Ordinance 2012-296 ACTION NEEDED

[Leanne King]

     By now you heard of Ordinance 2012-296. The previous communications have detailed the ordinance and its specific implication.  To site the Ordinance Preamble, “Whereas, the City of Jacksonville seeks to build a reputation as a welcoming community for bright and talented members of a workforce…..”; this is a suggested ordinance giving the Human Rights Council the powers to enforce the ordinance against businesses “should it be proven that they discriminate” on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identification.  The original ordinance also eliminated references to the United States Constitution and laws of the State and failed to define sexual orientation and gender identification.  Is this a new special class of people?   It suggests that Jacksonville is an environment that is hostile to the gay/lesbian/transgender people. This suggestion has been disproven by recent two national level survey’s that document that we rank number 3 and 4 for being a friendly city and a great place to live.

 

     This bill is in front of our city council for vote.  It has met some resistance from conservatives, Tea Party, religious organizations and other First Amendment Rights organizations. The opposition stands just as firm in their beliefs that this ordinance is needed so that they are treated fairly. While there are some personal level stories as to their treatment none relate to workplace/community or housing discrimination. We know that you cannot legislate the personal behaviors of some individuals who make a choice to be hateful to another.

     There is now an attempt to amend the proposed ordinance by reinstating verbiage to the US Constitution and eliminating “gender identification” and perhaps “sexual expression.” This however will not solve the issues that this ordinance in any form will create.

     I ask that you email the city council members listed below and feel free to utilize any of the information presented below.

 

                               Ask yourself and your council member:

   Are you willing to commit to the premise that Jacksonville is hostile to the gay/lesbian community?

   Are you willing to believe that only the gay, lesbian world is creative as your message so clearly stated in the council meeting last week?

   Are you willing to commit that this is the most important issue to attract business to Jacksonville?

   Are you willing to lay the legal and financial burdens of this legislation at the feet of thousands of the small business owners in our city?

   Are you willing to impose the so called special needs of these citizens while ignoring and removing the rights of so many others?

   Are you willing to take the responsibility for the thousands of other employees who while utilizing their freedom of speech about their beliefs both personal and religious may be sued or their employer sued by someone who finds an innocent comment “offensive to them”?

   Are you willing to accept the ultimate personal responsibility that comes with your support of this ordinance when it is now perfectly clear that the origin of this ordinance came FROM AN EXTERNAL SOURCE, with monies behind it being QUESTIONABLE?

   Are you willing to tell the pubic the truth that this is being pushed at the NATIONAL LEVEL by those who have a much larger and destructive AGENDA?

   Are you willing to be honest and know that this group of OUR CITIZENS are being used to push a much larger attack on EVERYONE’S freedoms? Specifically of SPEECH AND RELIGION?

                    This bill is not needed.  There is no systemic discrimination. 

 

In addition to the above questions the following information is provided for understanding.

The Ordinance:

1)     Creates New and Special Rights for Homosexuals: The ordinance creates new and special rights for homosexuals by creating a new protected class and a special legal classification based upon “sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression”.  

 

2)     Weakens Florida’s Marriage Amendment as the Union of One Man and One Woman:  The ordinance like others around the country have been used to undermine and overturn state marriage laws and state constitutional amendments defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman.  Gay rights activists around the country have used the collective scheme of nondiscrimination laws like this one to create a new protected class and legalize homosexual marriages in states like Vermont, Iowa, New Hampshire and Washington, DC.

 

3)     Removes All References to the U.S. Constitution:  The ordinance (unbelievably) removes all references to the “United States Constitution” in the city code and deletes all language referring to “civil rights found under the US Constitution”. The ordinance language thereby removes the rights, protections and limitations given to citizens by the highest law of the land. 

 

4)     Creates Legal Defenses for Pedophiles:  The ordinances gender identity and gender expression language would allow men to be able to use women’s bathrooms (and vice versa) in “public accommodations” based upon their subjective sense of whether they are a male or female allowing for pedophiles to have a defense for using girl’s bathrooms.  This shocking provision is being forced onto cities all around the country.  The security and privacy of locker rooms, dressing rooms, bathrooms and other separate facilities are all compromised. 

