5,581 6350!
Thanks to thousands of concerned Gainesville citizens the Charter Amendment petition drive has succeeded! Out of a grand total of 8,747 petitions submitted, 6,350 have been validated by the Supervisor of Elections (769 more than the required minimum). Now the voters of Gainesville will have a choice on whether to overturn or retain the city’s controversial Gender Identity Ordinance. Giving the voters a choice has always been the goal of Citizens for Good Public Policy.
Unfortunately some elected city officials are unhappy that the voters of Gainesville will get to decide this issue. Recently local news media have featured a group dedicated to persuading petition signers to rescind their signatures. This group is closely allied with the City Commission, and together their main objective is to deny Gainesville’s electorate the right to vote on this issue. To accomplish this goal they are falsely claiming that anyone signing the petition is helping to legalize discrimination, deny others housing and employment rights, and that “you” might even lose various civil rights. They also claim that Citizens for Good Public Policy deceived the public, and that our “real target” is homosexual rights. The facts speak otherwise:
1. Sexual orientation has been a protected civil rights category in Gainesville since the City Commission passed it into law on June 1, 1998. In the ten years since then, none of the organizers of Citizens for Good Public Policy has ever mounted a protest or legal action against that provision.
2. Let us be clear: Citizens for Good Public Policy believes local laws should neither oppose nor favor sexual orientation. We consider sexual orientation a matter of personal choice, and therefore unsuitable as a civil rights category.
3. The Gainesville City Commission linked sexual orientation to gender identity on January 28, 2008, when they enacted the poorly drafted Gender Identity Ordinance, despite a massive outcry to allow more time for public debate on the issue. This presumptuous action moved matters of privacy and sexuality from private bedrooms to public restrooms, and their refusal to consider public concern precipitated the formation of Citizens for Good Public Policy.
4. The Gender Identity Ordinance’s vagueness invites abuse and confrontation from sexual offenders and pranksters to protective husbands and out-of-town sports fans. That fact, even more than the Commission’s refusal to listen, moved us to mount the petition drive.
5. The proposed charter amendment to Gainesville’s Code of Ordinances calls for the city’s civil rights categories to match the State of Florida’s categories. Putting it on the ballot gives the voters of Gainesville the opportunity to decide if they will be subject to the State of Florida’s civil rights code, like most Florida cities, or bound by a single vote from four elected officials who don’t share most voters’ values or beliefs on this issue.
6. The 6,350 signatures that were validated by the Supervisor of Elections reminds Gainesville’s elected officials that every vote counts, and that they would be wise to consider the majority’s values and opinions before formulating public policy.
7. Mayor Pegeen Hanrahan and Commissioners Craig Lowe, Jack Donovan, and Jeanna Mastrodicasa are actively assisting a group whose purpose is to deceive citizens into surrendering their rights. These four elected officials are determined to keep the people of Gainesville from voting on this issue. Why? Why is the people’s voice considered offensive and unwanted? Why are they resorting to unprecedented measures to persuade people to rescind their signatures? The upcoming charter amendment can be voted up or down. Why are they afraid to let it come to a vote?
We commend the citizens of Gainesville for taking a stand for good public policy and are committed to continue standing with them as we work together to see this poorly drafted ordinance repealed.
More registered Gainesville voters signed valid petitions in support of good public policy than voted for the Mayor or any other sitting City Commissioner when they were elected!