David Letterman has “Stupid Pet Tricks.” Len Berman, the NBC sports anchor has “Spanning the Globe” which features wild and wacky sports events. And, every year a Greenwich Village resident named Wendy Northcutt brings us the “Darwin Awards”—replete with examples why natural selection isn’t working the way it is supposed to.

I’ve been pondering what moniker we could use for some of the ridiculously stupid, homophobic words and deeds of politicians. I thought about calling them “Shrubs”—a diminutive used at times to describe the man who sits behind the desk in the Oval Office—but that would be insulting to plants.

Perhaps we should call them “Nauglets” named for Ft. Lauderdale’s mayor, Jim Naugle, who has made a career of putting his foot in his mouth and loving the taste.

So what has Naugle done recently to catch my attention?

Well without any groundswell of complaints from his constituents or the local police department, Naugle has taken it upon himself to single handedly stop sexual encounters between men who have sex with men in public bathrooms. He was going to do this by installing free-standing, small, self-cleaning, automatic toilets that permits the occupant to stand inside for only a short period of time before the door opens.

It seems the majority of folks in Ft. Lauderdale are scratching their heads in disbelief because according to police records there’s only been one arrest for men having sex with men in a public restroom in the last three years. That doesn’t seem like an epidemic that the city needs to spent a quarter of a million of taxpayer dollars to cure. And besides, there’s probably a lot more public heterosexual sex happening on the beach and in cars in Ft. Lauderdale—just consider all those college springs breaks and girls gone wild videos. Naugle’s not concerned about that.

When Naugle went public with his plans he kept talking about homosexual men, homosexual activity, homosexual sex. When challenged by the press and the local gay community about his language—even the New York Times now uses gay instead of homosexual—he contends that homosexual is better than gay, because gays, according to Naugle, are unhappy.

Naugle’s next Nauglet was his opposition to moving an extensive LGBT archive into a city-owned library because he was afraid the move might expose patrons to pornography. In typical Radical Christian Right fear-mongering mode, Naugle focused on the small, non-circulating LGBT erotica collection when expressing his opposition. He conveniently overlooked the circulating collection that includes 18,000 books and films.

But Jim Naugle isn’t the only one who gets a Nauglet.

Despite the fact that same-sex marriage is now legal in Spain some of that country’s jurists haven’t been keeping up with the law. Judge Fernando Ferrin who presides over a court in Murcia, denied a lesbian the custody of her children because of her sexual orientation. He said the mother “will have to choose between her daughters and her new partner . . . [the] homosexual environment is prejudicial to children, and notably increases the risk that they too become homosexual.”

Well, Ferrin is now under investigation by Spain’s General Council for Judicial Powers for using the sentence to defend his opinions which clearly fall outside the intent of Spain’s constitution. This isn’t the first time Ferrin has gotten into hot water for his homophobia. He is already under investigations by the Murcia High Court of Justice for delaying a second parent adoption of another lesbian couple.

Nauglets are not just for elected politicians or sitting judges. Right here in the Capital Region, I have to bestow a Nauglet on republican Assembly candidate George Amedore. Running in a special election, Amedore sat down with the editorial board of the Times-Union as did the guy he’s running against, democrat Ed Krosiur. They were both asked about same-sex marriage.

Amedore is against same-sex marriage because he’s been married 17 years and has three children. Well, George, congrats to you and your wife. I’ve seen your family on your TV spots. But, honestly, what does your marriage and kids have to do with my right to protect my family?