Jacksonville Mayor Signs Executive Order Banning Discrimination Against LGBT

By: Jack MacNamara, Staff Writer

Gay rights groups are closer than ever before in enacting a LGBT discrimination protections Act in Jacksonville, Florida. If they succeed it will be considered a hard-fought victory in a battle that has been going on in the city over the past five years.

While Jacksonville has been busy with their city politics on the issue, the Florida state house on Thursday, defeated a bill that would have protected Floridians regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.  The bill was defeated by 5 state Senators.

So far, the LGBT discrimination protections act legislation has captured the support of 10 council members as of Friday January 10, during a committee’s review of the legislation. According to Council rules, the minimum majority needed for passage is 10 so at the moment, supporters are cautiously optimistic the ground breaking bill will pass when it comes to a final vote Tuesday February 14.

The reason Gay rights groups are cautious is because a similar gay rights bill failed to pass in the city council back in 2012 by a 9 to 10 vote after former Councilman Johnny Gaffney, who supported it during a committee review, switched sides on the issue to align with conservatives and killed the bill with his no vote.

Mayor Curry who campaigned in 2015 that he wasn’t convinced a change in the law was necessary, pledged to hold a town hall meetings on the issue from Jacksonville citizens.

Curry did instruct City Hall to adopt anti-discrimination policies in line with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission which specifically protects LGBT employees. The city also requires its vendors to follow the regulation.

Curry with the support of right wing conservatives, told the Times-Union editorial board in a meeting held in November of 2016, that his position has not changed and that he promised that he would not try to tip the scales if the council revived the issue and would review any legislation that comes to his desk for signature.  I attempted to contact Mayor Curry’s office for comment and was told that he would not be issuing any comments on this issue today.