LGBTQ+ Discrimination in Florida and Solutions

The LGBTQ+ community in the U.S. has been gaining increased visibility not only in the media and everyday life, but also in the legal realm with the passage of marriage equality acts. However, state and nationwide legislation has fallen behind in granting LGBTQ+ individuals full rights and protections. LGBTQ+ individuals across the country are still subject to discrimination in the workplace, housing, and even health care. And while it usually doesn’t happen explicitly, employers show bias in who they hire, and fire people using false accusations. In fact, in the three cases that brought LGBTQ+ discrimination issues to the Supreme Court in October, 2019, three people were fired after innocent situations happened that exposed their sexuality. One of the companies involved in the case fired a gay man for ‘inappropriate behavior in the workplace’, and another company fired another gay man for ‘conduct unbecoming of a county employee’ while a transgender woman was fired for ‘misspent county funds’ after she began wearing skirts to work. While that is happening nation-wide, it brings to attention the problems within individual states that have not passed anti-discrimination laws that protect LGBTQ+ individuals. Florida is especially relevant this year as polling seems to indicate that there is a majority of voters in favor of broad, nondiscrimination policies for LGBTQ+ people (Josh Fiallo). According to the Equality Florida website, “Polls show that nearly 75% of Floridians support fully inclusive laws to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination”. Despite the favor of the majority, and the fact that many Florida cities like Tampa, Orlando, and St. Petersburg have passed protections for this community, the state itself still has not enacted these protections.

The purpose of this paper is to uncover the reasons why Florida has not passed anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination laws, and what actions individuals can take in order to help solve the discrimination that exists for LGTBQ+ individuals.

A Brief History

In order for the reader to understand how Florida arrived at its current state regarding LGBTQ+ attitudes and protections, this section will examine the history of the different movements that affected the LGBTQ+ community in Florida from the early 20th century up to current times.

In the late 1800’s, wealthier Americans transformed swampy Florida into the dream vacation destination that they wanted. That paradise became a relaxed place where queer men and women felt comfortable being themselves and were able to pursue the relationships, they wanted, much easier than the rest of the country. Stories were written and movies were made that freely talked about gay and lesbian relationships. By the 1930s gay bars and clubs became a normal part of city life. However, this atmosphere changed drastically in the 1950s and 60s. In 1954, the Mayor of Miami closed all the bars that catered to LGBTQ+ people, by using the myth that homosexuals pose a danger to children. Then, in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, the John’s Committee (a state legislative committee named after a Florida legislator) conducted what essentially was a hunt for gay people in public schools and universities. This resulted in hundreds of teachers and students being forced to leave their universities (Stein, Marc). The closing of the bars, and the witch hunt in the universities helped to grow the stigmatization of gay people, as well as spread the myth that gay people are a threat to children.

In 1977, Dade County approved an ordinance that no discrimination based on sexual orientation can take place in employment, housing, or public services. Unfortunately, the ordinance was met with backlash. Anita Bryant, a Florida singer and actress, took up the hateful campaign of ‘Save Our Children’ in a campaign against the rights of gay and lesbian individuals. She was so successful that she got 67,000 signatures and was able to have the ordinance repealed at the ballot. She said, “Since homosexuals cannot reproduce, they must fresh their ranks without children. They will use money, drugs, alcohol, any means to get what they want.” This campaign reached national levels and sparked the conservative Christian right to keep spreading anti-gay agendas. Almost two decades later in 1998, the Dada County ordinance was finally re-enacted (timeline.com).

Despite the persecution they faced, the LGBTQ+ community kept growing. The 70s experienced heightened political activism in cities across the state of Florida and by the 1990’s Palm Beach County banned discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in housing. This was the first gay rights legislation ever successfully passed in the state of Florida (Stein, Marc). Fast forward to today and many of the major counties, cities, and towns including St. Petersburg, Tampa, and Orlando have passed full protections for the LGBTQ+ community from being discriminated against in housing, occupation, and public services. However, the state-wide legislation has not been changed to include those protections for LGBTQ+ individuals.

Florida, Now

The Florida Civil Rights Act is very similar to federal law, with the addition of age, handicap and marital status to the people being offered rights, however still no sexual orientation or gender identity. Right now, forty-three cities and counties in Florida have passed protections for gender identity and sexual orientation. This is more than any other state combined (Tampa Bay Times). However, to be more fully and thoroughly protected, LGBTQ+ people in the U.S. should be covered by state and federal law. On November 26, 2014, an act called the Florida Competitive Workforce Act was presented to the Florida house and senate that would include LGBT people in non-discrimination policy. According to the Equality Florida website, “The FCWA would amend Chapter 760 of the Florida State Statues that currently prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex national origin, age, handicap, or marital status” to include sexual orientation and gender identity. Passing that bill would be a monumental moment in Florida LGBTQ+ history as it would provide consistent protection for every LGBTQ+ individual state-wide. It did not pass when it was presented in 2015, but the attention helped to spur on the movement. It has been reintroduced every year, and in 2018 was the third most sponsored or cosponsored bill that year. The latest action on the bill was on May 3, 2019, where after it ‘died in governmental oversight and accountability’ (SB 430: Prohibited Discrimination). Because of the Supreme Court in the October 2019 hearing about LGBT people’s rights, more traction has been gained nationally, and Florida will likely be seeing more action on the Florida Competitive Workforce Act soon.

