Celebrate Ordinance 2012-15: St. Augustine Amends Fair Housing Ordinance to Ban Sexual Orientation Discrimination

We, The People of St. Augustine made history Monday, December 10, 2012.

Thanks to to every single City of St. Augustine City Commissioner for three (3) unanimous  votes since August 27 to ban discrimination in housing sales and rentals and related banking activity based on "sexual orientation," defined as "heterosexuality, homosexuality or bisexuality." 

Commissioners adopted Ordinance 2012-15 in final form on December 10, 2012.  Kudos to Commissioners Leanna Freeman, William L. Leary, Nancy Sikes-Kline, Joseph L. Boles, Jr. and Roxanne Horvath, and to recently retired Commissioner Errol Jones (who made a motion August 27, in response to a citizen's suggestion at a Fair Housing workshop).  

On December 10,  Mayor Joe Boles called St.  Augustine our "nation's most diverse city and our first diverse city."  

The public hearing and debate took 31 minutes and included hate-filled arguments by a few putative "Christians." Controversial fundamentalist preacher Doug Russo yelled "you're fired" and "rebrobates" after the historic vote, leading Mayor Boles to say, "would someone please escort that idiot out of the room."  

On August 15,  Jacksonville City Council rejected GLBT equality.  St. Augustine has led the way for our region on tolerance.  Thank God for St. Augustine's progressive government, which now works for all of us.  

ED SLAVIN REMARKS ON FAIR HOUSING

(First an outline of remarks Ed Slavin gave at December 10, 2012 meeting of St. Augustine City Commission, followed by additional thoughts):

Thank you for enacting Ordinance 2012-15t, and I salute you. After 447 years, our City is taking a stand -- it's wrong to discriminate against people because they are “heterosexual, homoesexual or bisexual.” The Bible teaches hospitality and respect to others, especially our guests – we have five million a year.

The New Testament of the Bible teaches that:

X  Jesus never said a word against Gays.

X Jesus did say "Whatever you do to the least of my brothers, that you do unto me"

X “Judge not lest you be judged”

X “He who is without sin among, you cast the first stone”

As George Washington wrote the Newport, Rhode Island Hebrew congregation in 1790: “happily, the Government of the United States gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance and, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens.”

“Be not afraid” – it's in the Bible at least 50 times – the first public words Pope John Paul II spoke as Pope. We refuse to be governed by fear or ignorance or unscientific beliefs (or fear of ignorance). The Supreme Court declared sodomy laws unconstitutional ten years ago. Group hatred of Gays is wrong, just like racism, misogyny or anti-Semitism.

Ordinance 2012-15 will help St. Augustine's branding and marketing for our 450th anniversary, declaring our City Gay-friendly. There's a $50 billion Gay and Lesbian tourism market. This ordinance declares that our hearts are open. We're open for business. 

We're open to the Fortune 500 companies that won't locate in Jacksonville now because its other-directed City Council rejected equality back in Augusts.

Our St. Johns County Sheriff bans sexual orientation discrimination -- Sheriff David Shoar did it because it was the right thing to do -- no one had to tell him to do it.  So does our Mosquito Control District ban sexual orientation discrimination – by unanimous vote in 2009. So do some seven Florida counties, ten Florida cities, 21 American states, more than 163 American cities. Please add St. Augustine to the list. Let our City of St. Augustine continue to grow in respecting human rights, "a shining city on a hill."

In our First Amendment and in Article VI clause 3 of our Constitution, our Founders ruled on forever out any “religious test for public offce” anywhere. 

Our Constitution requires equal protection. Our Declaration of Independence declared that “all are created equal.” That's the first time in world history anybody bothered to write that down-- that's our “agenda” here and we're proud to have the same “agenda” as those brave revolutionary Americans had at Lexington and Concord 237 years ago. 

This ordinance applies equally to all – if Gay or Lesbian people covered by the ordinance ever discriminate against heterosexual purchasers or renters, they've broken the law.

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(additional thoughts below)

 St. Augustinians are a good people and a just people. Listen to them, not to a lone hater. 

This is a time for continued healing in our Nation's Oldest City. There is no more powerful thing than an idea whose time has come. This is not 1566 or even 2005. 

We're not discriminating against Gays and Lesbians any more (or even having one killed as in 1566, on Menendez's orders -- Spanish Florida's first governor ordered North America's first hate crime in 1566, ordering a French Gay interpreter of the Guale Indian language killed as a "Sodomite and a Lutheran" (Protesant) -- his brother-in-law wrote it down, and this fact helped persuade a federal judge to order Rainbow flags to fly on our Bridge of Lions in June 2005.

Robert Kennedy said the night that Dr. King was shot: “What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness; but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or they be black."

We have no state religion. George Washington and John Adams wrote in the 1796 Tripoli Treaty that this is not a Christian Nation. In 1790, George Washington wrote the Newport, Rhode Island Jewish congregation confirming what he called “our liberal policy” – all are welcome.

Let's talk a moment about theology. Mass murderers, wifebeaters, miisogynists, slaveowners, segregationists and South African Apartheid rulers have misused the Bible for evil ends. The South African Apartheid regime even rewrote and bowdlerized the Bible, including “I am suntanned but I am comely.”

Saint Francis said, “make me a channel of your peace.” One of the messages of this holiday season is Peace on Earth, goodwill toward humankind.” 

And Peace is not just the absence of conflict, it is the presence of justice. 

Saint. Augustine asked, “Without justice, what are kingdoms other than large bands of robbers?” Saint Augustine also said, “Charity is no substitute for justice withheld.”

Moving forward, we're not going to bow down to bigots or the Westboro Baptist Church or KKK preachers.

The Bible condemns divorce and says divorced people should be put to death. It condones killing people for working on the sabbath. It says that touching skin of dead pig makes one unclean – shall we ask Westboro Baptist Church style haters if it is okay for the University of Florida to play football without gloves? Leviticus 11:7 

We Americans are hardwired to defeat bullies, in much the same way that comic book heroes arise out of childhood trauma – we've seen what bullies are capable of here in St. Augustine. And in the words of Lyndon Johnson, “we shall overcome.” 

We have overcome. The best is yet to come St. Augustine's best days are ahead of us – in the sunlight of human rights.