Anti-Gay Gainesville Man Busted For Doing What He Warned LGBT Rights Would Bring

You may recall the nasty anti-gay campaign to repeal Gainesville, Florida’s LGBT rights law, during which images of men creeping into ladies’ rooms was used as a scare tactic against transgender rights. The repeal failed, but now comes word of the arrest of one of the repeal’s petition gatherers. For creeping into ladies’ rooms and filming them!

The CVS Pharmacy manager who allegedly admitted Friday to filming women in his store’s bathroom was an active participant in the 2008 charter amendment to “keep men out of women’s restrooms.” Jonathan Matheny, 27, was charged with one count of video voyeurism after a customer told police she had discovered a cell phone equipped with a camera under a pile of tissues in the CVS bathroom at 125 S.W. 34th St. Police are looking for other victims. The petition drive in the summer of 2008 was aimed at a city ordinance that provided rights, including equal access to public accommodation, for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals. Matheny signed the petition, according to records with the Alachua County Supervisor of Elections Office, and opponents of the charter amendment say they received reports that Matheny allowed the petitions to be distributed and signed at his store. Those behind the drive said the amendment was essential to prevent men from using the public-accommodation portion of the law to enter women’s restrooms and film, rape or otherwise prey on the opposite sex.

Again, I must quote my late maternal grandmother: “The guilty dog barks loudest!”