A.G. Gancarski
The Jacksonville City Council is on track to reenact LGBT rights legislation recently called into question, with two committees moving the bill Tuesday.
The Human Rights Ordinance expansion of 2017 protected jobs, housing, and restroom access for the LGBT community, and it had seemed a settled issue until an appeals court ruling required cure legislation.
After a public hearing on the bill last week, in which proponents outnumbered opponents, the final City Council committee of reference (Rules) moved the bill forward by a 6-1 vote. It will likely be passed Tuesday by the full legislative body.
“The current legislation was improperly adopted,” a city lawyer said, “still on the books, but in essence, unenforceable.”
Passing the bill would make the litigation moot, he added, an explanation that seemed to suffice for most of the panel.
There was likewise little suspense in Finance, where it passed 7-0 earlier in the day. The chair, Aaron Bowman, is a Republican who vowed to get legislation passed as a candidate in 2015, and who has not relented since.
Bowman, who bucked the Republican Party locally in taking a strong anti-discrimination stance, noted that this was the third time in five years the bill came up.
“I heard and witnessed stuff that I never want to hear or listen to again,” Bowman said, but it was worth it to bring businesses here, a “three-year success story.”
The cure bill does a “better job of codifying” the stipulations, Bowman noted.
Should the bill pass the full City Council as expected next Tuesday, it will be signed by a previously reluctant Mayor Lenny Curry.
Curry, who opposed previous iterations of the legislation as he thought it was unnecessary, told Florida Politics last week he would sign it.
“The HRO is back because of a technicality in the law,” Curry said. “The bill has been law for a number of years. I’ll sign the bill if the City Council corrects the technicality.
When the Human Rights Ordinance expansion was passed in 2017, Curry, a former chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, let the bill become law without his signature, contending the legislation was not necessary because the city didn’t discriminate.
Though worries were great that there would be a torrent of actions after that bill became law, that hasn’t happened.
The legislation has seen a smattering of cases in housing and employment law, though nothing regarding public accommodations such as locker rooms and bathrooms.
5 comments
Concerned Parent
June 2, 2020 at 10:20 am
Once again, let me ask all the city council members, would you want a man, to go into the bathroom with your daughter, wife, mother, or grandmother? What would you do , if you saw that happen, would you go in their with your daughter, wife, mother or grandmother, to make sure they are safe and not assaulted or molested?? This part of the ordinance is the craziest thing I have ever. heard of. Why not change that part of it???? And then, please let the public, the voters of Duval County decided if they want this to happen.
Frankie M.
June 2, 2020 at 3:33 pm
Harassing people in public restrooms has always been illegal. This bill does nothing to change that. Educate yourself instead of spreading fake news.
Astute Observer
June 2, 2020 at 3:31 pm
The only openly “gay” Councilman, Rory Diamond, is a co-sponsor of this atrocious HRO. He and his fellow RINOs have sided with the depraved drag queens, wiccans, pagans, and satanists, who are all in favor of this blatantly anti-Christian ordinance. SHAMEFUL!
Frankie M.
June 2, 2020 at 3:37 pm
Does Lenny signing this bill mean that he believes the people of Jax discriminate based on a person’s sexual identity? That was the reason he gave for allowing it to become law last time without his signature. Has he had a change of heart?
human being
June 4, 2020 at 4:57 am
Hey Frankie M., has it always been legal for a man to go into the women’s bathroom?? how would you feel if a man went into the women’s bathroom if your mother, wife or daughter was in there??
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