News Item

SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS AND KEY WEST VOTE IN TRANSGENDER RIGHTS
January 8, 2003

Tuesday night, January 7, 2003, Key West became the first jurisdiction in Florida to enact legislation protecting the human rights of transgender and intersexed people. By a unanimous vote, the Key West City Council amended the city's Human Rights to include 'gender identity or expression.'

At about the same time, the Springfield, IL city council passed a similar ordinance covering both sexual orientation and gender identity. The Springfield vote was 8-1 in favor of the ordinance, with one abstention.

The ordinance in Key West protects people from discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations, and lending. By including those whose gender identity or gender expression is different from the expectations of some parts of society, the Key West ordinance becomes the most inclusive civil rights legislation in the state.

The measure in Springfield includes gender identity under the definition of sexual orientation as "having or being perceived as having a self-image or identity not traditionally associated with one's biological maleness or femaleness." The ordinance passed following a long debate in which opponents raised objections based on religious grounds and on the alleged health menace posed by homosexuals. Proponents argued that discrimination against anyone is unacceptable and that the legislation merely promotes equal treatment for all.

In testimony before the Springfield city council, Rick Garcia, Political Director of Equality Illinois, challenged the morality of those who invoked religion to oppose the ordinance. "Let me remind you that people invoked God and the Holy Scriptures to oppose the abolition of slavery, to oppose the vote for women, and to oppose integration -- positions people of goodwill find morally repugnant today. The basic foundation of our Judeo-Christian tradition is justice and mercy, not intolerance and bigotry."

Following the Key West vote, Janice Carney, Executive Director of the Florida Gender Equality project (FORGE) stated, "I am delighted that Key West is starting the new year with a strong stand on transgender civil rights." Carney, who is also a member of NTAC, added, "the Key West City Council was very courageous in recognizing the humanity of transgender people."

"For people who've felt a lifelong sense of personal isolation brought on by biological occurrences beyond their control, unanimous passage of this human rights ordinance was in essence saying we acknowledge and accept you as fellow human beings" Scott Fraser, Administrator of the Gay & Lesbian Community Center of Key West, said immediately following the Key West Council's unanimous vote. "Although this sounds so very basic to most of us, it's
been a long-time-coming" for gender distinctive individuals.

FORGE and Key West Community Center were part of a coalition, including Equality Florida, a statewide social justice organization, the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition (NTAC), and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF), who also provided assistance to local activists.

"It was a great coalition," said NTAC Chair Vanessa Edwards Foster who contributed to the effort. Foster, who also worked on the first transgender-inclusive legislation in Texas, added, "Enactment of the first trans-inclusive nondiscrimination ordinance in another conservative southern state -- another of those initial toeholds -- is indescribably gratifying. Especially in Bush country!"

Key West and Springfield become the 55th and 56th jurisdictions in the United States to enact transgender-inclusive nondiscrimination laws.

Introduction of GLBT nondiscrimination legislation is currently under consideration in Rockford and Peoria. IL and is expected to come before the Illinois state legislature this year. Carney noted that the transgender coalition is carrying the Key West victory forward to other Florida jurisdictions, including Miami / Dade County, St. Petersburg, Orlando, and Seminole.

"I pray from deep in my soul," Carney added, "that this action will open other hearts and minds to transgender inclusion."