Pious DCF chief has problem with secular stumbles or The Lord works in mysterious ways. Especially in Tallahassee.
Pious DCF chief has problem with secular stumbles
Published August 8, 2004 I'm shocked. Shocked. And deeply disappointed. No, not about the cronyism, no-bid trickery and other shenanigans that apparently have been de rigueur at Dept. Regier. That's all pretty standard stuff for Tallahassee. The real outrage in the latest tempest involving the Department of Children & Families: Who knew Secretary Jerry Regier would pay to see Elton John? And Cher? Is there something you're not telling us, Jerry? Not that there's anything wrong with that. Liking Elton John and Cher, that is. It's just that, for a guy who talked a good game of family values and whose past involvement with fundamentalist Christian groups made some people uneasy when he got the DCF job two years ago, he seems to have quite the soft spot for gay-friendly entertainment icons. If he turns up at a Barbra Streisand or Liza Minnelli gig, Gov. Jeb Bush might have no choice but to remove him. Forget lobbyists throwing parties for him, his top assistants jumping into ethical quicksand and friends getting the inside track on DCF deals. That's understandable. After all, temptation lurks everywhere in bureaucracy and politics, from your local city hall to Washington, D.C. But the rank hypocrisy of Regier once putting his name to a religious essay calling for homosexuality to be banned and then turning up in a lobbyist's skybox to catch the ever-flamboyant Sir Elton singing Philadelphia Freedom and Rocket Man is just too much. Oh well, you know what they say. Hate the sin, love (and tap toes along with) the sinner. Perhaps Regier didn't realize that John has lived with his boyfriend, David Furnish, for 10 years. And that they have even discussed adopting a child. Not that they'd be allowed to in Florida, of course. The state Legislature banned adoptions by gays in the 1970s, and even though DCF is desperate to downsize its 42,000-child caseload, there's been no effort to bring Florida law into the 21st century. Bush and Regier have defended the ban, which has been unsuccessfully challenged in federal court. Regier goes along with the tired old thinking that gays simply don't make appropriate parents. But they apparently do make for a fabulous evening's entertainment. That Regier says he paid for the tickets in lobbyist Don Yeager's skybox at the Tallahassee-Leon Civic Center makes it even worse. It means he put money into the pocket of a sodomite singer. That doesn't sound too kosher for an evangelical preacher's son who once said that his Christian university background "prepared me to approach everything I do from a Biblical standpoint," and who was involved with the Coalition on Revival, a fundamentalist group that railed against homosexuality, masturbation and premarital sex. When Regier came from Oklahoma to take over DCF after the Rilya Wilson debacle two years ago, his work with the Coalition on Revival surfaced. He co-chaired a committee that produced an essay titled "The Christian World View of the Family." It had some out-there notions for someone who'd be heading a child welfare agency, including stuff about "biblical spanking," "lovingly enforced obedience" and "temporary and superficial bruises or welts that do not constitute child abuse." But Regier lived that down and went about the business of trying to right a listing ship, mainly by privatizing many DCF functions per the governor's orders. Who knew a man of such conviction and morals would eventually find himself in trouble for secular stumbles like getting concert tickets and lavish birthday parties from lobbyists doing business with his agency? Who knew Regier's theme song would turn out to be, Don't Let The Sun Go Down on Me? The Lord works in mysterious ways. Especially in Tallahassee. http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/c...4733828.column Defend your civil liberties! Get information at http://www.aclu.org, become a member at http://www.aclu.org/join and get active at http://www.aclu.org/action. |
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