New Battle for a Human Rights Ordinance in Jacksonville

[Metro Jacksonville]

New Battle for a Human Rights Ordinance in Jacksonville



"Who are we to to deny basic human rights to any person? When did it become acceptable to make basic liberties exclusive to only those we choose to grant them to?"  Robert Montgomery weighs in on the new effort to pass a Human Rights Ordinance in Jacksonville

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2013-aug-new-battle-for-a-human-rights-ordinance-in-jacksonville

[JayBird]

In my opinion instead of focusing in Jacksonville legislation, where its effect would seem more ceremonial than operational, the resources should be concentrated on making Tallahassee enact legislation. Florida does not have many, if any at all, laws barring discrimination against the LGBT community. They do not allow same sex marriage or union however they do allow same sex parent adoptions. They have no laws regarding employment discrimination unless you are employed directly through a govt agency and no laws regarding fair housing. Florida does however classify personal attack against someone or their property based on sexual orientation a hate crime, but I would imagine it is hard proving that.

However, I do support this and would hope it can be placed on the agenda an be approved, if only as a stepping stone to reach more effective state legislation.

[sheclown]

Excellent

[theduvalprogressive]

Right now there is talk of combing actions into one effort among various groups. The biggest obstacle currently is a lack of knowledge of one another. I work with Occupy Jacksonville and have been seeking to build bridges towards that.

[Cheshire Cat]

Right now there is talk of combing actions into one effort among various groups. The biggest obstacle currently is a lack of knowledge of one another. I work with Occupy Jacksonville and have been seeking to build bridges towards that.

That's what is needed to make this work.  Is this supposed to be attempted again soon or after the 2015 elections?

[Charles Hunter]

Right now there is talk of combing actions into one effort among various groups. The biggest obstacle currently is a lack of knowledge of one another. I work with Occupy Jacksonville and have been seeking to build bridges towards that.

The group Jacksonville Progressive Coalition is working to build bridges among like-minded groups.  From our Facebook page:

Open table group to foster cooperation among progressive individuals and groups in Jacksonville, welcoming labor union members, LGBT community members, Democrats, progressive third party members,environmentalist, immigrant and immigration advocacy groups, voting rights advocates, workers rights activist, advocates for the differently-able, women's rights advocates, civil rights, community, student activist, activist retirees, those involved in grassroots and single issue advocacy, and others who are interested in networking their issues, and developing cooperative action and mutual support across the broad spectrum of progressive thinkers and activist in North Florida.

Facebook page link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/426159774138501/

We meet Sunday, August 18, at 5:00pm at the IBEW Hall at 966 North Liberty.  The primary agenda item this month will be the potential renaming of Nathan Bedford Forrest High School.  But we will talk about other topics, too, and the HRO is on our radar.

[Debbie Thompson]

There is a group called Embrace Jax on Facebook that was working with Jimmy.  At least, that's what my neighbor told me.  She is working with them.  Just checked their page, and this article is posted on it, so I guess he has been in touch with them.

[Garden guy]

Ets all start discriminating again redneck baptist christians and we will all see how fast this city passes a human right ord. If it hits close to home we may see something

[Jimmy]

Social media has definitely created more connective tissue between the groups that have become interested in passing the human rights ordinance amendment.  And between Embrace and Occupy and the Progressive Coalition and the Committee for Equality, there's been a lot of coordination and communication.  What seems to set the current efforts apart from last year's push is that the various groups may have their own strategies and methods in mind to make change.  And these proceed more or less independently, but ideally with some coordination.  Having an overlap in membership between the groups is helping that along.

From the perspective of the Committee, we've made some changes to our structure and new folks are onboard to facilitate and perform the more routine tasks that keeps an organized effort rolling along.  That group has been meeting monthly.  Personally, I don't see a "new battle" underway for the HRO, but a continuation of what began in 2010.  There are definitely new groups, individuals, focus, and energy - all of which are needed and welcome.

The Times-Union ran a story over the weekend that touches on sort of "where we are" with all of this.  http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2013-08-03/story/advocates-expanding-gay-rights-jacksonville-say-their-work-not-done-yet

The ultimate goal is an amended human rights ordinance that adds the words sexual orientation and gender identity or expression to the existing HRO sections of the municipal code. 

