Despite fall of Houston HERO, “fully inclusive” Jax HRO push is full steam ahead

Janet Harper mobilizes Jax HRO supporters.

Arguably the most monumental election of Tuesday night, for those in Northeast Florida, wasn’t the St. Johns County Sales Tax referendum, but half a continent away: Houston voters rejected their city’s equal rights ordinance.

The margin wasn’t close: 61 to 39 percent. The issue had been into a so-called “bathroom ordinance,” with opponents somehow reducing the debate about equal rights and protections to fear-mongering over the prospect of a transgender person using a women’s bathroom.

For those here in Jacksonville, the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance defeat may have conjured up déjà vu. In 2012, this city’s Human Rights Ordinance expansion fell in City Council by one vote. Councilman Johnny Gaffney cast that vote. He  claimed he was confused at the time, then said then-Mayor Alvin Brown had  pressured him to vote against it.

Gaffney now works in the current mayor’s office.

From there, there’s been three years of radio silence from the Brown administration and City Council on the matter.

The HRO expansion loomed over the mayoral campaign like an August thundercloud. And Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry, as promised, recently announced a series of “community conversations” on the topic.

Given the stakes and the proven ability of opponents to mobilize against the measure, the pro-HRO crowd is ready this time, as a meeting of District 14 Democrats at the Murray Hill Library on Wednesday night suggested.

One of the arrows in their quiver: a 40-minute documentary, “Six Words,” that  Jimmy Midyette from the Jacksonville Coalition for Equality described as “principally about the 2012 effort … as we look forward to what comes next.”

The film intertwines a variety of narrative techniques. Civic leaders including John Delaney, Audrey Moran, Preston Haskell, and Steve Halverson discus at length the necessity of an expanded Human Rights Ordinance.

Necessary for business. Necessary for the city not to lag behind competitors. Necessary for people, because it’s the right thing to do.

The film also included testimony from young men who had faced the kind of issues that those who don’t fit into heterosexual norms encounter.

Those issues include everything from being rendered homeless, to not being able to tell family.

Yet they get support in surprising ways. A young African-American named Elmo, a soft-spoken man with dreadlocks and an open facial expression,  was compelled by his mother to talk to his pastor, who gave him sage advice a world away from First Baptist Church and the Liberty Council.

“If people don’t agree with your lifestyle,” the minister said, “F— them.”

Though the group is unable to quantify how many instances of discrimination are faced by LGBT people, there is plenty of anecdotal evidence. From people losing jobs because of sexual orientation to people being asked to leave a restaurant for wearing a Jacksonville Coalition for Equality shirt, the narrative is well-established.

And the political pressure against it is taking root.

Councilman Warren Jones, appointed to the JEA Board by Mayor Lenny Curry, was rewarded by people calling him up and reading passages from Leviticus, after he introduced the bill in 2012.

The “Six Words” documentary has been distributed to the mayor’s office, as well as to all 19 council members, and Midyette cited at least one rave review.

District 14 Republican Councilman Jim Love, who voted for the “compromise bill” but not the fully inclusive original in 2012, noted that “if we’d had this in 2012, we wouldn’t be talking about this bill.”

Speaking to a room of partisan Democrats, Midyette was asked about his take on the mayor’s position.

Describing Curry as “business-minded” and “concerned about economic development for the whole community,” Midyette said he expects a transparent dialogue.

“Whatever happens,” Midyette said, “it will be fair.”

HRO proponents, of course, want fully inclusive legislation. And there will be opponents, utilizing what Midyette called a “comprehensive set of scare tactics” on issues like the bathroom controversy.

“What will be different,” Midyette said of the current effort, “is that we will be much more up front,” especially regarding “critical” protections for transgender people.

And they will be, perhaps, a bit more politically savvy as well.

A faith leader dinner next week will include “messaging training” for participants in the forum at Edward Waters College and is expected to address religious concerns.

HRO proponents also will “bring in women’s groups” for the Youth and Families forum at FSCJ to counteract the expected “bathroom” narrative.

Regarding the forum at Jacksonville University, which will deal with business community concerns, Midyette notes that more than 140 businesses have signed on with overt support … including the Armada Football Club of Mark Frisch.

The ultimate success of the HRO effort pivots on two separate initiatives.

One is to make the utilitarian and ethical case for the measure.

The other? To overcome road-tested approaches that have undermined similar efforts elsewhere.