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Loading ...Gainesville voters reject repeal of LGBT civil rights
03.25.2009 8:46am EDT
(Gainesville, Florida) Voters on Tuesday turned down a measure that could have stripped Gainesville government’s anti-discrimination protections for LGBT residents.
With 100 percent of the precincts reporting, the vote was 58 percent against changing the law.“Gainesville is a place that will not allow discrimination,” said Craig Lowe, a city commissioner who led the group known as Equality is Gainesville’s Business to defeat the charter amendment. “Gainesville has shown itself to be a welcoming place.”
The fight began after the city commission last year revised Gainesville’s anti-discrimination ordinance to protect transgender people – those who are born one sex but identify with the other. That allows the city’s approximately 100 transgender residents to use the public restroom of their choosing, along with protecting them from job and housing discrimination.
The charter amendment would have voided the city’s ordinances barring discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The vote was 11,717 or 58.32 percent against changing the law compared with 8,375 or 41.6 percent in favor.
Jim Gilbert, a spokesman for Citizens for Good Public Policy, had said the message of those supporting repeal has remained consistent: “Keep men out of women’s restrooms!”
The group said it regrets the outcome of the referendum.
Its chairman Mark Minck said in a news release that the group also regrets that “out-of-town money and influence played such a major role in diverting attention away from the real issue of public safety, to highly implausible scenarios of discrimination, which, in fact, pose little threat in a city long known for openness.”
On the other side was Equality is Gainesville’s Business, which argued the city ordinance does not need amending and that the transgender argument is really a screen for a larger attack on sexual minorities. Home to the University of Florida, Gainesville is generally considered a gay-friendly city surrounded by conservative north Florida.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which supported the Equality effort, applauded the decision.
“Protecting Gainesville’s anti-discrimination protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people is a significant achievement. I congratulate everyone who worked so hard to help bring about today’s victory,” said Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU of Florida.
The measure also would have prohibited the city from enforcing anti-discrimination laws that protect other categories of people not specified by the Florida Civil Rights Act, which recognizes race, color, creed, religion, gender, national origin, age, handicap, martial and familial status.
A steady line of students cast ballots at the Reitz Student Union.
Jeanette Paulino, 20, a political science major from Miami, voted to keep the city’s policy in place.
“I don’t think we should discriminate against anyone,” she said.
Alex Harper, 21, a public relations major from West Palm Beach, said he also voted to retain the city’s protections and viewed it as a free speech issue.
Harper said he viewed the restroom issue as “conservative propaganda.”
University of Florida President Bernie Machen and his wife, Chris, said they both opposed changing the law.
“It’s not needed,” said Machen, who added that one of the things his family likes about Gainesville is its diversity.
I am glad that the people of Gainesville are smarter than the hucksters who will do anything–tell any lie, stoke any fear, distort any fact–in order to deprive us of our rights. I’d love to know where the money came from to finance this effort. The Republican Party?
” Mark Minck said in a news release that the group also regrets that “out-of-town money and influence played such a major role in diverting attention away from the real issue of public safety”
Gay and gay-supportive citizens in California resented the out of state money and influence that played such a major role in the passinng of Prop H8. Guess we’re even.
Now, the “real issue” is “public safety”, but their stated goal was to “keep [transgendered] out of women’s restrooms”. Ooooo, big, scary trans folk. Ah, the po betterosexual mens are really scared. Tuff, say I.
Now Florida needsto get rid of its many other homophobic, anti-gay laws regarding adoption, marriage, medical and end-of-life decisions, etc.
Injustice erodes one step at a time.
Well said, George — you beat me to it.
Wow! That’s great, even though i would have liked to see more of a landslide victory, i am glad that our views haven’t regressed back to those in the late seventies and early eighties… I love seeing progress, it really gives me hope for a better future for the gay community.
I’m straight and would never vote for a law that says, yes hate is okay. I can’t believe this even made the ballot.
I guess I have to root for the Gators now.
Go Gators!
I am completely and pleasantly surprised. I didn’t know Floridans knew how to be fair.
America has an idea of where this is going. The majority is now turning into the minority. The following that you see behind President Obama now has to show their strength and elect the members of congress and senate to reinforce their views.
Religion has always played a huge role in discrimintation of others. Let’s hope that the rest of the country finally wakes up and sees who the “bad people” really are.
Congratulations! It’s not that everybody in Florida–or in most states–is pathologically bigoted. It’s that the few use their money and influence to con and brainwash the many. Gainesville voters saw through it, and good for them. And again, I have to say it–those “stupid redneck” Southerners seem to get it, unlike those in oh-so-sophisticated WeHo. And I doubt there was any great influx of cash from WeHo or Chelsea to help these people out. Somebody please prove me wrong.
Alex Said: “Wow! That’s great, even though i would have liked to see more of a landslide victory,…”
Considering that Amendment 2 passed with 60+ percent of the votes, this is certainly a landslide in our favor. Now if only the rest of Florida could walk in the light that is Gainesville.
I am pleasantly surprised to hear this, and indeed, in a bit of shock.
I am glad to hear that so many students came out to vote on the issue- it is typically the younger generation that is more GLBT friendly, but they often don’t vote.
Regarding the comment by Mark Minck, who said that his group regretted that “out-of-town money and influence played such a major role in diverting attention away from the real issue of public safety…” I say tough sh#t. This is exactly what the anti-gay groups do all the time. Why should we play fair if you won’t?
What I would love to see is how the various Right-wing Religious groups plan to spin this. Certainly they’re above calling the voters themselves “activist voters” with an anti-family agenda. well maybe not.
Actually, you all shouldn’t be surprised.
Since 1995, every Florida city and county that has passed LGBT civil rights laws have either withstood repeal challenges or have never gone to referendum in the first place.
I know this because I worked on the first campaign in which voters UPHELD a gay rights law. That city was West Palm Beach.
In 1994, the city commission passed, 4-1, a law adding “sexual orientation” to its human rights ordinance. Religious conservatives were bused in from out of town to fill the commission chambers to the rafters. When the ordinance passed (after five hours of debate), they vowed to take it to the people.
When it made the ballot, many in the LGBT community thought we would lose and lose big, telling many of us just to give up. But we were ready. We had rallies, fliers, phone banks, and did extensive door-to-door canvassing. The opposition hadn’t seen anything like it.
On election night, we stunned everyone by winning 56% to 44%, with the ordinance retained! We made national news! “How can this happen in Anita Bryant country?” national activists asked. We showed them.
Incidentally, about 13 years later, the same city commission voted unanimously to add transgendered residents to the law. It passed in five minutes. No opposition, no repeal. Palm Beach County later followed suit with its own countywide ordinance.
To be clear, Florida is no progressive paradise. But the idea that we are still “Anita Bryant Country” is a big myth. People are moving on and becoming more accepting. I’m glad to see Gainesville carry on that trend.
Flip Said: “To be clear, Florida is no progressive paradise. But the idea that we are still “Anita Bryant Country” is a big myth.”
Given the overwhelming support of Amendment 2 and our repressive adoption laws, I would say that it is still more fact than myth. Sure we have isolated pockets of enlightenment, but we also have crusaders like Rhonda “Mad Cow” Storms and her ilk. Thanks to her, Hillsborough County removed any support or recognition of gay pride, even tho the city of Tampa (in Hillsborough) has gay rights protections in place. Don’t let a few victories lull you into complacency.