I really, really want them to implement this for the pure amusement of seeing the toilet automatically flush, play music and open the stall doors while someone is still shitting on the john.(Fort Lauderdale, Florida) Fort Lauderdale's Mayor wants the city to fork out a quarter-million dollars for a toilet he claims will put an end to gay sex that he says is rampant in public washrooms on the beach, even though the police department denies there is a problem.
Mayor Jim Naugle has spent the better part of a decade fighting what he has claimed to be an attempt by gays to take over Fort Lauderdale. He has consistently fought all LGBT rights ordinances that have come before city commissioners.
Now he's turning his attention on the beach - long a favorite of gay tourists who bring millions of dollars into the city each year.
Naugle says that "homosexual activity" is plaguing public restrooms at the beach.
The conservative Christian mayor tells the Sun-Sentinel that the washrooms are pickup places for gays. "They're engaging in sex, anonymous sex, illegal sex," he said.
"We're trying to provide a family environment where people can take their children who need to use the bathroom," he told the paper "without having to worry about a couple of men in there engaged in a sex act."
The police department, however, tells the paper that sex in bathrooms isn't a major problem.
Sgt. Frank Sousa. tells the Sun-Sentinel that while there may once have been a problem it isn't today.
"There's no evidence, no reports or arrests made for any men having sex in any restrooms," Sousa told the paper.
Nevertheless, Naugle wants the city to buy a portable bathroom called a "robo-john" and have it placed on the beach at Sebastian Street an area popular with gay sunbathers.
The "robo-john" allows occupants to stay inside for only a short time before the door opens.
According to Naugle it isn't enough time for "illegal sex".
Cost of the device: $250,000.
The mayor says the restroom is already in use, although not as an intended deterrent to sexual activity, in Atlanta, Seattle and New York.
In addition to having a door that stays closed only a few minutes it plays music and cleans the seat automatically.
The City Commission still has to vote on whether to buy it.
