How Jacksonville could solve its HRO problem

If Jacksonville’s score on the Human Rights Campaign’s municipal equality index were a dated slang term, it would be 23 Skidoo.

But 23 isn’t just Michael Jordan’s old number; rather, it is the score Jacksonville got on a draft version of the MEI,

I reckon there are cities that do worse on this metric. Nairobi, perhaps?

Still, for a city that is predicating its economic boom on a vibrant downtown and corporate relocation, a municipal record of not being friendly to LGBT concerns is a rank embarrassment.

Employment discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation? Not illegal. Not in Jacksonville.

Failure to ban discrimination on those grounds in city employment? No such protections exist in the Bold New City of the South.

A lack of an LGBT task force in the police department, as well as the city providing no leadership public position on equality, or any recent pro-equality legislative efforts were all zeroes.

Many of those issues can be fixed sooner than later.

Three years ago, the HRO was introduced, and the effort happened without overt coordination between activists and the mayor’s office.

The result? A fully-inclusive HRO that got all of two votes; a less-inclusive HRO that fell 10-9, with a swing vote that flipped saying that the mayor applied pressure to get that vote against it.

Mayor Alvin Brown deferred to City Council, at best. And arguably, he paid for it with his mayoralty.

Those behind the Brown re-election campaign used to bemoan a certain journalist “driving the narrative.”

If there is one lesson Mayor Lenny Curry should have learned from the campaign, it’s this: Drive the narrative, don’t let it drive you.

That leads to an interesting story being floated by certain people with strong knowledge of the legislative (read: not executive) branch in the St. James Building; namely, that Curry will advance his own version of the HRO, with the blessing of the Jax Chamber.

To be clear, there is no confirmation that it’s the course of action Curry will take. But consider:

Curry has received little but praise from LGBT activists since taking office; there is a confidence there that there will be a positive policy outcome.

Curry repeatedly vowed to convene stakeholders himself, eschewing the demands of outside pressure groups. If he comes up with the bill, he will have done just that. Equality Florida and other groups could be dealt out of the process.

And by crafting the bill himself, Curry can field test language that protects religious exemptions, that placates people on Council who might not be quite so placated by different wording,

Curry is a hardcore football fan. Certainly hardcore enough to know the advantage conferred by scripting your first 15 or so plays. Put the defense on its heels. That’s the way you plan the game.

The previous administration didn’t do that. They started off up by two touchdowns, and played not to lose.

Curry won’t make that mistake.

Now, assuming the back-channel information is correct, questions naturally will emerge.

The big one: Would it be a fully inclusive HRO?

There are those who have doubts on that.

The next iteration of the HRO? Might not be a finished product.

But at least it would be a start.