Gainesville says no to hate; "potty humor" takes on a new meaning

Great news from the home of Gator Nation: the city's Amendment 1, which would have repealed legal protections for the GLBT community, went down to defeat in voting yesterday.

[A]pproximately 58 percent of city voters ... said no Tuesday to Amendment 1 — a ballot initiative that would have made Gainesville's anti-discrimination ordinance the same as Florida's Civil Rights Act.

Those voting no on Tuesday represents 11,717 voters, compared to the 42 percent who voted for the amendment, or 8,375 votes.

Both numbers are exceptional for a city stand-alone election that had two City Commission seats and one other amendment on the ballot.

It was roughly 27 percent of the eligible voters compared to the usual turnout of less than 15 percent for a stand-alone city election.

It's been a divisive year and a half for [Gainesville city commissioner Craig] Lowe[,] who in January 2008 paved the way for the city to enact anti-discrimination protections for transgender individuals.

Almost immediately following that vote, a conservative political action committee, Citizens for Good Public Policy, launched a campaign to put an amendment on the ballot that would repeal not only the city rights for transgender people but also rights for gay, lesbian and bisexual people who had been protected in the city since 1998.

In light of other recent hate legislation that, for example, has elevated restrictions on marriage to constitutional status in places like Florida and California, this is a significant, albeit small, victory. But defeating hate sometimes has to happen in small increments.

Proponents of Amendment 1 ran a very nasty, hateful, and incredibly stupid campaign to promote their discriminatory aims. Their goal, according to Mark Minck, chair of Citizens for Good Public Policy, was specifically to keep men out of women's restrooms.

Minck and other citizens interpreted the "gender identity" clause included in Gainesville's anti-discrimination ordinance as a vague definition that would allow men — even predators — to enter women's restrooms without an enforceable law.

Their slogan was "vote yes on Amendment 1 to keep men out of women's restrooms."

[Said Minck,] "Even thought [sic] the City Commission might see this as justification for the ordinance as worded, I'm hopeful that they will see that clearly thousands of their constituencies disagree with the portion of the ordinance that gives men legal access to women's bathroom[s]."

Jesus H. Christ on a urinal cake. They actually based their message on concern about bathrooms. One wonders whether former Fort Lauderdale mayor Jim Naugle, who himself is demonstrably toilet-obsessed, had anything to do with this.

In any event, the Right keeps coming up with dumber and dumber arguments. If it's not men in women's restrooms (I note there apparently was no concern about women in men's restrooms), it's that humans and dinosaurs lived together and the planet is only 6,000 years old. Can we please find an island to which we can ship these idiots?

Anyway, three cheers for Gainesville. Thanks for keeping hate where it belongs: in the simple minds of wingnuts.

(cross-posted at FPC Blog)