.

Mysteriously, not a single high-ranking Florida official has addressed this issue to the public or responded to media inquiries on the subject. Governor Charlie Crist (R) and his Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink (D) have talked about every issue under the sun during their expensive political campaigns for higher office this year. Hundreds of millions of dollars were spent by Crist, Sink, Rick Scott and Allen West in the last election cycle and even a small fraction of that would solve the problem that HIV positive persons face in being dropped from the program. Even according to AHF, the amount that is needed is only 17 million dollars.

Even some Democratic State legislators who claim to care deeply about the crisis have been unwilling to go to the Republican legislature in Florida and either ask or demand an increase in state level funding for HIV care. Frederica Wilson, a State Senator at the time, scoffed at the idea and pretended that it was simply impossible. This was after she told her audience that she and Health Department official Tom Liberti had gone to Washington “way back during the AIDS crisis” and tearfully pleaded with congress for funds and concern. Evidently to Florida Democrats, mountains are moveable but not molehills.

* These are actually sentiments from Michael Weinstein who I interviewed and audio-recorded with his permission. The statements about Obama’s supposed uselessness were made two days after Obama released the comprehensive National HIV/AIDS Strategy which is meant to coincide with healthcare reform. The strategy is the culmination of years of research and studies conducted nationwide and abroad and was hailed by many activists as a trailblazing and enlightened approach to the care of persons with HIV/AIDS and prevention for those whom are not yet affected.

** According to Joey Wynn from The Broward House at an AHF-sponsored town hall meeting, he told a bystander that Obama had actually “not increased” funding for ADAP, that he had “kept it the same”. That is untrue as well. The concept that Wynn was twisting around was the fact that Obama had not increased funding by any more than he did the previous year or the last year that Bush was in office. But Obama did, in fact, increase funding for ADAP to the tune of +13.33% in his last 3 annual budgets which are available to browse at the Kaiser Institute website.

*** In my work as a journalist covering the ADAP crisis in Florida, I’ve encountered many concerned people with HIV who have been misled by AHF and Joey Wynn at the Broward House to believe that Barack Obama has personally slashed the budget on their ADAP funds… This is NOT true. However, these organizations buy plenty of advertising in every newspaper, magazine, charity event and venue in South Florida. This is not done because they need to advertise; it’s done in order to harness the media and overpower any voice of dissent that dares to disagree with their rhetoric.

"Let Us Not Be Nuts."

"Here is a grand old party frozen, suspended, mesmerized, in thrall to a gaggle of showboats and radio entertainers and small mobs of fist-shakers standing staunch for unreality, and no Republican elected official dares say, 'Let us not be nuts'."
- Garrison Keillor

John Boehner (R-OH) - I Don't think women should be paid as much as men for doing the exact same work. That's why I voted against The Paycheck Fairness Act (H.R. 1338). I also voted against protecting credit card holders from sudden interest rate increases surprise changes in terms of agreement (H.R. 5244).


Michele Bachmann (R-MN) - I don't want small businesses to get a tax-cut as a hiring incentive to create jobs. That's why I voted against the Small Business Lending Act (H.R. 5297). However, I did make firearms exempt from repossession during bankrupcy, but that was only for businesses - not individuals like you (H.R. 5827)


John McCain (R-AZ) - I think companies like Halliburton/KBR should be allowed to lock rape victims in shipping containers for days - even weeks - to keep them from testifying in court against the company. This happened to a young woman named Jamie Leigh Jones and she's my daughter's age. That's why I voted against Amendment 2588 to the Defense Appropriations Bill H.R. 3326. I also voted against repealing 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell', a pay increase for soldiers and a program to treat PTSD.


Carly Fiorina (R-CA) - I want to give all of America's jobs to China and India. I use the term "globalization" rather than "outsourcing" because we've added yet another way to take away American jobs. You see, by successfully promoting H1-B Visa programs, we can actually ship immigrants into the USA and give them your job for much cheaper than what you'd work for. You can call that "insourcing". When I was queen bee at Hewlett Packard, I laid off 18,000 American workers and made decisions which led to 30,000 more being laid off when I was gone.


