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

[Maxine Jessica Roberts]

Patricia the majority of prisoners in the us are there for non violent crimes. And forced to work hard labor for less than minimum wage. They are in jail because of shitty prosecutors scarring them into plea bargains. Meaning they are in jail without a trial by jury.

[amanda choate]

Nice refutation Ken, you are a regular Cambridge debate team fellow. Ken make point, it may be amatuerish to do so but try anyway. I made my point, either counter it with a reasoned position or acknowledge my superior position. Dismissing it without a valid position makes you appear feeble minded and weak.

[amanda choate]

Patricia, I realize that you bandy about the word stupid alot but what you say about private companies running prisons at a profit is a true point of genius. They turn a profit by not paying their employees a decent wage, or by underserving their population, or by overcharging the state, or a combination of all of these. And it is taxpayers who pay them their profit. So it comes out of your pocket. Glad you are happy about that.

[Patricia M. McBride]

Do not talk about people in prison for murder and heaven know what like they are slaves. That is about the most ludicrous thing I have ever heard Max (but thank you for actually joining the conversation). Prisons are run by organizations that are in the private sector, because they can run them at a profit instead of at a loss (like all government entities which seem to have an aversion to breaking even or coming in under cost..............politicians were never the sharpest tools in the shed or they would have actually worked in the chosen profession, but instead decided to help the rest of us out by living off the public dole and making all the rules....and there are many.... that the rest of us live by). Unfortunately, as we have all noticed, we have a group of over paid public servants locally that get recycled over and over and over again, and have become wealthly beyond belief through their recycle.

[amanda choate]

Ken, Brown v Board was "technically" a civil rights case. Are you insane? No seriously, are you insane? No case prior stated that all citizens of this country were born to a shared circumstance. We are all equal under the law. The ruling set forth by the Fifth Circuit, unprecented, yet so deeply rooted within the construct of our Constitution, provided no relief other than enactment. It gave no quarter to those who said that one child deserved a better education because of the color of their skin. Whereas Plessy v Ferguson furthered the notion of two classes of people and that the law would serve them differently.

As to MLK's party affiliation, it was Johnson who got the votes for the Civil Rights Act of '64. In fact Johnson said afterwards that Democrats had lost the South for a generation, he was overly optimistic.

Here are some MLK quotes:

King claimed that the "good and just society is neither the thesis of capitalism nor the antithesis of communism, but a socially conscious democracy which reconciles the truths of individualism and collectivism."

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity
Read more at

But Ken, answer this question, when did you decide to be straight? Was there a day that provided a tipping point, maybe you were rejected by some boy and decided to go straight? For me, there was never a point where I decided to be straight, I just was. I find hard to believe that with all the benefits of being gay more people aren't choosing this life.

[Maxine Jessica Roberts]

If you want to talk about slavery. Why are there for profit prisons.

[Patricia M. McBride]

He was not only a republican, he was a conservative who recognized that food stamps and welfare were ruining the black family.............and still blacks chase after the democrats like they are their friends as the man in the white house murders more black babies in the womb than any other group in this country.  Shame of black families for allowing the federal government to do it to them, and shame on the blacks in this country for letting the democrats use the Martin Luther King name (he did not agree with their philosophy or their ideology and some of the worst offenders are folks who would have GREATLY disagreed with).  He wanted to save black families, get them equal rights fully, and get them working and on their own way to the American dream as self sufficient, upwardly mobile Americans.......not in the welfare and food stamps lines where the democrats have kept them.

[amanda choate]

....so according to Florida law if someone comes into your business and begins preaching from the Koran there is nothing you can do because in Florida, we have decided that property rights are lesser than the Bill of Rights.The First Amendment trumps your property rights.

[amanda choate]

Ken, I attended a symposium conducted by Justice Minor Wisdom, who sat on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and who ruled on Brown V Board. So I do have some expertise in this regard. And this is a civil rights discussion, it is not about property rights, we, in Florida have already surrendered our property rights to other rights. To wit, in Florida, a business owner cannot prevent weapons from being brought into his business. So in essence all of our property rights are subservient to other rights.

[Maxine Jessica Roberts]

Ken as you don't really know me I'll accept your ignorance.

I can get a 40\40 with an M1 garand. I played football and baseball on teams. Ieven hit a grand slam in a game.

I lifted weights, dated girls.

My dad took me hunting, Ive hunted deer, quail, pheasants squirrels , crows.

I owned a ak47 and an sks.

I've been deep sea fishing. I've gutted fish shark birds

Ive faught a lot.
as far as upbringings go. I was raised hard core male. I loved my dad for any time I got to spend with him even if it was sitting in a tree at camp blabbering and never seeing a deer to shoot.

None of that made me feel any more male. If anything it was all to spend time with my dad and make him proud I regretted the day I told him I felt like a girl and he stopped talking to me. Nothing he could have done beyond killing me would have stoped me doing what I've done.