PALM BAY, Fla. — The Palm Bay City Council decided not to adopt a human rights ordinance after debating the issue for six hours.
More than 1,000 people showed up to the meeting at City Hall Thursday night.
The ordinance would have helped keep employers and landlords from discriminating against lesbian, gay and transgender people.
Crystal Flores said she doesn’t discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender, but is concerned about her two young boys when they go to the bathroom at school.
"I think it is very important that I stand up; not just for myself, but for my children and our schools as well,” she said.
But transgender advocates say statements like that are misguided.
"Studies have been conducted nationwide and just recently in Florida, when they went back and polled all the recent municipalities that passed human rights ordinances, there has not been an increase in public safety issues in those places whatsoever,” said Gina Duncan, Equality Florida's transgender inclusion director.
City officials cited the majority of people against the ordinance and the lack of evidence that there has been discrimination in Palm Bay toward the LGBT community as reasons for the decision.
Cox Media Group
