He supported the 1976 Miami-Dade County Ordinance for Gay Rights[3] and was later involved in activism for people withAIDS.[4]
Kunst opposedSave Our Children, aDade County, Florida voter-approved county initiative supported by singerAnita Bryant and her then-husband Bob Green. The initiative repealed the previous anti-discrimination ordinance Kunst had supported.[5] He helped organize the subsequent pressure campaign on citrus industry corporate sponsors of Bryant.[6] The law was eventually repealed by the stateSupreme Court of Florida in 2010.[7]
In 1991, after allegations of financial mismanagement were published in theMiami Herald, Kunst was fired as the executive director of Cure AIDS Now.[8]
Kunst unsuccessfully made Democratic primary runs for Florida Governor in 1982 and 2002, in the Democratic primary for United States Senator in 1986, and for Congress as an Independent unaffiliated candidate in 2010 against incumbent Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D).[9]
Kunst was president (1991-2001) of Shalom International, a Jewish group combating globalNeo-Nazism andNeo-fascism movements. And he was a co-founder of the Oral Majority in 1982, the liberal and secular counter-protest group of theReligious Right organizationsMoral Majority and later theChristian Coalition.[10]
In 2018, Kunst protested outside the courthouse whereNoor Salman,Omar Mateen's widow, was being tried for complicity in her husband'sPulse nightclub massacre. Kunst held a sign reading: "'Fry her till she has no 'Pulse'". Noor Salman was found not guilty during a trial that also exposed the fact that she was abused by her husband.[11]
