Comments

1
Any gay or lesbian person, or anyone for that matter, who willingly spends even a single second in Gainesville deserves to be discriminated against. Most sensible people who don't have the choice of leaving are begging to be killed.
2
Stupid fucks. I hope a hurricane wipes out their town.
3
Maybe god will send fire from the sky to consume them.
4
What fucking decade is this again? And where did this amendment come from? It didn't spring fully-formed from a vacuum.
5
Fucking hell. Fuck Florida, a million times over.
6
Might a million campaigns to defeat little Nuremburg laws build strong local grass roots in a way the NGLTF could only dream of?
7
If Heaven ain't a lot like Dixie I don't want to go
8
Fnarf, would you make the same joke to Jews in a Warsaw ghetto? Begging to be killed? Were the Jews of the Warsaw ghetto begging to be killed because they could not or chose not to leave?

You are joking right? If you are, why such a disgusting joke? If you're not joking why are you such a disgusting person?
9
6
More likely campaigns to pass these laws build conservative grassroots organizations. Like passing Prop 8 did in California.
10
Since it is ok to be a dick this Monday, I submit the following:

The term "legalized discrimination" used in the post is misleading. Discrimination IS already legal. You can't legalize something that is already legal.

Usually discrimination is beneficial (in the old days, people would say folks had discriminating tastes as a compliment).

For the majority of folks and except for a small group of protected classes, it is legal to discriminate against a person. That is, I can fire at will, refuse to provide a service to a customer, and evict a person renting my home.

I realize the argument is that homosexuals have historically have been singled out and need extra protection to stay on level footing as Heterosexuals. But still, discrimination has always been legal except for certain classes (sex, ethnicity, race, etc.).

The more accurate statement is that it will remain legal to discriminate against homosexuals since the government has decided not to provide enhanced protection to this class (i.e. make it illegal discrimination)

Just sayin'...

P.S.

I retract all the above if Gainsville already has a law prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation.
11
Gainseville already does, Medina. So get retractin'.
12
Ok, the Gainsville Republicans are a bunch of freedom-hating homophobic bigots. I retract my previous statements.

That said, I propose we legalize discrimination against religion. I can't stand the fact I have to have Christian customers and employees. Why can't I ask about religion on my job application?

Discrimination can be good.
13
I agree with everything above, but the Nuremburg analogy is a poor one. Things were getting worse - much worse - for the Jews in Nazi Germany at the time these laws were enacted. In contrast, all things considered, things are getting better and better for us glibbits today. Admit it, whiners. Just go back 15-17 years and tell me I'm wrong. Both in terms of acceptance by straight society and legally. Think about it: who would have thought there'd be same-sex marriage in ANY state back in 1991? And in the meantime, HUGE numbers of companies are adding sexual orientation to their anti-discrimnation policies and offering DP benefits.

Not to say, "We're done! Everybody's equal! Oh happy day!", however. Gotta keep pushin'. But, because the overall momentum is (permanently, I think) in our direction, I don't lose any sleep over this shit.
14
@10 Retraction accepted. This is from the UF Faculty Senate resolution from Feb 19, 2009:

WHEREAS, since 1998 the City of Gainesville has adopted a nondiscrimination policy that prohibits discrimination on the basis of “sexual orientation, race, color, gender, age, religion, national origin, marital status, disability or gender identity,”

The text of the Charter Amendment is: “Shall the city charter be amended to prohibit the adoption or enforcement of ordinances, regulations, rules or policies that provide protected status, preferences or discrimination claims based on classifications, characteristics or orientations not recognized by the Florida Civil Rights Act? The Act recognizes race, color, creed, religion, gender, national origin, age, handicap, marital and familial status. Additionally, this amendment voids existing ordinances concerning sexual orientation, gender identity, and other ordinances inconsistent with this amendment.”
15
Goddamn, what makes this and other general ridiculousness that comes out of Gainesville extra disappointing is that it is home to the University of Florida, one of the nation's LARGEST universities. Yes, it's a public school, and yes it's in Florida, but it has some highly respected academic programs and departments. Gainesville owes its existence to UF so you would think the student and faculty population would put a stop to some of the utter bullshit in the community at large.
16
As Homer once so wisely said:

Florida? That's Americas wang!
17
@10 - "Discriminating" against a person, as you call it, (firing them, refusing to rent to them) is quite different than laws allowing discrimination against an entire "kind" of people. There are plenty of rules concerning the reasons you can and cannot fire and evict people. Firing someone isn't discrimination, except in the most literal dictionary sense, which is obviously not what is meant here. The fact that the word can be used to mean something else is a non-sequitur par excellence.
18
Hey, this is my city! No joke. I'm part of the campaign against it here, and have been recruiting fellow students (who almost never vote in local elections) to get out and vote against it--one by one. Thanks for the shout-out, Dan!

And while I'm at it--gee, thanks, Fnarf @1. One of the best and cheapest public universities in the nation, a deep blue city that turned the surrounding county into a 60% Obama vote, and we deserve to be discriminated against and should be begging to be killed? I'm sure our Pride organizations (student and city) will be happy to know that! Good to know all the fighting we're doing is going to waste!

