In an unexpected unanimous vote June 5, commissioners in Hillsborough County repealed that community’s contentious gay pride ban that has stood for the past eight years.  Over the years, the ban has brought national disgrace to Tampa and it’s neighboring communities at a time when St. Pete Pride on the other side of the bay has quickly grown into that county’s largest single one day event and the largest gay pride celebration in Florida.
Commissioner Kevin Beckner, who is gay, set the stage for a process that took more than two hours. Passage of the initial ban in 2005 took only a minute and 44 seconds. Â
After Beckner showed a 2005 video of the ban passing, he reintroduced the motion he had made at a previous commission meeting and asked his colleagues to vote for repeal with a “capital R.” The statement was an obvious reference to the language used by then-commissioner Ronda Storms who introduced the motion to “ban recognition of all gay pride events”¦little ‘g’ little ‘p’.” Many felt that comment was particularly hateful to the LGBT community. Storms also managed to get an amendment passed that said the ban could only be removed by a super majority vote of at least 5-2
Beckner’s comment drew a loud audible positive response from the large crowd in the commission chambers. At the request of Equality Florida, many supporters of the repeal wore red.
Even before commissioners themselves took up the issue it was obvious it was a controversial one to the public. Nearly 40 people took part in the public comment segment preceding the vote, so many in fact that the commission restricted comments to two minutes from the normal three minute limit.
Speakers against the repeal included religious leaders from conservative churches and a synagogue. In one comment that drew loud laughter from the crowd was when one speaker said that it didn’t matter what the economic cost was to the community because of the ban, that the real cost “was in losing God’s favor” if it was repealed.
One speaker used an unusual tactic by saying she and her husband were pilots but that pilots weren’t seeking what she saw as “special rights” being granted to members of the LGBT community. A rabbi said that if the LGBT community wanted acceptance from him that they had to accept his rejection of their lifestyle. There were a number of speakers who seemed to be confused that being LGBT was a “lifestyle choice” and not something that is inherent in a person’s identity.
Despite hundreds of studies and research over the past decades indicating otherwise, one speaker even went so far as to state that there was “no scientific evidence that being gay was anything other than a choice.”
Supporters of the repeal represented both individuals and organizations such as Equality Florida, FCAN, the GaYbor District Coalition, the Stonewall Democrats and the ACLU. Several people who spoke identified themselves as Christians or people of faith and pointed to Jesus’ message of loving one another as their driving motivator against the ban.
One speaker noted “When you took the oath of office you may have had your hand on the bible, but you swore to uphold the constitution of the United States. You didn’t put your hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the bible.”
Susan McGrath, president of the Stonewall Democrats and a grand marshal of the upcoming 11th annual St. Pete Pride Promenade, brought to the attention of the commissioners that a recent economic impact study conducted by St. Pete Pride showed an economic impact to St. Petersburg of $10.8 million dollars.
“You have to wonder how much money Hillsborough is losing because of this ban,” she said.
Ed Lally, Tampa development coordinator for Equality Florida said that the only other places he could find that specifically banned gay pride activities were places like Russia, Serbia and the Ukraine. He went on to say that such discrimination had no place in the Tampa, a community he calls home.
“The unanimous vote for repeal is a huge step of healing for Hillsborough County,” said Lally. “It ends an ugly eight year scar on the face of our community.”
Following the lengthy public comment section commissioners had their turn at comment.
In a statement that literally brought tears to some members of the audience African American Commissioner Lester “Les” Miller, Jr. spoke of his own experience with discrimination he had faced “eyeball to eyeball” in Tampa dating back to the 1950s.
“I am a deacon of a Southern Baptist Church and I don’t like people using the bible to justify discrimination,” he said. ” I’d like to remind people that the KKK used the bible to justify some of their awful practices. That kind of thinking doesn’t have anything to do with my faith. My faith is listening to what Jesus said about loving each and every person. As far as I’m concerned hatred is hatred and bigotry is bigotry. It is very painful. That’s why I’m voting to repeal this ban.”
Another moving statement was made by Commissioner Mark Sharpe, the only member of this commission that was also on the board when the initial ban was passed. Sharpe voted for the ban and former-commissioner Kathy Castor was the only dissenting vote. Sharpe became emotional when he spoke about teaching his children the importance of admitting when you were wrong and then taking steps to right the wrong. He said he was voting for repeal in an attempt to right what he saw was a mistake eight years ago.
There were some testy moments during the commissioners’ statements when a couple of amendments were proposed that tried to establish “community standards that could be applied to all groups seeking support from the commission.”
Beckner stood his ground during this discussions which he said were “mudding the waters” with language that virtually kept the ban in place even with a strict vote to repeal. During discussions of what was considered “obscene” by the public the topic of behavior at Gasparilla came up. Beckner even challenged Commissioner Victor Christ about how he might react if a woman exposed her breast to him during that notoriously bawdy celebration.
“It’s very simple,” said Beckner. “Either you believe government has a place in promoting discrimination against one class of citizens or you don’t. These proposed amendments put us right back where we are right now.”
There was some agreement that additional amendments might be necessary to clarify how the county treats all groups, not just those representing LGBT interests. But in the end, a straight up or down vote on the ban prevailed.
“Commissioner Beckner has proven himself to be a hero to our community,” said Nadine Smith, director of Equality Florida. “He was motivated to run for this office by the vote to begin the ban and he has been validated by the vote today. The moving statements by Commissioner Miller and Commissioner Shape also showed that the moral authority was clearly on the side of equality on this issue.”
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