For more than a decade, Florida lawmakers have tried and failed to approve the Competitive Workforce Act. This year’s attempt to put statewide protections in place for LGBTQ Floridians has also died, but now local communities are stepping up.
"Cities and counties outside these walls... have to take it upon themselves to pass non-discrimination protections because it's good for people, good for business, and it's the right thing to do and the need is there,” says Joey McKinnon, Florida director of Faith in Public Life, a network of faith leaders who advocate on behalf of many issues like LGBTQ protections.
In Florida, anyone can be fired, evicted, or denied service at a restaurant for being gay or transgender. That's because there are no statewide protections for LGBTQ people.
"We just want there to be an even playing field across the state so that you don't step across the county lines, and you go from having protections and can be who you are and then step across the county line and be discriminated against,” McKinnon says.
According to Equality Florida, 12 counties and 31 cities ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Sharita Gruberg with the Center for American Progress notes that almost every state without protection laws has some form of safeguard at the local level.
"In the absence of state-level action and in the absence of federal action, cities and counties are moving forward to meet the needs of their LGBTQ residents,” Gruberg says. "It's procedurally a little easier. You have fewer people that you need to convince. City and county governments are smaller than state governments. So there's a fewer number of elected officials that need convincing… I think another reason is they’re closer to the people. They see the needs of their constituents. They see the importance of this.”
Gruberg says when statewide protections are lacking, local governments tend to go above and beyond. "School boards enact policies to support LGBTQ students. They put forward budgets to ensure that services funded by the cities and counties are reaching and meeting the needs of LGBTQ people," Gruberg says. "They establish offices of equity to address any… needs of LGBTQ folks in the community."
Rep. Jennifer Webb (D-St. Petersburg) is Florida's first openly lesbian lawmaker. She cosponsored a bill to grant statewide protections for LGBTQ people. It was never heard, but Webb says she's not giving up.
"I was talking to some friends of mine who were firefighters," Webb says. "I said, 'I don't understand. I worked so hard on this issue. How did you all finally get the cancer presumption bill done?' My friend looked at me, and he said 'Jennifer, it took us 16 years. It took 16 years for the legislature to do right by firefighters. How long have you been fighting?' I said, 'ten years,' and they said, 'keep doing it.'"
While Florida's legislature may have stalled on LGBTQ rights, Virginia is looking to be the first state in the South to pass statewide protections.
