Battling groups descend on city hall for and against Pride festival in Central Park

Members and supporters of the LGBTQ community and members and supporters of County Citizens Defending Freedom, or CCDF, packed the Fernandina Beach City Hall Tuesday night to address the city commission about permits for Pride events in the city.

Pride is a movement that traditionally celebrates and commemorates the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. CCDF says it “empowers citizens with dedicated legal and media resources in order to root out corrupt politicians, to secure our elections and to protect the hearts and minds of our children.”

Jack Knocke is the county executive director of CCDF Nassau. He has expressed the group’s objection to permits for a Pride festival and parade. The picnic is slated to take place in Central Park June 10. The News-Leader published a story about CCDF’s objections, and the LGBTQ community has since rallied to support the event. CCDF has said having the festival in Central Park is inappropriate, as it is an area where children will be present and a Pride festival is not a family-friendly event.

Although the matter was not on the agenda of the May 2 meeting, city commission chambers were filled with people, most supporting the event. The crowd overflowed out onto the sidewalk outside City Hall, where speakers were set up to allow them to hear the meeting. While the audience inside was quiet, those outside were not, and their cheering and booing could be heard inside chambers. People had traveled from other communities, including a group of clergy who gathered at St. Peter’s church and walked to City Hall together.

Speakers at commission meetings are allowed three minutes to talk, and those speakers took up almost three hours. The commission did not discuss the matter or respond to any of the speakers, as the Pride event was not on the commission meeting agenda. Mayor Bradley Bean made a short statement before the speakers began, noting that city staff had approved the permit and that he supported that decision. He said the festival would not include a kids zone.

Genece Minshew is the president of Fernandina Beach Pride. She said the LBGTQ community is under fire in Tallahassee and across the country, and that the local community needs to come together to show love and support.

“While we are keenly aware of how LGBTQ citizens and families are being demonized in Tallahassee and in other state capitols, we know what sets Fernandina Beach apart — because we have no home for hate here,” Minshew told the city commission. “Our local Pride events, like the one planned and approved for June 10, are an open and safe place for everyone. People bring their children to our family-friendly events because they want them to see diversity, inclusion and all kinds of happy, loving people enjoying their day. In approving the June 10 event, the special events committee understood that we follow all the rules and regulations set forth by the committee and local ordinances. I am extending an invitation to all of you tonight to be part of our day of love and inclusion and join with us so that we can show that hate has no home here. And by here, I mean this city commission chamber, this city, this country, this state. Unfortunately, hate seems to be all around us, and we need to stand up and live by the words that hate has no home here.”

Knocke said that since he voiced objections to the Pride festival being held in Central Park, the backlash has become personal.

“I hear the speakers say, ‘We’re all about love and we don't want any hatred’ and I am amazed because I have been labeled homophobic, transphobic, racist, hate-mongering, false profit, election denier, bigot, misogynistic and a Nazi,” Knocke said. “I had somebody come up to me last week at a social event and call me a Nazi, get in my face, dare me to fight him.” He told the commission  “that’s not what I’m about” and that CCDF is “here to empower, equip and defend liberty and our community.”

“What we’re trying to do is to maintain certain protected zones for children. If you look at our city commission charter, you’ll see the charter says children should be protected in churches, schools and parks,” Knocke said. “Honestly I don’t know why this is the only location that that festival could be at. I support the festival. I’m not saying don’t have the festival, I’m just saying don’t have it at a city park. That’s not a free speech issue, it’s all about children and having adult-themed events around children. My point is to stand up for the law, protect the children. We need to have children allowed to grow up with innocence. That’s my point. I have a lot of friends in here on both sides, and I hope we remain friends. This is not an attack on anybody. If you recognize it, I’m not attacking anybody. What’s happening is, the attack’s coming on me and it shouldn’t.”

