We Need Heroes -- St. Augustine Needs a Strong, Inclusive Human Rights Ordinance

Letter: City needs protections for all people
Posted: October 10, 2014 - 11:55pm

By Linda L. Anderson
St. Augustine Record
Editor: One of the elephants in the room regarding the mayoral contest between Joe Boles and Nancy Shaver is the lack of a comprehensive human rights ordinance for lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender/queer/intersex (LGBTQI) residents of the city of St. Augustine.

Having met with both candidates, I can say that they verbally have expressed their support. This is a long way from publicizing this in print, although Shaver has alluded to inclusion on her Facebook page.

While there are minimal protections in housing and city pensions, LGBTQI folks in St. Augustine have no protection in hiring, firing, promotions, other employment issues, public accommodations, city contracts, or marriage equality. Having moved here four years ago, it became clear to me that most LGBTQI people were closeted, preferring to stay close to their own groups of friends, remaining isolated, or creating events that are only publicized in an underground fashion. The reason you don’t hear more from the LGBTQI community around here is that, I believe, most folks are afraid to speak out.

St. Augustine likes to pride itself on being a hip, interesting town; full of music, art, history and natural beauty. With all this, it is shameful and sad to have the dignity of so many residents ignored, by not having legal protections in place in the City charter. Even St. Augustine Beach has more inclusive legislation for LGBTQI than St. Augustine does, although not enough.

I realize that infrastructure, tourism, transportation are among the top concerns in this St. Augustine election, but I want to expand the conversation to acknowledge the human rights element as it concerns LGBTQI people in this area. Through email I have had contact with several candidates running for city commission seats, and I can say that most of them have no idea what our rights are or are not, as LGBTQI residents. This, and the laws, have to change