Melissa Ross
The North Florida politician known for being the first in the area to lead on passing a comprehensive HRO stands by her record as she gears up for re-election.
“It was the right thing to do,” says Atlantic Beach City Commissioner Maria Mark. Mark, the Executive Director at the Timucuan Trail Parks Foundation, faces off against political newcomer John Stinson in the city’s August 25th primary.
And while the four-year incumbent says she’s focused on community redevelopment issues like beefing up the often-challenged Mayport Road corridor, the matter of the human rights ordinance is the issue that she’s most known for. (To the point that one of her colleagues actually defriended her on Facebook, as readers of this website may remember.)
The city of Atlantic Beach passed an inclusive human rights ordinance covering LGBT residents in August of 2014 following a failed effort in August of 2012 to pass a similar measure in the City of Jacksonville.
Jacksonville remains the only major city in Florida without a fully inclusive HRO, although there are rumblings the issue could soon be brought up again.
And Mark faced criticism from some of her constituents because the HRO vote wasn’t decided in Atlantic Beach via referendum, as some voters wanted.
“You should never put the question of protecting a minority to a popular vote,” said Mark during an appearance on WJCT’s First Coast Connect.
“Yes, there are still some people that did not agree with passing an inclusive HRO. Some didn’t approve the process. They really wanted a referendum.
“But it was our responsibility as elected officials. I don’t support any discrimination whatsoever. As a paralegal, I worked on discrimination cases. I too had experienced discrimination growing up as an adopted Korean girl in Columbia, South Carolina in the 1960’s. Being pretty much the only Asian kid growing up in a small Southern town, it was pretty difficult, pretty challenging at times.”
Mark says that difficult childhood has given her heightened sensitivity to the imperative of inclusion and acceptance. And she called on her counterparts at Jacksonville City Hall to meet the challenge.
“I think for Jacksonville to be progressive, it would be the right thing to do. Major corporations, Fortune 500 companies have said they wouldn’t even consider moving their offices here because we do not have protections for our LGBT citizens and potential employees. We’re hurting ourselves as a city. So I’m hoping the new City Council and the new mayor will really consider this.”