Charlie Crist (R-FL) - I like to tell everyone that I'm concerned about the environment, but under my governorship, Pensacola FL became the American city with the absolute most polluted water. That was before the oil spill in our gulf. When the BP disaster happened, I thought it was more important to collect $25 Million from the oil company for tourism advertisements telling everyone to come to our beaches before I even knew whether or not that was safe. I have been suspected of being in the closet as a homosexual for quite some time now, but I think dashed those myths by signing a few anti-gay laws including one that forbids gays from even getting civil union in Florida, let alone marriage. And just to rub it in, I got married the week after I passed the no gay marriage bill.


Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) - I really hate homosexuals. In fact, my Senate staff likes to send death threats to gay bloggers in their spare time. I tried to pass a law that would effectively open up all of our Federal land including National Parks to hunting. This would probably result in children being shot, but I don't care. Even John McCain says I'm "reprehensible" because I attacked the patriotism of my veteran opponent to get my first seat in the Senate. I want to privatize social security, eliminate the IRS and get warrantless wiretaps on US citizens. I want to make it a felony just to drive a woman to an abortion clinic.

Charlie And The Fudge Factory

In Brief: This post explores the rumors, information and accusations which have implied that Florida’s governor Charlie Crist is gay but living in the closet. I will offer a complete timeline of events to this effect and discuss some of the reasons that this is important.

Back in October of 2006, my good friend (at the time) Jamie called an emergency coffee-talk with me. When we met, she confided to me that the New Times would “possibly” run a story about gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist being gay. She knew this because she was, at the time, writing and modeling for cover photos in the New Times and evidently, the place was plagued with nervous hand-wringing over the situation. What she wanted from me was my opinion - not as to Crist’s orientation - but as to whether or not I thought the story should run. Unbeknownst to either of us, I’m sure; this conversation would be the last one we ever had together. She was looking for something from me, which I was ultimately unable to offer: an excuse for Charlie Crist to avoid scrutiny over his personal life... And maybe not just Charlie Crist but perhaps a way for gay men in general to become more... well... not gay? It was one of those defining moments where two friends are sitting on opposite sides of a biscotti and suddenly realize that they have never really seen eye to eye on anything at all.

As it turns out, there are two schools of thought when it comes to outing celebrities and politicians. The old school line of thinking (Jamie’s school) is that people’s personal lives should be kept personal and that it’s not fair to play “crabs in a barrel” and tear apart someone’s life just because you’re unhappy. The modern, more radical approach (my school of thought, generally) is that liars will always be hypocrites and hypocrites will always make life harder on everyone else until they are publicly shamed into realizing that they are no more important than their constituents. I say point at the naked emperor and have a good hearty laugh.

So many people in Florida have an opinion on whether or not Charlie Crist (R-FL) is gay. Another hotly debated subject is whether or not we should be talking about it. Evidently, this latter subject has contributed to many of the nearly 2,500 edits to the now Senate-hopefuls wikipedia page since it was created in 2005 (and not to mention NPR's now infamous censorship of commentary on the subject). The wikipedia talk page alone was averaging 20 views per day after the New York Times mentioned Crist as a possible running mate for John McCain.

The subject of Crist's sexual orientation has been central to a documentary film, has been discussed on radio shows, in newspapers, magazines, numerous blog posts and YouTube videos. Whether or not the accusations (notice that I did not call them "rumors") are true, seems largely irrelevant at this point. Ol' Charlie has become something of a gay icon - albeit, a rather grim one.

Before we go on, I’m sure you’re wondering what my agenda is. Let me be perfectly clear here: I am a gay, liberal democrat who would love nothing more than to add Charlie Crist as the umpteenth “family values” Republican from Florida to be caught with his pants down in an airport restroom… or behind the bushes in a family park, or sending sexy emails to pageboys. That being said, Charlie hasn’t given me much hope. The house of cards has been built masterfully and Charlie has used superglue this time.

