Jacksonville Council votes down LGBT protections

A proposal that would have added sexuality and gender identity to Jacksonville's Human Rights Ordinance failed Aug. 15.

The final vote, on the proposal that covered both sexuality and gender identity, failed in a 17-2 vote. Bill sponsor Warren Jones and Denise Lee were the only council members who voted in favor. Previous to that, the council considered a suggestion to remove gender identity from the proposal, which was voted down 10-9. The votes came after three months of meetings, public comment and deliberations, before a standing room-only crowd of about 500 people.

â┚¬Å”Even with the full bill [that included gender identity], we thought it wouldn’t be that bad,â┚¬Â said Michael Farmer, Equality Florida (EQFL) statewide director, on the 17-2 final vote. â┚¬Å”A bunch of our supporters flipped on us at the last minute.â┚¬Â

Notable flip-floppers are Jim Love, Lori Boyer and the biggest surprise vote: Dr. Johnny Gaffney, who Farmer said had been in line with EQFL's goals up until the night of the vote. They represent Riverside and San Marco, Jacksonville's two gay neighborhoods.

When asked why, Farmer said they're â┚¬Å”still trying to figure that out.â┚¬Â

He added that the rejection of the proposal to remove gender identity was an anti-gay political maneuver, because the bill may have passed easily with just the sexuality provisions attached.

â┚¬Å”The sponsor of the bill attempted to amend it to remove gender identity and expression,â┚¬Â Farmer said. â┚¬Å”He was blocked by the anti-gay folks. They wanted to make the bill easier to defeat so they wanted to have both gender ID and sexual expression included.â┚¬Â

He said the takeaway is that they have to build support for a fully inclusive bill.

â┚¬Å”We can’t support a bill that doesn’t include all of community,â┚¬Â he said. â┚¬Å”Work has to be done in next election to defeat or change minds of some of those folks on city council who voted against us.â┚¬Â

Farmer said it's clear that no one on the council is â┚¬Å”thinking about our familiesâ┚¬Â and they have to elect an openly gay person to the council, or someone who considers these protections a priority. The first step is to show â┚¬Å”how powerful the voice of our community isâ┚¬Â in the upcoming November elections, then the focus is Jacksonville's municipal elections in March.

He said the Aug. 15 vote should be a rallying cry.

â┚¬Å”It shouldn’t be  moment of defeat ,â┚¬Â Farmer said. â┚¬Å”We just got really close to passing this on the buckle of the Bible Belt. We didn’t make it this time but we’re going to make it next time.â┚¬Â