In response to JayBird, it would definitely be ideal if we could get some action on this at the state level.  However, the current makeup of the state legislature (not to mention the Governor...) makes action at the state level even more problematic than in Jacksonville.  Anything positive related to LGBT rights at the state level - ever - has come through court cases.  There is a state-wide equality organization, Equality Florida, and they work at the state and local level.  As it is, something in excess of 50% of the Florida population is covered by city and county HRO protections.  Some see Jacksonville as an important linchpin.  There's a belief that if we can pass these protections in Jacksonville, it would send a strong signal to the legislature and perhaps the next Governor.  There's also Federal legislation pending, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) that would address the workplace.  It's had some positive movement in the United States Senate this year and the White House is supportive.  The House of Representatives, however, makes ENDA's future uncertain.  In the meantime, I think we have to think globally and act locally to get these important human rights protections enacted in Duval County.

[James Eddy]

The movement in Jacksonville is moving forward. We have lots of groups that now see after the defeat of the amending the HRO  which lost 2-17 that Jacksonville and our City Council need to wake up to reality. We had two forms of the bill last year and the main bill that had gender identity and gender expression is the true bill. A majority of people do not under stand what trans or gender identity is. Some one that is trans or gender identity is basically they are not the gender that they were born with so they transform into the other gender that they feel should been their gender at birth. Also trans does not define that persons sexual origination. Gender expression is where a person crosses or mixes ones gender. Example is a girl in a guys suit and tie. They are one gender, but express with the opposite gender or a mix of both.   Jacksonville is the last major city with out all or part of this protection for housing and jobs. As a candidate for District 7 City Council I will make sure to get this passed but to make sure Equality and Diversity   is a positive thing  for Jacksonville. We live in this great city but it can be one the best cities in Florida or the country.

[JayBird]

 

In response to JayBird, it would definitely be ideal if we could get some action on this at the state level.  However, the current makeup of the state legislature (not to mention the Governor...) makes action at the state level even more problematic than in Jacksonville.  Anything positive related to LGBT rights at the state level - ever - has come through court cases.  There is a state-wide equality organization, Equality Florida, and they work at the state and local level.  As it is, something in excess of 50% of the Florida population is covered by city and county HRO protections.  Some see Jacksonville as an important linchpin.  There's a belief that if we can pass these protections in Jacksonville, it would send a strong signal to the legislature and perhaps the next Governor.  There's also Federal legislation pending, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) that would address the workplace.  It's had some positive movement in the United States Senate this year and the White House is supportive.  The House of Representatives, however, makes ENDA's future uncertain.  In the meantime, I think we have to think globally and act locally to get these important human rights protections enacted in Duval County.

Thanks, that does make sense and I can see it where it would be advantageous to enact such a policy in Jax first.

[urbaknight]

I love that word "Dixiecrats" I'm going to start using that along with good ol boys, rednecks, morons, floridiots. I love this site! thanks for helping me expand my anti-confederate vocabulary!

[Cheshire Cat]

Right now there is talk of combing actions into one effort among various groups. The biggest obstacle currently is a lack of knowledge of one another. I work with Occupy Jacksonville and have been seeking to build bridges towards that.

The group Jacksonville Progressive Coalition is working to build bridges among like-minded groups.  From our Facebook page:

Open table group to foster cooperation among progressive individuals and groups in Jacksonville, welcoming labor union members, LGBT community members, Democrats, progressive third party members,environmentalist, immigrant and immigration advocacy groups, voting rights advocates, workers rights activist, advocates for the differently-able, women's rights advocates, civil rights, community, student activist, activist retirees, those involved in grassroots and single issue advocacy, and others who are interested in networking their issues, and developing cooperative action and mutual support across the broad spectrum of progressive thinkers and activist in North Florida.

Facebook page link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/426159774138501/

We meet Sunday, August 18, at 5:00pm at the IBEW Hall at 966 North Liberty.  The primary agenda item this month will be the potential renaming of Nathan Bedford Forrest High School.  But we will talk about other topics, too, and the HRO is on our radar.

Glad to know about this group.  Thanks for sharing.

[Cheshire Cat]

Jimmy, if I missed this please excuse me.  Is this effort planned to take place after the 2015 elections.  We know what the current council did when presented with the original bill.  I am thinking that this issue is something that could be put before new candidates and perhaps we can see folks with more understanding elected next time around.  Just my thoughts.

[Jimmy]

Diane, I meant to mention that, but forgot to.  Thanks for the reminder!

My gut tells me this won't be back before the Jacksonville City Council until after the 2015 elections.  I mean, I guess it's technically possible that a Councilmember could file something sooner, but unless that someone is Reggie Brown or Dr. Gaffney, I don't see a different result than we saw a year ago. 

A big part of this work for Jacksonville will involve getting very clear on the views of the Council candidates - and Mayoral candidates - so that we can get a good bill passed and signed in 2015-2016.

Of course -- sometimes politicians will sometimes go back on their word, which was the case with Dr. Gaffney.  He was on-record supporting the HRO (and marriage equality!) but didn't vote that way when it was time to put it on the line.