“Discernment” continues for Lenny Curry on HRO … but for how long?

Where does Lenny Curry fall on the expansion of Jacksonville’s Human Rights Ordinance to the LGBT community?

The decision, which he pledged to make by the end of January, is imminent, said Kerri Stewart, Curry’s Chief of Staff, Thursday.

Stewart added that he has been locked in “discernment,” as Council President Greg Anderson described it earlier this month.

However, it remains to be seen if such a decision will be rendered by the end of the day Friday… the last workday of January.

There may be a press conference. There may be a press release.

What won’t happen, said Stewart: his participation in the 2:30 meeting in City Council chambers between Aaron Bowman, Tommy Hazouri, and Joyce Morgan on the subject of the Bowman/Hazouri HRO bill.

Stewart tells FloridaPolitics.com that Curry is hearing from all sides on this, and that certainly is the case.

The Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce came out in support of a fully-inclusive HRO this week, after spirited internal debate regarding the Transsexual protections in the bill.

However, there are opponents … and First Baptist Church is ramping up its efforts with an “urgent citywide request of Jacksonville pastors.”

Those pastors, at behest of former City Council President Ginger Soud, will have an “urgent, private strategic briefing and luncheon” on Thursday, February 4 from 12:30 to 2:00 p.m. at the dining room of First Baptist Church of Jacksonville.

The “so-called Human Rights Ordinance” will be discussed, which is a “direct threat to the church” and to a “pastor’s ability to hire and fire employees,” says the document.

Special guests at this meeting:

• Aggrieved Washington state florist Baronnelle Stutzman, who didn’t want to provide flowers for a same-sex wedding.
• Pastor David Welch of the Texas Pastors Council, who looks to do for Jacksonville what he and his group did in Houston.
• Attorney Kellie Fiedorek, with Alliance Defending Freedom, who equates serving same-sex couples with African-Americans participating in a Ku Klux Klan rally.

Interested in the lunch and learn?

Email Nandi Randolph at [email protected] with your full name, church name, and title as pastor.

Or simply call 407-251-5130.

Please note that to attend this confidential super-secret meeting that one must sign a “written affirmation” that “you oppose the Jax HRO.”

Whether this statement means opposing HRO expansion to the LGBT community, or standing athwart the entire Human Rights Ordinance, is anyone’s guess.

Lenny Curry is fond of saying “be bold” when it comes to budgetary allocations. Those on either side of this issue wait for boldness one way or the other on the HRO.