Jacksonville found to be “gayest” city in Florida

gay flag lgbt

Surprising some, Jacksonville is on a new New York Times list showing the metro areas with the largest population of LGBT residents.

San Francisco is No. 1 (no surprise), followed by Portland, Ore.; Austin, Texas; and New Orleans. Jacksonville is the only Florida city to make the list, with 4.3 percent of the population falling under the LGBT umbrella.

“I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that we are a Navy town. And a lot of the folks who served, retire here. I know a lot of people who were in the service and decided to stay in Jacksonville,” said Jimmy Midyette, of the city’s newly formed LGBT PAC.

The PAC had endorsed Bill Bishop for mayor because of his support for expanding the city’s human rights ordinance to cover the LGBT population. Bishop is now out of the race, and says he is “weighing his options” as to whether to endorse Mayor Alvin Brown or Lenny Curry in the May 19 runoff.

Where Bishop’s 17% of the voter pie will go in May is the question question of the moment for Jacksonville political observers.

Meanwhile, Midyette said the new survey is further evidence that the city’s next mayor must get behind his community.

“You would think if we have the highest population of LGBT residents in the state per capita, that we would have more clout — you’d expect our needs to be met by our leaders. So it’s a little disappointing, that compared to other cities, we make up a relatively large segment of the population but don’t find that our interests are being represented in government — at all,” he said.

Jacksonville is the only major city in the country that has not updated its human rights ordinance to protect LGBT citizens from discrimination in jobs, housing and accommodations.

Melissa Ross

In addition to her work writing for Florida Politics, Melissa Ross also hosts and produces WJCT’s First Coast Connect, the Jacksonville NPR/PBS station’s flagship local call-in public affairs radio program. The show has won four national awards from Public Radio News Directors Inc. (PRNDI). First Coast Connect was also recognized in 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2014 as Best Local Radio Show by Folio Weekly’s “Best Of Jax” Readers Poll and Melissa has also been recognized as Folio Weekly’s Best Local Radio Personality. As executive producer of The 904: Shadow on the Sunshine State, Melissa and WJCT received an Emmy in the “Documentary” category at the 2011 Suncoast Emmy Awards. The 904 examined Jacksonville’s status as Florida’s murder capital. During her years in broadcast television, Melissa picked up three additional Emmys for news and feature reporting. Melissa came to WJCT in 2009 with 20 years of experience in broadcasting, including stints in Cincinnati, Chicago, Orlando and Jacksonville. Married with two children, Melissa is a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism/Communications. She can be reached at [email protected].



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