Opponents of Largo's proposed ordinance are pleased with its defeat, but debate continues.
By SHANNON TAN and LORRI HELFAND
Published August 10, 2003
LARGO - Tuesday's vote on a proposed human rights ordinance meant different things for different people.
To some it reinforced the city's family image and values. Others say it told residents that discrimination is okay.
Following the 4-3 vote by City Commission members against the ordinance, which would have been one of the broadest in the Tampa Bay area, e-mails have poured into City Hall.
Shirley Frick, the commission's secretary, groups them into two categories.
"I have, "You did the right thing,' and I have, "Shame on yous,"' she said.
The vote hardly stopped the debate in the city.
"I'm disappointed that it was only voted by a slim margin," said the Rev. David Joseph, senior associate pastor of First Baptist Church of Indian Rocks.
Still, he hailed the vote as a "victory."
"The way the traditional family is under attack, we are continually going to have to fight and stand up for our convictions," Joseph said.
But to Janet Chandler, a transgender resident, it was a personal insult.
"I feel like the city of Largo was telling me I'm nothing more than a second class citizen," Chandler said, "because I'm not privileged to have the same rights that everyone else takes for granted."
The ordinance would have banned discrimination against people based on race, religion, gender, disability, gender identity and sexual orientation. First violations would have provoked fines of $31 to $250. Both sides lobbied the City Commission intensely in the months leading up to the vote.
Bruce McManus, a Largo attorney, first read about the proposed ordinance in the Clearwater Gazette & Beach News. He attended a work session on the issue in April.
What he heard shocked him.
"The ordinance was going to elevate the status of three classes of ... they say people, I say behavior," he said. "The ordinance puts a seal of approval on behavior most of us feel is immoral."
He wrote to Mayor Bob Jackson.
The ordinance, he said, "would stifle free speech for people critical of gay/lesbian behavior and lifestyle and threaten people with discrimination violations in the expression of their religious beliefs as written in the Bible."
McManus also called churches in the area. He circulated petitions and form letters for church members to sign. He got a group together to attend the second work session in June.
"I did everything I could to generate awareness in the public at large and to bring as much attention to two commissioners," he said. Still, he said: "This was not an organized opposition."
Those two commissioners, Charlie Harper and Jean Halvorsen, had earlier expressed support for the ordinance.
But both voted against it Tuesday.
"I'm very satisfied with the vote," McManus said.
The City Commission received 118 letters, e-mails or phone calls supporting the ordinance.
Sixteen local and national organizations, including the Pinellas County ACLU, also backed the proposed policy.
But 210 others who called or wrote opposed it. And 144 Largo residents signed McManus' petition.
Commissioner Harper even received hate mail at his home address in May.
"The worst one said something about gay people not being normal people and how could I be defending that kind of lifestyle," Harper recalled.
Several Largo residents were upset about people outside the city getting involved.
"I wish more of the voters were voting against it," said Gary McKinney of Largo. "There were a lot of people that weren't from Largo that were for it."
Yet outsiders were also part of McManus' effort to defeat the 28-page ordinance.
His petition was signed by 134 nonresidents.
"There was a more organized opposition but I don't think the opposition was representative of the people of Largo," said Karen Doering, attorney with the National Center for Lesbian Rights and Equality Florida.
Equality Florida has more than 400 members in Largo who are mostly gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, she said.
"They are all impacted," Doering said. "What this commission has said is LGBT people are now subject to the whims of their employers, their landlords and restaurant and hotel owners in Largo."
During Tuesday's five-hour public hearing, several speakers said there was no need for an ordinance because complaints are few and far between.
But Metria R. Jones knows discrimination.
Jones, an Indian Rocks Beach resident who works in Largo, found herself out of work after undergoing an operation to become a woman.
She had to dumb down her resume to get a low-paying job but hasn't been promoted since a co-worker told her employer she was a transgender person.
"Where does this (person) get off calling me a sexual deviant when it has nothing to do with sexuality," she said. "I was just trying to bring my body in congruence with my mind. I had to do something or kill myself."
Downtown Largo Main Street board member John Atanasio says he spoke to business associates and residents about the issue.
He came to believe protecting individuals such as Jones would lead Largo down a slippery slope.
"All of them said we are opening a Pandora's box that the world has been fighting since the time of Christ," Atanasio said.
So, does the vote spell an end to the issue? Some think it's over. Others say it's on the back burner for a while.
"I think it's the only decision we could make for now," said Largo resident Jerry Dominick, who opposed parts of the ordinance. "It may change for the future but for right now, it's the best thing."
Chandler thinks time may change people's attitudes.
"Largo calls itself progressive," she said. "But I think they kind of showed that they're not ready to be so progressive. Maybe we need to do more to educate the people to understand us better."