The New Times did, in fact, run the article about Crist and they really dotted their i's and crossed their t's on it too. Much of the information in my timeline below was gleaned from Julia Reischel's reporting and checked by myself against other online sources. But of course, the spin that soon followed said that the New Times was just a "trashy tabloid" and not a real newspaper... Meh.

The timeline of events pertaining to our governor's [not-]gay political life as I have discovered, goes something like this:

1979 – Charlie Crist has a shotgun marriage to Amanda Morrow which lasts only a few months and is described in the St. Petersburg Times as “the darkest chapter in Crist’s life”.

• 1985 – Crist attends a three month program called Leadership St. Petersburg with a man who would later be one of his opponents in the race for Governor, Max Linn. (remember that name for later).
  
• 1998 – Charlie Crist runs for the Senate (unsuccessfully) with financial support from Max Linn.
  
• 2001 – As State Education Commissioner, Crist condemns a theatrical performance at FAU by calling its gay characters “lecherous and profane” in an open letter to newspapers called “Desecration 101”.
  
• 2003 – Charlie Crist speaks at a convention for the Florida Funeral Home Directors Association after being tapped by the executive director, Bruce Carlton Jordan. (remember that name for later).
  
• 2005 – A woman approaches Crist while he is campaigning for Governor and asks him “Are you gay, can you open your divorce records, and do you discriminate against gays and lesbians?” Crist replied, “I'm not, the records are open, and we shouldn't discriminate against anyone." (This statement is VERY important to the justification of outing hypocrites as mentioned above.)
  
• 2005 – The next day, Crist cooked up a radio interview (WQYK Country – Tampa) to do damage control after the home-hitting question where he boasted about his heterosexual prowess with a Republican disc jockey. In this interview, Crist reportedly also expressed support for civil unions (once again, with the hypocrisy – but we’ll get to that later on down the list).
  
• 2005 – Rightwing organizations (such as the Family Policy Council) gather the 60,000 signatures needed to put Amendment 2 on the ballot. Amendment 2 would target and deny gays and lesbians the rights of marriages, civil unions or any other kind of representation of family. They had already successfully banned adoption by gays and lesbians in the state of Florida.
  
• 2006 – Family Policy Council and other right-wing organizations begin badgering Crist to be more anti-gay with full page newspaper articles and press conferences. They threaten him with a withdrawal of support if he does not comply.
  
• 2006 – Crist is now described as the “moderate” Republican in most newspapers and television reports.
  
• 2006 – A female lawyer from Crist’s hometown claims that Charlie Crist illegitimately fathered her child (but the story vanishes right after the election).
  
• 2006 – Crist reportedly tells Fox News (on Republican primary election night) that the gay rumors are being orchestrated by his opponent, Gallagher. (However, the best was yet to come – Reform party candidate Max Linn throws a curve ball in the general election, See below).
  
• 2006 – September 5 – Crist wins Republican primary for Governor with 64% of the vote.
  
• 2006 – Crist chooses a married, sports-enthusiastic, Christian lawyer from Indiana as his running mate for the election.
  
• 2006 – October 11 – Reform party candidate Max Linn tells a radio station (WFTL) that he and his opponent Charlie Crist had actually known each other for a very long time. He said that in Leadership St. Petersburg (see 1985 above) he and Crist were two of the 20 students in the 3 month course. During that time, Linn said that Charlie Crist openly discussed his homosexuality and that they even participated in a discussion about what would happen if his sexual orientation should ever become known publicly. Linn went on in later interviews to confirm that he stood by his statements and that he had even been a supporter of Crist (financially and as a volunteer) during Crist’s unsuccessful run for the Senate in 1998. He even went as far as to say that Crist’s sexuality was an “open secret” in Tallahassee amongst all the Republicans and that he’d “swear to it with his hand on a stack of Bibles”.
  
• 2006 – October 20 – Communications director for a Log Cabin Republican group in Florida tells the Washington Blade that he thinks Crist could be “bisexual” and Tom Dyer (publisher of NW Florida’s gay newspaper “Watermark”) tells the New Times that he endorses Charlie Crist for Governor.
  
