For 10 years
Gainesville, Fla. has provided antidiscrimination
protections for gay people in housing, employment, credit,
and public accommodation. The northern Florida city --
and home to the University of Florida -- added gender
identity to those protections in January of this year.
Now lobbyists have gathered enough petition signatures
to place a measure on the ballot that would strip
those rights away -- for all LGBT people, and possibly
veterans and union members as well.
The Citizens for
Good Public Policy wants to change the Gainesville
charter to prevent the city from adding or enforcing any
civil rights protections not in specific statutes of
the Florida Civil Rights Act. Not surprisingly,
protections for LGBT people are not part of the act. During
the summer Citizens for Good Public Policy gathered over
6,000 signatures to get the issue on the ballot for
a March 2009 city election.
City attorneys
are now warning voters of the far-reaching effects of the
proposal. In addition to taking away protections from gay
and trans people, veterans, union members, and other
groups could be discriminated against since they are
not specifically protected by the Florida Civil Rights
Act. The proposed charter change would not only take away
protections from those groups but make it impossible to add
them to Gainesville's list of protected classes.
According to Terry Fleming of the group Equality Is
Gainesville's Business, federal benefits could be
jeopardized if this charter amendment passes.
Fleming also said
the signatures were gathered by the virulently
homophobic Citizens for Good Public Policy through
television advertising that implied trans protections
would allow men to use women's restrooms. A
commercial showed a man following a little girl into a
bathroom.
Gainesville city
commissioner Craig Lowe said in a release,
"Gainesville has carefully cultivated an inclusive
environment where every person can contribute and
enjoy all we have to offer as a community. This
charter amendment would undo all of that." (Neal
Broverman, The Advocate)
