SAVE and The Collateral Damage

SAVE, one of the longest established organizations advocating for LGBT equality, has flamed out in a spectacular fashion.  The now former director, Tony Lima, chose to showcase four men accused of bashing a same sex couple at last year's Miami Beach Pride.  This was after honoring the victims at last year's SAVE Gala and using the incident as a fundraising tool for SAVE.  

Whatever motivated Lima is unclear and he made something of a half apology on his Facebook page but the board took the step to fire him on Monday night.  In my view, this was the right decision.  

The whole sad story is well covered here in the Miami Herald.  

In short, the victims were three gay men, a couple and a Good Samaritan who tried to intervene.  According to the allegations against them by the state attorney, the three victims were set upon by these four SAVE honorees in a four to two "fight", really an attack, that put them all in the hospital and left one unemployed.  The alleged attackers are said to have used the common Spanish anti-gay slur "maricones" during the beatdown.  

It's on video here.  Note, the video is disturbing and the state attorney has added hate crimes to the charges.  

The victims have been clear that they feel betrayed by Lima's strange actions.  

This is also a North Bay Village story

North Bay Village and SAVE have a long and controversial relationship.  SAVE first endorsed in our local elections in 2014, choosing a candidate for mayor who did nothing for the local LGBT community over a candidate who actively sought the input and participation of the gay community. 

In a foreshadowing of the Gala incident, Tony Lima and SAVE refused to condemn a PAC mailer that attacked their endorsed candidate's opponents by associating them as puppets of an evil gay man.  Lima doubled down and cut me off when I asked him for help in getting such things as a contractor compliance ordinance in place, Pride acknowledgment, support for the LGBT youth in North Bay Village.   

These things are going forward here in spite of SAVE's resistance.  

But in the meantime, SAVE raised a lot of money in North Bay Village, provided small campaign contributions and endorsements to candidates, and acted as a channel for the Village's donations to the AIDS Walk, getting the credit while ignoring the North Bay Village community.  

So this sad chapter is drawn to a close and we'll see what's next.  

I have enough faith in North Bay Village and our current administration, in particular our mayor, our village manager and our police chief, that I know that they will continue to fight for all members of the North Bay Village community.  

I know that there are many straight allies who were taken in by the SAVE hustle, including Commissioner Strout.  Maybe it's my fault because I was unable to explain to the well meaning allies how toxic SAVE had become in our village.  Or maybe it's their fault for not wanting to listen.  

Even now, there are several self proclaimed straight allies loudly "straight splainin'" how Lima is a victim and spending no energy on the real victims, the couple and the good Samaritan who tried to intervene.  

This is wrong.  You cannot call yourself an ally while adopting the position of explaining away the real concerns of the community members affected as trivial in comparison to concerns about someone facing the consequences of poor judgment.  

It's a good time to listen and learn.  It's not about you.  

This incident also calls into question how we as a Village decide what community organizations and charities to support.   No matter how well meaning the intentions are, it matters to use discretion and judgment in making that decision and to be very careful that the support is not about personal branding or virtue signaling, but is about moving North Bay Village forward.  I'll be writing more about this later in the week.  

For now, I hope the Village understands the need to move forward.  Progress is not about one person or one organization and there is still much to be done.  I hope we can learn from this and move on. 

Kevin Vericker

July 2, 2019