Thank you Commissioner Cara Jennings for appearing at the Amendment 2 protest

This is her speech that took place about midway through the gathering. I do sincerely thank her for appearing before the group and representing the City of Lake Worth and the City Commission. The crowd and the organizers were clear that the City of Lake Worth was not the problem - especially as it relates to passage of Amendment 2. Many there commented that it would be great if all of Florida and the nation were more like Lake Worth in recognizing all sorts of human adult relationships and not discriminating between one form or another.

But, I do want to point a few things out regarding the content of Commissioner Jennings' comments, her record on GLBT issues and her quick shirt change prior to speaking.

She correctly points out that the City Commission passed a resolution opposing passage of Amendment 2. However, she didn't say they did that unanimously - which they did. This nuance left people to question if there was someone who did not vote for the resolution. It would have been magnanimous of Cara to mention the unanimous vote, especially since she was wearing the t-shirt of an opponent of a current City Commissioner who also voted in support of the resolution.

And, Commissioner Dave Vespo is endorsed by the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council and neither Commissioner Cara Jennings or Suzanne Mulvehill were endorsed by them. This is a guess, but most likely the lack of endorsement on Commissoner Jennings' part was due to her "no" vote on the Compass lease and her disingenuous negotiations related to the lease. As for Suzanne Mulvehill, I think it's due to her being an unknown quantity and lack of a track record. It is also due to Commissioner Dave Vespo's strong pro-GLBT voting record.

The other odd thing that Commissioner Jennings said in her remarks had to do with a concept that the majority shouldn't be making rules for the minority. Let's hope she remembers this if the candidate she is backing happens to win the run-off election tomorrow.

Let's also hope that in her second term she is able to put more action behind her words in support of the GLBT community.