5)   Creates More Lawsuits and Regulations for Businesses: The ordinance forces individual citizens, businesses and landlords in Jacksonville to be liable to be sued for money damages if they choose to not hire homosexual, transgendered, bi-sexual or gender confused persons in their small businesses, or choose not to accept similar persons as tenants in their private homes or apartments. 

 

6)     Violates Religious Freedoms- The ordinance forces Christians and other people of faith to violate their rights of conscience and good faith religious beliefs in business and employment situations and with housing decisions for private property owners.  

 

     I implore you to send a message to your city council NOW!  Tell them that you oppose this ordinance in any form.  Additionally, if you can get to City Hall this Tuesday for the next meeting PLEASE ATTEND.

Our physical presence makes a HUGE difference. 

     Send this to your list of small business owners so that they too can respond. Send it to your friends and ask them to email and support their city.

     While it appears to be most important to send the message to Lori Boyer, Jim Love, Greg Anderson. Robin Lumb, Bill Bishop, Ray Holt and Dr. Johnny Gaffney a message to each member is highly effective.

 

District 2: William Bishop                                        [e-mail]

District 11: Ray Holt                                                [e-mail]

At Large (Group 4) Greg Anderson                           [e-mail]

At Large (Group 5) Robin Lumb                                [e-mail]

District 3: Richard Clark                                          [e-mail]

District 5: Lori N. Boyer                                           [e-mail]

District 7: Dr. Johnny Gaffney -                              [e-mail]

District 8: E. Denise Lee                                          [e-mail]

District 9: Warren Jones                                           [e-mail]

District 10: Reginald Brown                                     [e-mail]

District 14: Jim Love                                                [e-mail]

At Large (Group 2) John R. Crescimbeni                   [e-mail]

At Large (Group 3) Stephen C. Joost                         [e-mail]

District 1: Clay Yarborough                                     [e-mail]

District 4: Don Redman                                           [e-mail]

At-Large (Group 1): Kimberly Daniels                      [e-mail]

District 6: Matt Schellenberg                                   [e-mail]

District 12: Doyle Carter                                         [e-mail]

District 13: Bill Gulliford                                          [e-mail]

 

     In addition to your emails you can do more, there is a City Council meeting scheduled at City Hall tomorrow June 26^th at 5PM. It is critical that as many people as possible show up as a public display of support  AGAINST this bill. Know that the opposition will be there in mass.

Thank you

[Patricia M. McBride]

John, in a way it has everything to do with rehabilitation, and those who understand they must fight, kick and earn a way into the life they really want instead of accepting the life most accept due to their circumstances. Charles Payne is an excellent example, and he is quite verbal about his modest beginnings. The man is a super star for people overcoming their circumstances and fighting really hard to do so! Thanks fo remembering Charles.........if you don't remember who this is, he is a very smart financial analyst who works for Fox News and has his own segment, and he talks about where he came from and how he got where he is. I hope others have heard him that share his meager beginnings and understand there is hope for them as well!

[Patricia M. McBride]

John, yes, I understand correctional institutions and understand someone has to want to have a better life and work towards it. There is much available to people in Correctional Inst., but it is up to them to use the resources.

[Patricia M. McBride]

And Pace is not live in; it is day school. You can't be late getting there and you can't skip school either without getting to explain why. They still live in the bad environment, but during they day, not so (and they have councilors right across from the class rooms so they get them turned around if they come in after having a bad evening or night at home........they do make sure they have bus far back and forth too if parents can't bring them). When they finish there, if you could say they ever really finish with the center, they are nice young women with a future they only have to work or study to achieve and some even get help setting up the first place of their own through donations from various people and groups.