There are many factors that play into why this is such an important issue right now, but one of the most serious and sobering issues right now is the murder of black trans women. The number or trans people being killed has been rising around with world with a death toll of 369 trans individuals in 2018. In recent years in the U.S. over 20 trans people have been murdered every single year. In 2015, at least 21 trans gender people (mostly trans women of color) were murdered. In 2016, not only were 49 innocent LGBTQ+ people murdered at Pulse Night Club, but 21 trans people were also murdered that year. In 2017, 29 transgender people were murdered. In 2018 at least 26 trans people were murdered. In 2019, at least 22 transgender people were murdered. In 2018, Florida led the country in the highest amount of trans people murdered, with five trans women of color having been murdered across the state. Clearly, it is an epidemic that needs to be stopped now.

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Another example of inequality that LGBTQ+ humans face is in healthcare. In an article by Shabab Ahmed Mirza, research assistant for the LGBT Research and Communications Project at the Center for American Progress, she presents data from her survey that shows lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer discrimination in the doctor’s office. For each category, six to nine percent of respondents experienced discrimination in the form of being completely denied being seen, to ‘experiencing unwanted physical contact from a doctor’, and to being spoken to harshly and abusively. The percentages were much higher for transgender people with the numbers ranging from twelve percent to twenty-nine percent (Mirza). Unfortunately, without laws to prevent this from happening, if someone doesn’t like how you identify, they can refuse to provide service to you, or may treat you harshly compared to how they would treat other non-LGBTQ+ individuals, and still not have any consequence.

Enacting legislation that provides protection for LGBTQ+ people is the first step in breaking down the prejudices against LGBTQ+ people. Preventing discrimination against LGBTQ+ plus people allows them to be themselves in every part of their lives, and provides more opportunities for non-LGBTQ+ individuals to get to know the LGBTQ+ community for what it truly is.

Interview Findings

In order to get an understanding of what the underlying problem is today, I interviewed and expert on the subject, Sam Obeid. She was born in India and was raised Hindu on her mother’s side, and Muslim on her father’s side. She identifies as a masculine performing lesbian. She moved to the U.S in 2007, and went to school in Michigan. She didn’t find the community she was looking for there, and transferred to USF. There, the queer community found her and she found the confidence to come out. She experienced hate and discrimination from her own Indian community when she came out, which is what really started her on her journey to advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, because she realized how much work needed to be done. She told me, “I became a certified Safe Zone trainer at USF, did a Master's in Women's & Gender Studies, discovered and became involved in the local spoken word poetry scene, volunteered with LGBTQ+ organizations and met and collaborated with other queer humans. I reflected constantly on the intersectionality of all my identities and slowly, but surely found my voice”. She is now the program director of an anti-discrimination organization called Community Tampa Bay. They work with youth and adults in creating safe spaces to recognize and understand the impacts of prejudice, stereotypes and discrimination, how they manifest in individuals’ behaviors and how they manifest at both the systemic level and in interpersonal day-to-day interactions.

In the course of the interview, she shared her vision of discrimination, legislation, and solutions for the state of Florida regarding LGBTQ+ individuals:

“Many employers don't recognize that they need to intentionally engage in human resources training regarding LGBTQ+ identities to create the necessary culture shift in their organizations. Without training, humans who are members of the LGBTQ+ community bear the burden of having to consistently validate themselves and their lived experience to colleagues and supervisors. In addition, protections for LGBTQ+ humans in Florida exist on a county-by-county basis. In not creating an inclusive workplace policy, we are basically telling LGBTQ+ humans that the discrimination they face is not valid or that we simply don't care”.

“We have Republican leadership for over two decades. The Senate is majority Republican and legislators always try to cut trans folks out of the conversation. So often they offer to pass bills in favor of the LGB community if we leave trans humans out. That's just not going to happen. And if it does, it will be testament to who we're willing to step on to get ahead. In my opinion, that's not a movement I want to be part of”.

“The Competitive Workforce Act is a bill that Equality Florida and legislators who support full protections for the LGBTQ+ community have been trying to get passed for over a decade. Unfortunately, given the intense homophobia and even more intense transphobia in our legislature, there are multiple bigoted arguments made from a binary, heteronormative, Christian perspective. But year after year, for Lobby Days and during session, scores of humans show up to fight against the ignorance”.

“Inclusive policy, intersectional conversation, youth engagement and youth-centered leadership, and mandatory training. In fact, all of these is the ideal solution to the issues LGBTQ+ people are facing”.

Next Steps

As an ideal solution, current legislation should be modified to specify that no human should face discrimination based on any of their identities. Whether an individual is black or white, gay or straight, abled or disabled, Christian or Buddhist, and everything in between, they should never be discriminated against. If we as a society believes that ‘all men are created equal’ then there should be no need to single out certain people from discrimination. While that goal is very idealistic, there are steps that can be taken to drive things towards that goal. Firstly, anti-discrimination policies for LGBTQ+ individuals need to be enacted as quickly as possible. Getting these policies passed involves being active in the voting processes on all levels. Voting in the city/county elections, in state elections, and in national elections are key elements in advocation for the LGBTQ+ community. Vote for policies, sign petitions, and get others involved. When citizens do not vote, they are telling the LGBTQ+ community that they are okay with the current situation, and aren’t interested in doing anything to change it. Nation-wide, support the Equality Act, in Florida support The Competitive Workforce Act for inclusion of gender identity and sexual orientation in anti-discrimination policies. The fight against discrimination and inequality must continue. Showing up to protests, to school board meetings, to any community event where conversation is happening is essential to increasing visibility, raising awareness for the current issues, and to break down walls between people and groups who have opposing viewpoints.