A.G. Gancarski
Diann Catlin, a panelist at the third Community Conversation Lenny Curry held on expansion of the Jacksonville Human Rights Ordinance, clearly had more to say after that process wrapped, if a letter to the Jacksonville mayor suggesting a “treaty” on LGB rights, which she sent last week, bears significance.
“All over our country no one has been able to find compromise on the difficult conversations you have hosted over the last few weeks,” Catlin wrote in a letter to the mayor, which she told him was “just for you.”
She looked high and low for examples of compromises; Catlin reached out to the American Family Association (a hate group, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center). Then she perused a “homosexual manifesto” which led her, seemingly inexorably and undoubtedly only for academic purposes, to watching a “Gay Pride event/parade” in Key West.
Catlin asserts that the problem is in the phrase “gender ‘expression'”, which “those around you may see as inappropriate ostentatious sexual acting out.”
Catlin wanted to solve the problem of protecting “both sides,” yet in her own reckoning, she failed. Catlin also noted that she told Curry’s Chief of Staff, Kerri Stewart, that she was working on this; lamentably, Stewart has not returned her call.
That said, Catlin wanted to pass on her solution to the impasse between LGBT activists who seek civil rights, and those who oppose them.
“A treaty, not an ordinance” is what emerged, as Catlin posed the following questions:
“Can a community delight in respecting others by common consent but without an ordinance?”
“Can the Jacksonville community seek compromise between LGB folks and religious folks, employees, and religious-based businesses?”
“Can common sense… govern bathroom practices?”
Catlin believes that is, in fact, possible, with her “treaty,” which reads as follows:
“Whereas the city of Jacksonville realizes that it loves and respects all citizens, but where it realizes that nationwide ordinances do not solve the problem, it, therefore, suggests a treaty.”
The treaty would “honor freedom of speech and religious rights,” Catlin wrote, but “NOT allow a loose ‘gender expression’ [that] would defy common sense, proper dress code and behavior and a limit on PDA to be appropriate for a family town,” as apparently opposed to those towns of orphans and singles elsewhere in the country.
“Keep common sense,” Catlin suggests regarding bathroom usage, with DNA determining where one might use facilities.
“This is the only way that we can protect ourselves from sexual predators claiming gender issues,” Catlin observes.
As well, “pre-decide not to be easily offended” in the case of incorrect gender reference.
“If this happens,” Catlin adds, “simply correct the speaker, and the speaker will immediately apologize and ask forgiveness.”
Once that happens: “Give the forgiveness.”
“Bending and choosing not to be offended” is also a suggested strategy by Catlin, when a “vendor does not want to participate in your gay wedding.”
In conclusion, Catlin chastised Councilman Tommy Hazouri for trying to legislate “approval and tolerance,” a move which would “challenge… freedoms” and “the concept of live and let live.”
All of Jacksonville presumably will wait and see if Catlin’s LGB rights “treaty” suggestion is advanced by the mayor’s office in legislative form.
The T? Well, they’re out of luck, apparently.