While the majority of the speakers supported the Pride events, there were several who stood up to defend Knocke and CDF. One was Sherian Berteau. Berteau said Knocke has been “demonized,” and that the controversy is beyond “a culture war,” and has become “ a war on the truth and on traditional family values.” She said supporting the transgender community is not what Christians should do.

“I am not confused about who is really in charge either, because it’s God, he is the creator of the universe and all humans and he doesn’t need input from his creation,” Berteau said. “The reality is we cannot just wake up one day and decide we are a different gender. It just doesn’t work like that. That’s a lie and pretending to go along with lies is not helpful to solving the problem nor is it kind and loving to the people who are being deceived by these lies. And that’s what they are. They are lies.”

Chuck Oliva said CCDF is part of an effort to bring right-wing policies to the local level as part of a national movement.

“Although I don’t doubt that Jack Knocke and CCDF truly believe they are fighting a war for the soul of a nation, it is difficult to see them as anything other than a local manifestation of a disturbing wave of Christian nationalism that is creeping its into our national politics,” Oliva said. “CCDF Nassau County, on their (website) home page, refers to the Fernandina Beach Pride group as ‘a group that supports and indoctrinates, especially children, into the LGBT community.’ You don’t have to guess what kind of misguided, overwrought fears drive their policy and agenda. At least you can say they are not being up front with us. Politics are getting more and more divisive and more and more cynical. Truth is a precious commodity and baseless accusations designed to whip up hysteria and fear are levered to fuel small minded policy bills. I beg of you, do not let the destructive forces of our national politics force their way over the bridge. They have no place in our small community.”

Shelia Cocchi gave a list of things she said are examples of “the impact and influence CDF Nassau has had in our county, on our island and in the city of Fernandina Beach.”

Those efforts, Cocchi said, include a drive to fire former city manager Dale Martin; posting the election fraud documentary 2000 Mules at the First Baptist Church, which she called a media tool used to further unproven claims of election fraud that has since been debunked; attempted to influence county and city commission candidates to consolidate city and county building departments and police and fire services, which would undermine the city’s power and shift it to the county; “feeding bigotry through questionnaires posted to all county and city candidates (during a local nonpartisan election) that focus on issues like Black Lives Matter and transgender bathroom use”; alleging 3,700 registered voters registrations with the county supervisor of elections were to be invalid, most of whom were overseas military, in an attempt to create doubt in the election process; promoting a right-wing author’s revisionist history of Frederick Douglas and the Civil Rights movement “by convincing the mayor and the city to issue a Frederick Douglas proclamation”; pushing to change the election dates to coincide with the general election, removing focus on the city elections, which would create more undervotes in the city races; attempting to subvert the city manager hiring process to include an unqualified, hand-picked candidate to further the organization’s agenda; promoting in the news media and to its members an election fraud presentation by nationally known election deniers fostering doubt in election security and processes.

“CCDF has a direct line of communication with certain members of this commission, with people you know and consider friends, with your neighbors, with News-Leader columnists and local blog writers,” Cocchi said. “This is not something that’s happening someplace else. It’s happening right here in front of us. That’s really what’s going on.”

Like some speakers, Paul Lore asked for understanding from both sides, and for the community to come together.

“I think everybody is looking at this evening as a time of divide and I will tell you it will actually be a time to make our city and community actually stronger and more welcoming to each other,” Lore said. He said he faced racism as an adopted child, and that while neither group is racist, there was some bullying involved.

“I heard a speaker talk about bullying and it’s scary,” he said. “What I am saying is if either group chooses to use unkind words to each other, it will only erode us as a beautiful, small and wondrous community. I know that none of us moved here for that. Neither group is right, neither group is wrong. We just have to be very careful of the words that we choose to speak to each other in this community. I want to walk around here, I want to hug Jack Knocke, I want to hug LGBT, I just want to hug everybody and love everybody I can. I really feel strongly that this is only going to make us stronger together.”

jroberts@fbnewsleader.com