[Patricia M. McBride]

Ken, what you are talking about is similiar to the program run for girls (not reform school or prison, but a second chance for girls who come from bad homes etc and some are referred by the courts). They help these girls get caught up to school level and in the cases of those in middle school, they send them back to the public schools for high school (but keep a close eye on them and yank them back if their grades start slipping or they miss a lot of school.......and they call them and talk to them as well). The point I was getting to, is that in order for any girl to enter the Pace program is they have to know they are headed in the wrong direction and have to want to make a change and have to ask to come to the school for help, so they have the right attitude before they ever go there. The place is like a family, but a strict family. They teach them all sorts of things besides helping them with their education like sewing, cooking and the works. If they get their GED there, they get help getting into college and are shown how to apply for college, how to apply for a job, what is appropriate to wear and a ton of other real life things. They totally understand effort is rewarded! There is obviously lots more to the school, but it works for those who are motivated not to be like the environment they were brought up in with drugs, abuse and alcohol (etc).

[Patricia M. McBride]

Well put John. Good questions..............how do you think they are answered? I would think there might be a better answer. Why can't there be something where the convicted person has to work and support themselves while serving whatever is considered the punishment for the crime they committed. Why does there have to be a set confined area? Why, for non violent crimes, can't there be something that actually educates the person, gets them set on the right track, and then, puts them into a situation as "punishment" that allows them to get on the track and be forced to stay there during the "punishment" time? Wouldn't that be more apt to make it less likely they would do a repeat performance?

[Patricia M. McBride]

Right now, there are many people who would be grateful for $10 an hour..............who don't have jobs at all.  It isn't a huge, but it is better than being forced to be on public assistance I would think.  You guys are great by the way!  Interesting comments even if I don't agree with everything.  I am off this thing for the night.  We got the storm last night and had another almost direct hit by lighting (the neighbor across the street was power ringing the door bell at 11:45 for hubby to see if he could fix the phone and air and 3 or 4 of us lost our phones (we lost a modem and the kitchen phone got fried).  Next door has a laundry list of damaged and destroyed things................anyway, I am pooped and going to sleep early tonight!   Play nice!

[Patricia M. McBride]

Amanda, we do not privatize prisons because it is more expensive than having the government do it.  We privatize because it is cheaper than what the government can do it for, so it costs the taxpayers less than they might have paid if they handled it (and that is without any profit margin).  As far as underpaid inmates and workers, that is your opinion.   And we don't know how bad it is cause we aren't there, are we?  We can only take the word of some folks who did something bad enough to be sent there and another group of folks who wanted a job and agreed to the employment contract they were presented?  So, you deciding they are not paid a decent wage is a relative sort of thing, and you deciding that someone in prison shouldn't be there because the system wasn't fair to them, and this is the same system you think should still be running the prisons because they would be fairer to their employees......................you can't really have it both ways.  Either they are fair or they aren't, and I would still opt to pay less and let a private company make a profit.  This isn't a communist country yet although I am sure the ego with legs in the white house is salvitating at the thought of turning us into one where he can tell everyone what to do (after all he has done such a swell job up until now).   And I did not nor do I use the word "stupid" a lot.

[amanda choate]

Ken, anecdotes fair poorly in a debate. But maybe he could pick fruit and veggies. I know a melon farmer in Putnam county and his workers average about fifty bucks a day. Let me know.
Argue my points with more than fairy tales and angry rhetoric. Facts, facts rule.

[amanda choate]

Ken for profit prisons pay guards wages starting at just over ten dollars an hour. Four hundred a week equals about 21k a year. That qualifies this worker for food stamps amd Medicaid. So we still pay, just in a less meaningful way.

[amanda choate]

Here is what I see as the biggest problems facing the for profit prison system.
First, it doesn't cost less, they just pull the prisoners who present the least risk.
Second the notion that prison guards are over paid never occurred to me. How much would you expect to be paid to ensure murderers, rapists, drug dealers, thieves are safely kept away from society? Prison guards that are underpaid are likely to fail under pressure. Instead of paying our fellow Floridians a good wage to do this job we concentrate those earnings in the hands of a few out of state corporations.
Third, for profit companies benefit from incarceration, so they are less likely to be concerned about an effort to lower recidivism, rather choosing a course that leads to high occupancy.
Fourth, these companies openly lobby for laws that lead to incarceration. They, for profit prisons, were among those who wrote and lobbied for Arizona's SB 1070.
So Jay that is where I stand. Check out why our state's correction chief left last year. He wanted to leave with his reputation intact.