I’d hear reports about regular police sting operations targeting gay men who cruised Lake Eola and its surrounding park downtown. The neighboring Orange County Sheriff’s Office had a particularly disreputable set of practices. As time went on, more liberal politicians began to pay lip service to gay-rights causes, and some decent law enforcement officials tried to build bridges between the police and the gay community. Florida’s iconic gay 'burbs - Miami Beach and Fort Lauderdale - were exceptions. Orlando is in the middle of the state, halfway between its cosmopolitan Northern South and its quite anterograde Southern North, but the Christian Coalition and local adjuncts exerted powerful influences over civic institutions. You could be gay and safe in Orlando, but you had to be separate and quiet. My first job during high school allowed me some breathing space. I worked as an intern and then as an associate producer for WFTV Channel 9, the local ABC affiliate. I wasn’t out at school, but I decided to be out at work.
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