The Gender Identity Issue
On January 28th, 2008 the Gainesville City Commission passed a 
Gender Identity Ordinance granting special legal status to people who suffer from gender identity disorder. This ordinance, among other things, allows a male with an “inner sense of being” female to enter most publicly accessible female restrooms in Gainesville with full legal protection (churches and government offices are exempt).
Available statistical data suggest that a city the size of Gainesville typically has less than 10 residents with gender identity disorder. The ordinance was designed to accommodate them.
It also accommodates the 263 sexual offenders and/or predators living within Gainesville’s city limits (Florida Department of Law Enforcement website, as of 5/28/08), thereby especially placing women and children at risk.
If you own or operate a business in Gainesville, the Gender Identity Ordinance also places undue burden and liability upon you.
If you are interested in overturning Gainesville’s Gender Identity Ordinance, and preventing such misguided legislation in the future, please read on.
Introduction
On January 28, 2008, the Gainesville City Commission passed a Gender Identity Ordinance with complete disregard for the concerns of approximately 200 local citizens in a rare standing-room-only City Commission Meeting.
The ordinance defines gender identity as “an inner sense of being a specific gender...with or without regard to the individual’s sex at birth.” In practice this means a male can follow a female of any age into a female restroom and/or wait inside for her to enter and be legally protected in doing so. If a police officer were called to have the male removed from the restroom, the innocent female would be advised that the male has just as much legal right to be in the restroom as she. This troubling and potentially dangerous practice will also negatively affect businesses, who stand to lose patrons and/or find themselves in the middle of legal disputes between offended parties.
Though almost all of the citizens present opposed the ordinance, the majority of Commissioners refused to heed their concerns. Many, for example, made a simple request for the City Commission to delay their vote on the issue until all citizen input could be considered. Yet, in an effort to push a radical agenda on the citizens of Gainesville, Mayor Pegeen Hanrahan, joined by Commissioners Craig Lowe, Jeanna Mastrodicasa and Jack Donovan, insisted on proceeding with a vote. Instead of embracing an opportunity to find public consensus on an important issue, the Gainesville City Commission actively chose to take the lead in creating division.
The four Commissioners who voted for this ordinance had listened to (and quietly worked with) its few local advocates for more than a year, yet refused a one-week delay in order to hear the concerns of the majority who opposed it as written. Moreover, the majority of the citizens weighing in against the ordinance were given only one minute each by the Commission to voice their concerns. In fact, several Commissioners not only ignored the majority’s reasonable pleas for more citizen input, but also cast insults at those who opposed the ordinance.
In addition to calling concerned Gainesville citizens ignorant, uneducated, intolerant, etc., the City Commission is spending these same citizens’ tax dollars to promote the new ordinance. If taxpayer dollars were going to be allocated for this ordinance, they could have been better spent prior to the Commission’s vote on January 28th, 2008, for the purpose of inviting the people of Gainesville to contribute to the discussion. Instead the Gainesville City government went through several election cycles with none of the Commissioners who supported the ordinance bothering to mention it in any paid advertisements.
In direct response to the City of Gainesville’s elected leaders’ refusal to treat all people equally, concerned local citizens have joined to create Citizens for Good Public Policy (CGPP), a political action committee created (a) to work for repeal of the Gender Identity Ordinance, and (b) to prevent a few out-of-step citizens from imposing their will on the city’s majority by passing similar ordinances in the future. On May 1, 2008, the CGPP announced its intention to put a charter amendment on the ballot of an upcoming Gainesville election, which would effectively repeal the ordinance, as well as require Gainesville’s anti-discrimination ordinance protective categories to conform to those approved by the State of Florida.
The CGPP is required to gather 5,581 signed petitions from Gainesville voters by July 29, 2008, for validation and certification by the Supervisor of Elections. Then the City Commission will place the issue on the city election ballot, most likely in March 2009. A simple majority of “yes” votes would be required for the charter amendment to pass and become law.
Citizens who support the repeal of the Gender Identity Ordinance are encouraged to protect their own interests by completing and signing a petition, contacting family and friends to sign a petition, contributing money to support this cause, volunteering their expertise to the CGPP. Please email, write, or call to get involved. We only have a few short weeks before our deadline of July 29, 2008.
Mission
Citizens for Good Public Policy (CGPP) is a community organization working to amend the City of Gainesville’s Code of Ordinances to ensure fair and equitable treatment for everyone.
Goals
- To educate the public regarding the proposed amendment;
- To obtain the funds necessary to execute a successful campaign;
- To provide the citizens of Gainesville the opportunity to cast their vote to amend the City Code of Ordinances by obtaining the number of petition signatures required to add the proposed amendment to the ballot for the City of Gainesville’s next election; and
- To amend the City’s Code of Ordinances via the electoral process.
Activities
Citizens for Good Public Policy is conducting one-hour public meetings every Monday evening until the petition drive deadline, July 29, 2008.
These meetings are held from 7 - 8 pm at the Vineyard Church auditorium on NW 8th Avenue, one block west of 34th Street, next to Littlewood School.
Our goal is to give Gainesville residents the opportunity to amend the Gainesville City Code of Ordinances via the electoral process. To do this we must obtain 5,581 signed petitions, certified by the Supervisor of Elections.
Our Monday evening meetings are your opportunity to hear updates and progress reports, and to help CGPP implement an effective strategy. Please join us and hear how you can make a difference!
If you have questions, please call Cain Davis at (352)871-4555.