Seriously, fuck you. People work their tails off here.

The reason this charter amendment is even going up for a vote is because Gainesville is liberal enough to already have non-discrimination protections in place for sexual orientation and the transgendered--protections that the state of Florida DOESN'T have. The amendment would strip our city protections and make us conform to statewide standards.

The reason that enough people were in an uproar to even get this issue on the ballot is because Gainesville city commissioners, in January 2008, passed an ordinance designed to protect transgendered individuals. It allowed people to use public bathrooms according to the gender they internally identified as. Transphobes and bigots warped this into, "Child molesting men will claim that they suddenly feel like a woman and go in the little girl's room to rape our children." Thus they were able to fear-monger enough votes to get Charter Amendment 1 on the ballot.

The interesting thing is that the group who put the amendment together, Citizens for Good Public Policy, originally claimed they weren't going after gays and lesbians, and that they just wanted to get men out of women's bathrooms [http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.ph…]. Looks like they changed their mind and wanted to go for free-for-all bigotry while they had the chance.

Charter Amendment 1 would strip Gainesville's current protections for not only LGBT individuals, but also veterans and for local hiring preferences. For this reason, there is a major business coalition opposing it.

I'm really hoping (and working to see) that it doesn't pass. But it would help to know that others were cheering for us when they stooped to watch us, and not spitting in our faces. Florida needs all the blue cities it can get.
19
yeah, ya'll can hate on Gainsville, but it has UF and if you were cursed enough to grow up in Florida (which gives free rides to state schools for high school students with good GPAs), it's one of 2 choices for a moderately decent education. for free. the poor fags are just avoiding lifelong student loan payments...
20
I live in Florida. It's miserable. Demographics = rednecks + fundies.

I wonder, on an almost daily basis, why the Union didn't fortify the underground railroad to assist the enslaved with escape and allow the South succeed pre-Civil war?

This idea seems even more rightous given that Northerner tax dollars and funneled to the Southern states to pay for their roads/bridges, etc. since conservatives can't bring themselves to tax their fundy brethern even as their local infrastructure is crumbling around their feet.

Utter jackassery. So you want to legislate away our rights? If that occurs there will be an exodus of educated, bright, moneyed gays making a break for states that do not discriminate. eemmmkay?

21
and = are
22
I'm cheering you on, lymerae. Keep up the good fight.
23
When do the "Straights Only" sections on city busses start?
24
Seriously Gainesville? You want to legalize (any type of) discrimination? Really?!!
That's it, all the queer folk in the "land of the free" should move on up here to Canada. We have same-sex marriage, decriminalized pot, and all the maple syrup you can handle. It's pretty sweet (pun intended).
25
We already know that it's unconstitutional to pass a law forbidding the protection of a minority. Remember CO?
prohibit the adoption or enforcement of ordinances, regulations, rules or policies that provide protected status
26
Good for you, lymerae! Sounds like the bigots may have roused a vigorous grassroots that will get them way more than an "equal and opposite" reaction. I hope you turn hearts and minds where you can, leave the hardcore bigots wishing they'd left you alone, and inspire folks in other small jurisdictions who may find themselves facing shit like this.

And don't worry about Slog spitting. When we do it (and we do) technological limits keep it safely metaphorical. We can't reach your face here.
27
@18 Thanks lymerae! I know you can afford to be complacent, but is it a fair bet that the city that went 60% Obama will reject this thing? S'poze it comes down to a gotv action.

I always ask these hysterical "men will rape your daughters in the potty!" idiots with the question: since when has rape become legal? And how many police-documented instances of this chicken little phenomenon have occurred IN THE ENTIRE COUNTRY? Listen carefully for the sputters and fall-back regurgitation of Romans.
28
@27 CAN'T be complacent, I meant...
29
the united states will eventually disunite.

cascadia: it just makes sense.
30
Sargon @8, Warsaw was and is a wonderful city. Gainesville is an unremitting shithole in every conceivable way. Just sitting in Gainesville, Florida, is like stewing in a pot of boiling excrement. The presence of absence of discriminatory laws means nothing in an asshole town like that. Hateful laws are just the pus-flavored layer of lard floating on top -- even without them, no sensible person would want to spend so much as a second there.

That is what I meant.
31
@20

Don't let the door hit your educated, bright, monkeyed ass on the way out...
32
The fundies realize the tide is turning against them. They lost the election and know that voters will not exactly remember with fondness the disastrous last eight years when one of their own lived in the White House. And the average person whose 50 inch ass occupies the pews of their churches every Sunday is, like the rest of us, more concerned about keeping their job and paying their bills in these difficult economic times.

The solution? Trot out the old standby issues--abortion (see ECB's post re: North Dakota) and gay rights. These two tried and true hot button issues are the only weapons the evangelical leaders have to rally their faithful sheep against a popular progressive president. Don't know if it will work, but to me it smells of pathetic desperation.
33
@ 27--
I want to say that there's no way that Gainesville will pass this thing. We're a town of hippies. Our soul is the outdoor jazz fest and the produce market and the vegan lunch with the Hare Krishnas.

