The group fighting 
the repeal of protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender residents in Gainesville, Florida has taken their cause to the web! Equality is Gainesville's Business has launched a website: http://equalitygainesville.com.
Our readers have been following this case since we first posted about it here on Bilerico. In January, commissioners voted to include the phrase "gender identity" in the anti-discrimination ordinance that guarantees equal access to housing, employment, public accommodation and credit. The rightwing group, Citizens for Good Public Policy, then launched a disturbing campaign to repeal the protection clause in Gainesville, Florida.
The group launched a fear-mongering campaign which seeks to repeal not only the gender identity protections but sexual orientation by linking the city's human rights law to the protections offered by the state. Florida state law does not include either gender identity or sexual orientation in the categories that are protected. Citizens for Good Public Policy said that the main concern is the use of restrooms by transpeople in restaurants and other places, which will "allow sexual predators into public restrooms." They even created a disturbing commercial that rightfully got all of our Projectors up in arms.
Well now we can all get involved. The LGBT community in Gainesville needs our help. Please go to their website and make a donation to help them in this tough battle to keep the much-needed protections for our community!
http://equalitygainesville.com
Cross-posted at Bilerico-Florida.
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5 Comments
It's funny, this whole bathroom discussion. I was talking about it with Alberto, and let's just say... he got around in his day.
Anyway, he was telling me about the showers at public pools in Paris, and how they used to be gender-segregated. He said that back in those days, "C'etait le bordel" (it was a mess/whorehouse - "bordel" means both in French, for some reason).
So, to curb man-on-man sex in the showers, they made the changing rooms mixed. Men and women shower together (with swimsuits!). Now no one does anything.
Alberto was disappointed, of course, but, seriously, I think it applies here. Americans (and pretty much everyone else) seem to have this crazy notion that more sex will occur with tearing down at least some gender boundaries, but where does all the Larry Craig style sex occur? The men's room or the women's room?
Something to think about.
Alex Blaze | September 14, 2008 5:53 PM
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Incrementalism at work. It doesn't just go one way.
If an inclusive law had been passed in the first place, opponents wouldn't be able to sneak in Anti-Gay measures by engaging in an Anti-Trans fear and smear campaign.
I know I sound like a stuck record, and am sorry about that, but this is a real problem that few are aware of.
How many people even here at Bilerico realise that they're trying to repeal not just existing Trans* rights, but existing Gay rights too? How many people realise it's not just the "mad trannies" this time, a disposable minority, but the whole kit and kaboodle?
Zoe Brain | September 15, 2008 2:45 AM
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What about the Mad Gay Boys? Mad Lesbians? Mad Bisexuals? Aren't we disposable to many?
Zoe, Florida is a weird place where you can go from beyond "too open" to "Deliverance" in five miles. All restrictions of GLBT rights are of equal significance as we all equally represent non mainstream lifestyles. Really, we are together.
Cute little girl with the sign. I wonder, in her Florida school, can she read? Or is she just there because daddy-uncle-brother offered to buy her an ice cream? I am sure she could care less. There ain't no cracker like a Florida cracker. They are so damn stale and buggy!
Robert Ganshorn | September 15, 2008 5:10 AM
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I don't know that it matters which groups are targeted. Even if it were just trans folk or just lesbians, the fight it the right one. No matter what.
Bil Browning | September 15, 2008 11:10 AM
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Bil, I agree with you completely. Not everyone does though, that's the problem.
OK, point made. Now let's go out and win this one.
Zoe Brain | September 15, 2008 12:24 PM
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