Joe.My.God. LGBT News
In a 3-1 vote, a committee for the Miami-Dade County Commission yesterday advanced a transgender rights bill over the usual screaming of Christianist activists.
Raw emotion and invocations of biblical damnation over a proposed ban on discrimination against transgender people dominated Wednesday what was perhaps the fiercest debate Miami-Dade County Hall has seen this year. Advocates of a more inclusive society, including transgender men and women who spoke of how difficult it can be to find public acceptance, were outnumbered by conservatives who, in a show of force, assailed the legislation as immoral and a threat to public safety. Two likened South Florida to Sodom and Gomorrah. What proponents called a civil-rights issue was boiled down by opponents to a mundane task that blurred the divide between men and women: going to the bathroom. A law protecting people like him, a transgender man said, offers the “dignity to pee in peace.”
Among the groups pushing for the law were Equality Florida, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Anti-Defamation League. Leading the campaign against were the Christian Family Coalition, which opposed adding “sexual orientation” to the human-rights ordinance in 1998, and People United to Lead the Struggle for Equality, or PULSE, an African-American group led by socially conservative black clergy. Earlier Wednesday morning, Circuit Judge Daryl Trawick threw out a lawsuit that eight individuals, apparently acting on behalf of the opposing groups, filed last week against [commission chairwoman Rebecca] Sosa in an attempt to stop the hearing from taking place. The plaintiffs argued Sosa broke the law by assigning the legislation to a more favorable committee. But commission rules give the chairperson discretion to set agendas.
Last week opponents of the bill accused Sosa of being a communist and declared that transgender rights are officially endorsed by the Communist Party. The full commission will hear the bill next month.
(Tipped by JMG reader Michael)