Chaz Stevens
Timothy "Chaz" Stevens (born August 31, 1964) is an American political activist, artist, software developer, and entrepreneur from Florida. He is active in local politics in Broward County, and has gained national notoriety for his colorful statewide and national advocacy for the separation of church and state. His local political activity has led to charges being filed against, and the decrease in popularity of, several local politicians, including two mayors and a former mayor of his hometown, Deerfield Beach, Florida. He was appointed twice to the Deerfield Beach Housing Authority board by one of the mayors he criticized. His activism for the removal of religion from government has included placing Festivus poles in multiple Florida cities and six U.S. state capitols to contrast with holiday season religious displays on government property, and requests to deliver Satanic invocations when government meetings allow prayer or other religious invocations. In many cases this has led to the government agencies removing the targeted religious activities. His activism is always satirical, sometimes artistic, and often obscene or profane. He is also the CEO of ESADoggy or ESAD International, which provides ESA letters, certifying emotional support animals. Early life Timothy Stevens was born on August 31, 1964, in Newton, New Jersey, to Beatrice Fowler, and James G. Stevens. He grew up in Fort Lauderdale, where his father was Vice-President of Human Resources at Holy Cross Hospital. Stevens is an atheist. Stevens graduated Deerfield Beach High School in 1982, and earned a degree in applied mathematics from the Florida Institute of Technology, after which he worked as a computer programmer. He served as a technology product developer for IBM, Coca-Cola and Walt Disney World. He returned to Deerfield Beach, a Fort Lauderdale suburb, in 2003, and was living there when he took up political activism. Local activism Stevens says that in 2004 he was watching a Deerfield Beach City Commission meeting on cable television and saw a commissioner vote on a pension plan for the city's firefighters, when her husband was a firefighter who would benefit from the vote. He put up street signs opposing the commissioner (that he had to remove and was fined for) and started a blog, MyActsOfSedition (that he kept). On it, he mercilessly criticized local politicians, often with obscenities. In 2008, Stevens's complaints led to the arrests of the then-Deerfield Beach mayor and a city commissioner on corruption charges. This, and action urging authorities to investigate another Deerfield Beach commissioner, won him the New Times Broward-Palm Beach 2010 award for Best Gadfly. In April 2010, Stevens was appointed to the board of the Deerfield Beach Housing Authority, by the commissioner, now mayor, whom he had originally criticized in 2004. His appointment met with dismay from others on the board (calling him "a vile and despicable person"). He resigned at the end of May, facing ouster after forwarding authority records to an auditor. He was reappointed in August 2011 for a period of only a few days, which ended when he made a