10.31.19 Central Florida Bureau Chief’s Desk

I’m always fascinated to hear stories about how people different from me grew up. The traditions and rules, comparing notes to find ways their families did things verus how my family did things makes for an interesting discussion.

Something that was never seen as odd to anyone in my family but was shocking to my friends, is that we had a TV in each of the bedrooms. I remember the wide-eyed look from friends when they saw my brother and I not only had a TV in our shared bedroom, but we also had cable. We were living the highlife.

That TV rarely was turned off when we weren’t at school, something I remember both of my parents yelling about when no one was in the room—perfectly good electricity that they were going to have to pay for going to waste.

As I entered my tween and teen years, I discovered NBC’s late night, dynamic duo of “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” followed by “Late Night with Conan O’Brien.” As I grew older my parents told stories of hearing me laugh hysterically at those shows. They knew I should be asleep but they couldn’t bring themselves to silence the laughter of their portly gay son.

The laughter of variety comedy would drift me into sleep and I would awake—NBC still on the TV—with TODAY playing on the screen. I would start my day with aspirations to be a morning news anchor, which I intended to parlay into a gig on NBC’s late night line-up after I “paid my dues” at the network.

In those days, it was the charming smile and trusted reporting of Matt Lauer that I would idolize. First watching him at the news desk, then on the couch with Katie Couric after Bryant Gumbel left the show. Lauer was someone who seemed to know what being an honest newsman was all about. How wrong my childhood adulation would turn out to be.

After more than 20 years as a part of NBC’s TODAY, Lauer was fired in 2017 after allegations of sexual misconduct came to light. Those allegations would go from “misconduct” to accusations of assault and rape. I learned many of the horrific details after reading Ronan Farrow’s new book “Catch and Kill,” which chronicles Farrow’s attempts to report on Harvey Weinstein’s own rape and sexual assault allegations, and how Farrow’s employer NBC tried to squash the story because of Lauer’s predatory past. It is a non-fiction book the reads like a John Grisham novel that should be read by everyone.

“Catch and Kill” is shocking and disturbing, not only for the sexual crimes committed against dozens and dozens of women, but also the cover-up that ensued to protect those men who committed the crimes because of the money and power they commanded and the “stature” they held in their communities. By the end of the book, I was stunned by the amount of people who knew of the assaults and did nothing, said nothing for fear they would have to confront monsters in their own houses.

Even as the book concludes, Farrow writes of how there are still more victims out there and still more monsters to catch. In these times when many monsters flaunt their crimes openly, it is important to remember to listen to victims, hear their stories and expose their predators.

In this issue, we hear from victims of so-called conversion therapy. An abusive practice that causes more suffering and pain than it presumes to “cure.” Victims of abuse—whether physical, mental, sexual, emotional or spiritual — who come forward to share their stories do so still hurting and do so at the risk of no one believing them, or worse being blamed for the abuse. Their bravery should be recognized, their stories heard and their violators brought to justice.

Farrow finishes his book by saying the courage of victims “can’t be stamped out and stories—the big ones, the true ones—can be caught but never killed.” I want to thank each person who shared their painful story with us and hopefully bringing light to these dark moments from your past will help those who still suffer alone.

Also in this issue, we take a look at Central Florida’s Two Spirit Health rebranding into 26 Health and we remember the legendary performer Carmella Marcella Garcia. In Tampa Bay news, Kurt King of Hamburger Mary’s Tampa files a lawsuit against the Florida Department of Health.

In A&E, filmmaker Jaymes Thompson revisits “The Gay Bed & Breakfast of Terror” and Erica Roberts and Rebekah Piatt turn SAVOY Orlando into a Friday night piano bar.

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