From Equality Florida

Palm Beach County Bans Discrimination Based on Gender Identity and Expression

Exciting News!

On Tuesday the Palm Beach County Commission voted to add gender identity or expression to a list of protected classes that include race, sex, color, religion, national origin, handicap, familial status, sexual orientation and marital status. The protections make it illegal to discriminate against someone in employment, housing, or public accommodations (like a restaurant) because they are transgender or because their gender expression does not fit societal norms.

The victory came on the National Transgender Day of Remembrance – a day dedicated to the memory of the many transgender people who have been killed through hate violence.

The Palm Beach County ordinance reads “Gender identity or expression means a gender-related identity, appearance, expression or behavior of an individual, regardless of the individual’s assigned sex at birth.”

Protections based on gender identity or expression provide important life lines for transgender people and serve to strengthen protections for gay men and lesbian women for two reasons. First and foremost because transgender people face relentless harassment and even violence. And second because it is estimated that 50-70% of all anti-gay discrimination is based on a persons gender presentation and not their sexual orientation.

Equality Florida applauds the leadership of the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council in pursuing these vital new protections. ” No one should be fired, harassed or denied promotion simply because they don’t fit the stereotypes for masculinity or femininity,” said Rand Hoch, president of PBHRC.

Palm Beach County, with 1.3 million people, is now the largest municipality in the state to add protections based on Gender Identity and Expression. Similar polices have also been passed in Monroe County, and the cities of Gulfport, Key West, Lake Worth, Miami Beach, and West Palm Beach. Policies covering city employees have passed in Wilton Manors, Largo, Oakland Park, and Tequesta.

In Broward County, Commissioner Ken Keechl has said he hopes to add these protections to the county’s Human Rights Ordinance in the next two months. And in 2007 the Florida legislature will consider adding sexual orientation and gender identity and expression to the state civil rights code (the bill is sponsored by Rep. Kelly Skiddmore of Palm Beach).

“Each time we achieve a victory at the local level, in addition to the immediate protections we win, we move one step closer to passing a state law that bans discrimination throughout Florida,” said Stratton Pollitzer, Deputy Director of Equality Florida.

A UU Video

I rather like this video.

Posting?

I really need to post something in here! But for some reason, whenever I come to this blog, my mind goes blank! That ain’t good.

Tonight is the WRCF Witches’ Ball. I actually have little motivation to go to it. I’d much rather spend the day out at Canaveral National Seashore with a bottle of wine, some flowers, and prayers for the ancestors. I really honestly don’t feel like dressing up in a costume and going to this ball, but I am obligated to do so because Joe and I are on cleanup crew for it tonight.

We have to do this because Joe is going to be hosting the Yule festivities in December for the WRCF, and according to the WRCF’s rules about hosting rites, you have to provide cleanup for the sabbat previous to the one you are hosting.

But yes, to me, it’s more meaningful for me to spend time alone with the ancestors than it is to go to a big party. Samhain is the Celtic New Year (Yule is the Scandinavian New Year), and it’s a HUGE thing in the pagan world. If you said, “I don’t really like big parties at Samhain,” to just about any pagan at all, they’d look at you like you’d sprouted two heads.

Ah well. I guess I’ll get over it.

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