Jacksonville’s City Council members voted to withdraw two bills – one that would have added LGBT protections to the city’s Human Rights Ordinance and the other that would have put that idea to a referendum – but the council is far from united on the issue.
Councilman Tommy Hazouri announced that he planned to withdraw his bill, which would have added the protections outright.
Councilman Bill Gulliford, who was behind the referendum bill, had stated that he would also withdraw but upon learning that Hazouri would work on his bill and bring it back, Gulliford threatened to keep his bill on the table because he said he “received concerns that [Hazouri’s withdrawal] is a ploy to postpone my bill until after the deadline for a referendum.”
Hazouri said he’s not “doing this out of spite” and that he’d informed the council of his plans to reintroduce the measure.
“I’m doing this because of the importance to the city,” Hazouri said, “Eleven of us weren’t here in 2012.”
That’s a reference to the last time LGBT protections came before the council. They were voted down in 2012.
The council debated for more than an hour before voting 13-6 to withdraw both proposals. They also discussed with staff a mayoral directive to introduce the LGBT protections for city employees and vendors.
