City of St. Augustine Beach Ordinance 2013-1, Fair Housing

It's beginning to feel a lot like Springtime here. 

Tomorrow, the City of St. Augustine Beach will vote for the second time on Ordinance 2013-1, Fair Housing, passed last month unanimously on first reading. 

The proposed St. Augustine Beach Fair Housing ordinance 2013-1 is identical to City of St. Augustine Fair Housing Ordinance 2012-15 (adopted unanimously on three separate roll call votes from August 28, 2012 through December 10, 2012). The protected classes are "race, color, religion, ancestry, sex, place of birth, handicap, national origin or sexual orientation," with the legislative purpose to "eliminate discrimination in housing."

If enacted, St. Augustine Beach will join three (3) other local government entities --the City of St. Augustine, which also bans sexual orientation discrimination in housing, as well as the St. Johns County Sheriff's Department and Anastasia Mosquito Control District of St. Johns County. which both ban government employment discrimination against Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual people.

I am proud to live here and we are all proud to know that our local officials thus far unanimously support equality and legislate against discrimination --- even when subjected to crudity, rudeness threats, insults and Lashon hara (see below).  The non-discrimination votes in both our cities (2012 and 2013), and in our Mosquito Control District (2007) were all unanimous, 5-0 and bipartisan -- every single one.

Thus, this is not Jacksonville, Florida  where bigots defeated GLBT rights protections in August 2012.  We have learned from our history.  We stand up for peoples' rights here, and we take care of our own.