Florida GLBT Democratic Caucus v. Allen West

The Florida GLBT Democratic Caucus has announced that it will boycott businesses that are members of the Wilton Manors Business Association. The reason is Rep. Allen West has been invited to speak to the WMBA on August 8th. The Florida GLBT Democratic Caucus will end the boycott if the WMBA rescinds its speaking invitation to West.

Rajner, who says the Florida GLBT Democratic Caucus has “[a]pproximately 13 chapters throughout the state of Florida,” today told The New Civil Rights Movement, “Several businesses have already dropped out of the Wilton Manors Business Association and several others have sent a strong message to the association’s president objecting to West’s appearance,” adding, “Whether or not a boycott will actually happen remains to be seen.”

“It was important for us to bring attention for the LGBT community to support businesses that help advance equality and social justice for all people,” Rajner added. “Wilton Manors is well known for businesses that support many of the LGBT-​communities efforts and often donate to worthy causes.”

Unsurprisingly, West is not happy about this. What is interesting is that West is also unhappy with the WMBA having the event open to the public. West has his staff screen questions and people attending his townhall meetings. West will have people arrested at his townhall meetings for asking questions he rather not answer.

West letter to the Wilton Manors Business Association.

However, I recently learned that the Wilton Manors Business Association has decided to hold its monthly meeting at the Hagen Park Community Center. Further, this meeting is to be open to the Wilton Manors community as an open forum for the entire public to attend. Clearly, this type of format was not discussed with my staff, and as I stated, this meeting was to discuss small business related issue.

West is really scared of having to answer questions off of his talking points.

While I am still looking forward to speaking with the Wilton Manors Business Association, I request that you take the necessary steps to ensure the format is focused on the Wilton Manors Business Association members. I look forward to the issues of such as access to capital, the national debt and the overall economy and hearing directly about South Florida business related concerns.

West is dictating what kind of questions he will answer. The West letter is below the fold.



Allen West Letter to Wilton Manors