Queer Eye for the Mayoral Guy

Besides, he's quick to remind Kulchur, this election is about more than gay rights: "It's about accomplishing the greatness Miami-Dade has been poised to achieve for many years. I don't think the gay community cares any less about economic development, cares any less about education, or cares any less about the future of Miami-Dade County than any other community."

Jorge Mursuli sounds just as confused by Diaz de la Portilla's overture to him as everyone else in the gay community. "I constantly want to educate people on who we are," he says. "Some people come aboard on Monday. Some people come aboard on Friday -- and you've got to let them in on Friday. People grow, people learn. I was curious if that was going to be what our conversation was going to be about."

It wasn't. Mursuli found himself still trying to convince Diaz de la Portilla that gays and lesbians needed legal protection. "He's truly a very smart guy," he continues with a sigh. "But in this day and age, unless he's living under a rock, I just don't understand how he can believe that gays aren't discriminated against."

So, memo to Telemundo, there's no mayoral endorsement in the offing. And just who will Mursuli be lending his imprimatur to next August? "Gay people should welcome Miguel and anybody else who wants to evolve, but we need to look at everybody's record and pick the person who's put their money where their mouth is."

Enter Jimmy Morales. In his mind there's little mystery to Diaz de la Portilla's awkward queer outreach. It's pure electoral math, Morales argues. With so many high-profile Cuban Americans running for county mayor (including himself -- his mother is Cuban, his father Puerto Rican), no one candidate will be able to monopolize the support of Cuban voters and garner 51 percent of the vote. Subsequently, a runoff election is assured. And given Diaz de la Portilla's virtually nonexistent support beyond conservative Latinos in his 2000 mayoral attempt, unless he makes fresh inroads with Anglos, blacks, and the liberal-minded, his victory chances are slim to none.

"Gay and lesbian voters are going to have a say in who makes the runoff," Morales predicts. Even if that bloc only constitutes a tenth of the more than 50,000 voters SAVE Dade identified through canvassing as firmly pro-gay, it'll still be a decisive margin. Factor in the $1.5 million SAVE Dade raised to defeat last year's gay-rights repeal, and you've got a newly emergent political force that can't be ignored. Which, as someone who voted for 1998's gay-rights amendment, suits Morales just fine.

"Everyone's going to come around now and say 'I'm going to be the better mayor for gays,'" Morales scoffs, "but I would be shocked if people forget [Diaz de la Portilla's] vote in 1998. Gays and lesbians know who's been supporting them." Morales flashes a triumphant smile: "I've been out of the closet on this issue since my first campaign in 1996."

To be sure, gay rights will be on the national agenda throughout the coming months. The steady drumbeat of media coverage -- from Canada's legalization of gay marriage to the Episcopalian Church's ordainment of an openly gay bishop to the TV phenomenon Queer Eye for the Straight Guy -- should reach a fevered pitch by next summer. Particularly since social conservatives seem to relish a showdown in what Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, bitterly dissenting from a decision to overturn Texas's sodomy laws, termed "the culture war."

However, for right-wing Republicans seeking to hold onto their base while simultaneously appealing to those all-important moderate "swing" voters, coming down firmly on either side of that war is problematic.

Witness President George W. Bush's tortured equivocation on homosexuality last month. Standing in the White House's Rose Garden he stressed how important it is to "respect each individual" and "be a welcoming country," even invoking the Gospel of St. Matthew to that effect as he cautioned "those who may try to take the speck out of their neighbor's eye when they got a log in their own." Yet without missing a beat, Bush then dismissed gay marriage as beyond the pale -- "And we've got lawyers looking at the best way to do that." There's something in Bush's stance for everyone, a balancing act that may be inspiring Diaz de la Portilla's own strategy for capturing county hall.

The former commissioner may indeed be testing the crossover waters with Jorge Mursuli, muses SAVE Dade chairman Javier Reynaldos. Or, he quips, "Maybe Jorge is the only gay guy he knows!" Reynaldos declines to comment on an ominous parallel with Mursuli's controversial 2001 role in giving the SAVE Dade endorsement to Miami Beach mayoral contender Elaine Bloom -- whose votes against gay adoption and gay marriage as a Florida state representative were quickly downplayed as she hit the campaign trail.

But regardless of Diaz de la Portilla's motives, Reynaldos notes that at SAVE Dade's offices, "Our phone hasn't rung. Diaz de la Portilla isn't calling the county's gay organization. He's calling the guy who used to be part of the gay organization. We've called him to set up appointments to talk, and we haven't gotten them. I hope through discourse we can win him over, but he's got to show us something."