But at my old job (which was in a kosher restaurant in a synagogue, no less), I got people walking in all the time with the transgender=child molester argument. I actually got asked to sign the petition that got this amendment on the ballot. And that makes me scared. I campaigned for No On 2; I don't want this to be another 2.

My roommates and I will be running an early voting carpool. We'll see if we can't beat this thing.

@25--
The thing is, they're not writing an amendment than forbids the protection of LGBT individuals. They're writing an amendment that annuls EARLIER protections already in place. They're making our city conform to the standards of the state. If Charter Amendment 1 was deemed unconstitutional, the provisions of the whole state of Florida would have to be deemed unconstitutional. (Which wouldn't be a bad thing!)
34
Fnarf, I always used to think of you as a well-reasoned, intelligent individual. What happened, did Gainesville rape your mother and shit in your cornflakes?

I've lived here since I was four, and sure, I'll be leaving for grad school, and sure, it doesn't have the sizzle of a big city, but we have a great live music scene and an incredibly green landscape.

When have you actually ever been here?
35
@12 - Medina, don't lump all Republicans into the small, hate-filled group of people that pulls shit like this. It's really unfair. I identify as a Republican because of my opinions on fiscal-related issues, although I'm pretty liberal socially. Just because a person is a Republican doesn't mean they hate gays and preach intolerance and all that other bullshit. I think this Charter is horrible and I sincerely hope the good citizens of Gainesville squash it.

BTW, I'm not from Gainsville...not even from Florida, but I read your comment and got offended
36
i rather imagine fnarf's never visited gainesville. it's more the narrow minded bigots he's railing against, not the town itself.
37
The Supreme Court has already ruled against this type of law in Evans v. Rohmer, the Colorado Amendment that was struck down because it served no legitimate state purpose and was only inspired by animus against gays. Kennedy was the swing vote on that and I don't think that the court has changed sufficiently to overturn it.
38
Sorry, Romer v. Evans.
40
lymerae is more effective than Sargon Bighorn.

Seriously fnarf, what is up your ass? I'm not a big fan of parts of the south. OK, most parts of the south. But places like Gainsville, Huntsville and Athens really are different.

Good luck, lymerae, and thanks for the updates.
41
...meant to add Austin. Austin is king of yes-you're-in-the-South-but-leave-your-preconceptions-at-the-door. I fucking love Austin.
42
Back in '92, I lived in CO, and Amendment 2 yanked my sorry ass out of the closet...
43
My parents were still actual hippies when they moved to Gainesville as newlyweds. My dad is a UF alum and is now a well-respected pediatrician in town. I was born in Gainesville, raised on a consistent diet of Gator sports and progressive education, and only relocated at 18 to attend college at Notre Dame. Oh, and I'm gay.

I don't think I appreciated enough how enlightened Gainesville was compared to most of the surrounding, very red, very poor, very bigoted areas of Florida until I left. The stifling politics at Notre Dame also, inevitably, increased my appreciation of my hometown.

I've lived here in Seattle for about seven years now and I adore this place. I would never go back to live in Florida, ever. But that's because it's FLORIDA, not because of Gainesville.

@18 Thank you lymerae for the details and for doing what you're doing.

@everyone else Just know that Gainesville is not as much of a shithole as much of the rest of Florida can be, and that's why this sort of push to re-legalize discrimination there, of all places, is heartbreaking.
44
@18, my regards. @31 this is for you:

http://www.fuckthesouth.com/
45
44
Back at you brother.
The disapproval of Seattle Liberals stings about as much as a gnat bouncing off the windshield of my pickup.
46
To add to what Andrew said, Romer v. Evans is a U.S. Supreme Court decision from the '90s that said, when the whole state of Colorado did what Gainesville was doing now, that it was illegal, because it expressed animus toward homosexuals. It's one thing to refuse to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. It's another to specifically legislate that discrimination against LGBT folks (but not against straights) CANNOT be prohibited.
47
It seems like the passing of Prop. 8 in California has empowered wacko's everywhere. The answer is to make discrimination against gender preference or gender identity a Federal crime, then it doesn't matter what the stupid fucks in Gainesville think.
48
Wow. Fnarf hates Gainesville even more than I hate Buffalo. I didn't think it was possible.

Big ups to lymerae and all the farmer's market-lovin' hippies in Gainesville!
49
lymerae, read the text of the amendment posted by 14. This is exactly the type of law found unconstitutional by Romer.
50
@52, I have read that text, I just haven't read the details of the Romer v. Evans case.

Good to know! If Amendment 1 passes, we can get the ACLU involved. But I would rather defeat this sucker in the voting booths, just to prove to the bigots how wrong they are in thinking they can do this here.
51
As homosexuality is largely a manifestation of Jewish sexual deviance perhaps you would be happier in Tel Aviv?

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