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But Swier's post mocks Ramirez for events the shop hosted, including tarot card readings and spiritual channeling. Ramirez writes in an email to The Sarasota News Leader that, yes, Isle of Avalon did host readings, "but that was not the focus of the shop." She says she has no problem talking about it to anyone who asks, and she has done so at previous candi- date forums. More than 1,000 people have read Swier's post, according to his site ticker, and at least one representative of the Argus Foundation is circulating the link, accusing Ramirez of being a "practicing druid." Ramirez is, in fact, a Roman Catholic. Swier tells the News Leader he received a tip about Ramirez's store from a "reader" of his blogs and then conducted his own research. On Facebook, he posted that he is not support- ing Ramirez's GOP primary opponent, Maio, but is instead behind long shot no-party can- didate John Minder. Maio did not respond to a News Leader voicemail asking for a comment. In addition to endorsing Minder, Swier last week also voiced his support for Republican Paul Caragiulo in his campaign for a different seat on the County Commission. He called Caragiulo a "victim of government overreach" who "learned from the 2008 housing market meltdown that government is not the answer because it was government at every level that created the problem." Swier has developed a reputation for demean- ing references to gays and lesbians over the years. A 2011 post he wrote was criticized on national blogs for referring to anti-gay bully- ing as "healthy" and "peer pressure." Accused by Democratic Sarasota County Charter Review Board candidate Jennifer Cohen of being a "homophobe" in the comments sec- tion below his Caragiulo endorsement, Swier responded by calling gays and lesbians "a danger to themselves and the community." "All bad behaviors are dangerous and must be addressed and condemned, not glossed over or supported," he wrote in another comment. "Please do not compare homosexuality with normal people. Homosexuality is a sexual behavior that goes against nature and nature's laws." Strangely, perhaps the most relevant com- ment on the whole issue was made by Maio, Ramirez's opponent, at a recent debate. "As a community," he said to a Sarasota Tiger Bay Club crowd at Michael's on East, "we tend to just pick the extremely titillating, sexy, little sound bites to try to ridicule somebody." % Someone you know needs Planned Parenthood • Lifesaving cancer screenings • Parent & teen education • Annual GYN exams • Birth control Planned Parenthood Of Southwest And Central Florida • Sarasota 941-953-4060 • MyPlannedParenthood.org Sarasota News Leader August 8 & 15, 2014 Page 22