In the days leading up to the vote, only one major voice in the local press endorsed the antidiscrimination law.

The vice president of ABC television’s Miami affiliate told viewers that “the basic question remains: Are we going to say that there are among us lesser people who, because of something they cannot help, deserve to be discriminated against?” The local CBS TV station news director, on the other hand, disagreed: “This is a behavioral matter,” he said, “not a question of human rights.” The NBC affiliate took no position, but nonetheless called the gay rights referendum “a waste of time”.

 

 

After putting a price tag on gay rights, The Miami Herald urged voters to reject the ordinance on the grounds that it was unnecessary, while the Miami News, Miami Beach Sun Reporter and the Catholic Miami Voice all encouraged its defeat for more overtly antigay reasons. The Miami Herald also used other tactics to influence voters: Recycling years-old news stories about gay sex crimes.

The Sunday before the vote, every Catholic priest delivered a standardized message from the Miami Archbishop: “We are left with no option but to urge our people on this moral issue to vote on June 7 for repeal of this most unsatisfactory ordinance.” GO TO PANEL 15