CLEARWATER – Not a single member of the public spoke in favor of amending the county’s human rights ordinance during the April 22 Board of County Commissioners meeting.
Commissioners voted 4-2 to approve revisions that add prohibitions against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in employment, housing and public accommodations providing protection for homosexual and bisexual people.
Commissioners Robert Stewart and Calvin Harris voted no. Commissioner John Morroni was absent due to a family emergency.
The majority of those speaking against the ordinance said amendments did not go far enough because they did not include the transgendered community. They asked that the revised ordinance be tabled or voted down so that a new all-inclusive ordinance could be passed that would protect the rights of all.
Others spoke against the ordinance saying that it was not needed and would create increased legal entanglements for the county’s citizens. Some said it violated religious freedoms.
Despite the sensitivity of the issue and a clear divisiveness, public testimony and commissioner’s debate was conducted with civility throughout the meeting.
“This is a conversation this community must have,” Commissioner Ronnie Duncan said as he and other commissioners thanked those in attendance for showing respect to one another.
After the public hearing, Commissioner Susan Latvala pushed to add the words “gender identity and expression.” County Attorney Jim Bennett said adding the four words would substantially change the ordinance from the one that had been advertised.
Latvala then lobbied to table the ordinance until the language could be added, saying it should be done right the first time through.
“Every citizen in Pinellas County deserves to be protected,” she said.
Commissioner Ken Welch and Duncan said they would support tabling the matter until the legalities of adding the transgendered community could be researched and further discussions could take place.
“I support the ordinance we have before us right now, but I’m willing to look at including transgendered community,” Welch said.
Welch also brought up what Duncan termed as the logistics surrounding transgendered people in the workplace, restrooms, especially for those in the process of changing their sex or the possibility of disruption in the workplace due to cross-dressing.
He said if the county passed an ordinance requiring that employers not discriminate against transgendered people, then it had to be prepared to answer the logistical questions.
Commissioner Karen Seel said her research showed that transgendered people were already protected by the 1964 civil rights act. Leon Russell, director of the county’s Human Right’s Office, disagreed.
“The issue of transgendered people wasn’t even perceived when the 1964 law was passed,” he said.
Welch made the motion to approve the ordinance as it was advertised with the addendum that county staff and the county attorney’s office research the legalities of adding gender identity and expression; find out what other communities have done to protect transgendered people; research the experience of other communities and the impact of enforcement on the workplace, housing and public accommodations. He also requested that research be done on the possible need to assure protection for religious organizations.
Bennett and Russell estimated that it would take at least six weeks to complete the research and write additional amendments for the human rights ordinance.
When the work is completed, the ordinance could then be brought back to the board to decide whether or not it wants to pursue it.
“A vote to authorize advertising (of another public hearing) will be a good indication of (the board’s) willingness to include the transgendered,” Stewart said.
