Gainesville’s Fight

Allyson Robinson posted this message about Equality Florida’s fight for a gender-inclusive non-discrimination law in Gainesville, Florida on our message boards, & I thought it deserved a larger audience:

Many of you are aware of the fight brewing in Gainesville, Florida over their trans-inclusive non-discrimination law, passed by the city council last year. Gainesville’s non-discrimination ordinance had covered sexual orientation for years, but when gender identity was added last year, opposition was activated. The opposition group collected a huge number of signatures–over 10% of the projected voting population–to get the anti-discrimination ordinance placed on the ballot in a special election. That’s tremendous for this kind of municipal issue; more people signed the petition against these protections than voted for the mayor or any sitting city council member in recent elections.

Though the charter amendment the opposition group is pushing would eliminate protections for the whole LGBT community, their messaging is focusing on transgender people–the “bathroom diversion.” Their flyers state, in letters a inch tall, “KEEP MEN OUT OF WOMEN’S RESTROOMS.” As we’ve seen all over the country, and writ large in California last fall, this kind of fear-based messaging is very, very difficult to dislodge from voters’ minds. The special election is scheduled for March 24.

This fight has national significance. The “bathroom diversion” is quickly becoming our opposition’s weapon of choice. They used it successfully in Hamtramck, Michigan, it might have succeeded in Montgomery County, Maryland had the courts not intervened, it’s getting drug out in Kalamazoo, Michigan and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and it’s already being raised at the state level in places like Connecticut that are considering inclusive non-discrimination bills this year. We must show both our opponents and our supporters that we can consistently defeat this tactic. If we don’t, municipalities or states considering trans-inclusive non-discrimination laws may become gun-shy, preferring not to deal with costly ballot initiatives in response to pro-equality laws.

The pro-equality coalition in Gainesville is called Equality Is Gainesville’s Business (EIGB). They’re working to raise funds right now and expect to need $100,000 to fight the discriminatory charter amendment. On their Facebook group they recently posted this message:

Subject: We Need Your Help.
Our campaign is hitting the ground running this month. We desperately need donations:
In a few, short weeks, (March 24, 2009), voters in Gainesville will be asked to vote on an amendment that would remove anti-discrimination protections in employment, housing, credit and public accommodations that currently exist for residents who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.

The campaign to fight this hateful amendment will be expensive — upwards of $100,000 for polling, getting out the vote, advertising.

Put simply: The campaign urgently needs your financial support — time is of the essence.

The National Gay & Lesbian Task Force has offered a challenge grant to see the campaign — over the next week they will match (dollar-for-dollar) your contribution up to $7,500.

Please feel free to email me (raprat0@gmail.com) to talk about the campaign if you have any questions, comments or concerns.

Please donate online at http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http…ainesville.com or you can mail a check made out to “Equality Is Gainesville’s Business” to PO Box 40, Gainesville FL 32602. There is no contribution limit, and every dollar counts no matter what level you can afford to give.

Thank you for whatever support you can offer!

Please do what you can.