• 2006 – November 7 – Charlie Crist becomes Governor of Florida with 52% of the vote and his mysterious ready-made girlfriend from the campaign trail, the once-divorced Kathryn Pemble, suddenly disappears from the limelight.
  
• 2007 – Charlie Crist begins dating Kelly Heyniger. (remember that name for later)
  
• 2007 – New Times writer, Bob Norman (whose blog incidentally is called “The Daily Pulp” and has an uncannily similar masthead to the one I just created for myself) has discussions with a young man named Jason Wetherington who was a legislative aide to Katherine Harris about his rumored sexual relationship with Crist. Wetherington denied that he had boasted of such things and then abruptly moved to Georgia. Subsequently, Norman questioned Bruce Carlton Jordan (see 2003 above) about the love triangle between him, Charlie Crist and mutual girlfriend Jennifer Faga, a Tallahassee snowbird from the Hamptons. According to the writer, both Jordan and Wetherington had discussed their sexual relationships with Crist on a number of occasions with Tallahassee politicos.
  
• 2007 - Crist and Kelly Heyniger end their dating relationship.
  
• 2008 – February – The owner of a Tampa gay bar called the Green Iguana joins the list of speculators by saying that he knows Crist to be gay as well. According to Rick Calderoni, Charlie Crist frequented his bar with a feminine demeanor and did everything that gay men do, just short of actually becoming intimate in the establishment.
  
• 2008 – August – Charlie Crist publicly endorses Amendment 2, much to the horror of many of his supporters who really believed him to be “moderate”.
  
• 2008 – November – Amendment 2 passes, making Florida the state with most legislation targeting and specifically against the rights of GLBT persons in the United States of America.
  
• 2008 – December – Just days after the passage of Amendment 2, Charlie Crist marries a previously unknown business woman, Carol Rome in a “fairy tale” wedding that receives sharp criticism from pundits across the board.
  
• 2009 – April – Kelly Heyniger tells the filmmaker’s of a documentary (Outrage) that if they “come back in 10 years” with their questions about Crist’s sexuality, she will “tell them a story” and laughs. (I’m glad she thinks it’s so funny… meanwhile Crist gets to destroy civil liberties altogether in Florida.)
  
• 2009 – July – Charlie Crist announces his intentions to run for the United States Senate.
  
• 2009 – September – The Mormon church (Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints announces plans to build a huge Mormon Temple in Fort Lauderdale, FL.
  
• 2009 – October – Jason Wetherington and his various claims are conveniently discredited by the pastor of First Baptist Church in Fort Lauderdale as he discusses Wetherington’s alcoholism and theft charges. (These kinds of charges are reflective, if you ask me of the lifestyle that “recovering homosexuals” are cornered into all the time. It’s basically how they shut you up and put you in your place.)
  
• 2009 – October – Only about 250+ gays and lesbians from Florida marched with the 200,000 member National Equality March on Washington DC for equality. Some of them had signs and banners about Charlie Crist and Amendment 2, shouting “Charlie Crist, Charlie Crist, Come out of the closet – we insist!”

So, I hope that as you look over the timeline that I’ve provided here, you will see that our civil liberties, our marriages, our lives and our children’s happiness hang in the balance of our Governor’s dishonesty, political pandering, and general lack of integrity. Or are 30+ of Charlie’s closest friends and contacts “just making things up” for no other reason than to gossip?

Unfortunately, people like my former friend Jamie (who disappeared as mysteriously as any "moderate" Crist supporter does when the heat wave comes) cannot quite see a connection. But as I stated previously, liars are hypocrites and hypocrites always make life harder on everyone else. In Crist’s case, he almost seems to delight in it. We don't need to worry about protecting them - because they certainly aren't worried about protecting us.

Lastly, I part with you in this final thought (for now): If it is considered an “attack” to entertain the possibility of our Governor being gay then that certainly explains the atmosphere that would allow him and his “new friends” to remove some 1,500 associated rights and benefits from those of us who wish to live our lives with transparency, honesty and love.

Above: Citizens of Fort Lauderdale protest the passage of Amendment 2 - photo: Jarrett Terrill