64-32 GLBT Rights Wins in United States Senate

An historic day for America. Three cheers for the 64 Senators who voted for equality. God forgive Mario Rubio and the 31 other Senators who voted for bigotry (Rubio is set to speak to an anti-Gay group in Orlando later this month).

Thanks to all 54 Democrats and to 10 Republicans in the Senate, GBLT rights in employment could soon be the law of the land. Let's hope that Speaker of the House John Boehner does not keep it from coming to a vote, as he has threatened.

Enactment of ENDA would mean that 29 states (including Florida) that now allow employment discrimnation would see it ended (at least for employers of 15 or more employees).

I am proud that the City of St. Augustine Beach, Anastasia Mosquito Control Commission of St. Johns County and Sheriff David Shoar all ban sexual orientation discrimination in employment.

I am proud that both the City of St. Augustine and St. Augustine Beach ban anti-Gay discrimination in housing (which City Manager John Regan says helped persuade Grammy-winning Mumford & Sons to play here, showing the way to a new day of diversity). Since John Regan became City Manzger, St. Augustine is no longer what Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called it -- the "most lawless" city in America -- and we thank him.

But St. Johns County, outside the Sheriff's office, has no GLBT anti-discrimination policies yet.

In 2008, then-Chairman THOMAS G. MANUEL and the County Commission unamimously voted (twice) to recommend voters approve a Charter, with an anti-discrimnation provision (10.06) that intentionally left out sexual orientation discrimination. Before they voted, I presented them with five pages of strengthening amendments, including adding "sexual orientation" into the non-discrimination policy. There was not even a mention, let alone a motion, from these five pachyderms to protect GLBT rights in their starter Charter. How insulting.

Thus, we defeated that Charter twice, once on the primary ballot and once on the general election ballot.
The lack of GLBT protections was one of the reasons I spoke out against the Charter, which was not a Charter for limited government, and thus not in the spirit of James Madison and our American founders.

Last year, the City of Jacksonville City Council infamously voted in favor of anti-Gay discrimination, with Mayor Alvin Brown (a putative Democrat and an African-American) refusing to lift a finger, make a telephone call or lobby his City Council to support GLBT rights, indulging KKK prejudices with his inculpatory silence. (You have the right to remain silent, Mayor Brown, but we wish you wouldn't: what deals did you make to sell out "our Gay brothers and sisters," as President Obama referred to us in his Second Inaugural Address?)

Yesterday, ENDA passed the Senate, overcoming a filibuster, with cloture invoked and final passage voted by 64-32. We remember the words of President George Herbert Walker Bush in signing the ADA: "Let the shameful walls of discrimination come down." (Even Bush matured: he once voted against the Fair Housing Act as a member of the House of Representatives).

Today, we pray for St. Johns County leaders: despite seven unnanimous 5-0 votes by eleven (11) City Commissioners in both the City of St. Augustine and the City of St. Augustine Beach, St. Johns County has not yet legislated against anti-Gay discrimination.

Worse, the St. Johns County Tourist Development Council (and the Visitor and Convention Bureau and its contractors) have for years now shown hostility toward GLBT people, including:
(a) telling a friend in Texas that he should "go elsewhere" on vacation; and
(b) still refusing to compile or distribute a list of Gay-friendly lodgings, even though there is a growing number of them here in St. Augusine and St. Johns County.

The message of yesterday's United States Senate vote - strongly supported by Fortune 500 companies -- is that bigotry is bad for business. But as JFK said during the Cuban Missile Crisis, "There's always some poor SOB who doesn't get the word."

ENDA was first proposed in 1984 by Senator Edward M. Kennedy, my first boss (1974-76) when I was a Georgetown undergraduate. Before he died, EMK passed the torch to Senator Jeff Merkley, who worked to bring about yesterday's U.S. Senate victory.

Thanks to everyone involved for making this possible.