Updated Thurs. 2/04 at 8 p.m.:
The Jacksonville City Council has voted 11-8 against withdrawing a bill that would prohibit LGBT discrimination.
The Jacksonville City Council began debating two anti-discrimination bills dealing with protections for LGBT residents Thursday.
One bill would add protections for people in the areas of sexual orientation, gender identity and expression to the city’s human-rights ordinance outright. The other would have the public vote on the matter.
The city’s human rights ordinance already protects people based on religion, race and sex in housing, public accommodations and employment.
The Council’s first meeting to discuss the bills Thursday didn’t go as expected. Instead of deliberating on the bills, Councilwoman Lori Boyer proposed a third option: withdraw them "and work together on the other great challenges that face our city. Let us get our own house in order and implement the mayor’s directive before we take any potentially conflicting action or heighten the public controversy.”
Last week, Mayor Lenny Curry adjusted the city’s hiring policy to prohibit LGBT discrimination. At the same time, he said he opposes both bills extending those same potections to all city residents.
Bill Gulliford is sponsoring the bill that would let the public decide. He said he’d withdraw his bill if the one sponsored by Tommy Hazouri was withdrawn too. Hazouri refused.
Councilman Reggie Brown, who’s African-American, said withdrawing the bills would be a mistake.
“I can tell you that if we did nothing in 1864 I wouldn't be sitting here. If we didn’t do anything in 1964, I wouldn’t be sitting here so I’m not in favor of doing nothing,” he said. “But more importantly we made a promise. We said that we would have three meetings. We had a process that we guaranteed the taxpayers.”
The meetings will continue as planned, and a final vote is expected in March.
Meanwhile, a religious-liberty coalition is already campaigning to repeal Hazouri's bill if it passes.
Local pastors and lawyers from across the country are banding together to collect signatures for a repeal referendum. The coalition announced its petition drive Thursday at the First Baptist Church preschool, which they say is a threatened place if the Council outlaws LGBT discrimination.
“Church pre-schools that accept VPK money from the state of Florida are already considered public accommodations under existing Jacksonville non-discrimination law,” said Liberty Council lawyer Roger Gannam.
Right now, schools can’t turn someone away for being a certain race, but they can refuse to accept kids of gay parents, and the coalition wants to keep it that way. Gannam applauds Mayor Lenny Curry’s stance.
“We think with the leadership of the mayor on this issue, it should discourage the Council from bringing it back year after year. We don’t believe Mr. Curry will change his mind,” he says.
Curry has not said whether he’d veto the bills if Council passes one. If he doesn’t, the coalition says it’s already collected more than a third of the roughly 27,000 signatures needed to get a repeal on the ballot.
The original story is below:
The Jacksonville City Council has voted 11-8 against withdrawing a bill that would prohibit LGBT discrimination.
Councilwoman Lori Boyer introduced the motion to withdraw the bill by Councilman Tommy Hazouri Thursday. She said that would allow the Council to follow Mayor Lenny Curry's directive.
Last week Curry said he does not support either Hazouri's bill or one by Councilman Bill Gulliford. Gulliford's would put the question to the public as a referendum instead of having Council vote on it.
The Council will now debate both of the bills before a vote scheduled for March.
Meanwhile, a religious-liberty coalition is already campaigning to repeal Hazouri's bill if it passes.
Local pastors and lawyers from across the country are banding together to collect signatures for a repeal referendum. The coalition announced its petition drive Thursday at the First Baptist Church preschool, which they say is a threatened place if the Council outlaws LGBT discrimination.
“Church pre-schools that accept VPK money from the state of Florida are already considered public accommodations under existing Jacksonville non-discrimination law,” said Liberty Council lawyer Roger Gannam.
Right now, schools can’t turn someone away for being a certain race, but they can refuse to accept kids of gay parents, and the coalition wants to keep it that way Gannam applauds Mayor Lenny Curry’s stance.
“We think with the leadership of the mayor on this issue, it should discourage the Council from bringing it back year after year. We don’t believe Mr. Curry will change his mind,” he says.
Curry has not said whether he’d veto the bills if Council passes one. If he doesn’t, the coalition says it’s already collected more than a third of the roughly 27,000 signatures needed to get a repeal on the ballot.
