Victory in Gainesville

When the votes were tallied in Gainesville, Florida, supporters of the city's antidiscrimination ordinance posted a strong win — hailed locally and recognized throughout the nation. Fifty-eight percent of voters in the March 24 election voted "No" on proposed Charter Amendment 1, the ballot initiative that would have rolled back the city's inclusive law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, and gender identity and expression.

A group calling itself Citizens for Good Public Policy attacked the ordinance after the city commission extended Gainesville's housing, employment and public accommodations protections to cover gender identity. The proposed charter amendment sought to restrict Gainesville from providing antidiscrimination protections stronger than those included in Florida state law. (Florida does not currently protect LGBT people against discrimination; Gainesville's law extends those protections.)

In its attempts to whip up support for the amendment, the antigay Citizens for Good Public Policy aired commercials and distributed flyers with derogatory cartoons and baseless claims that protections for transgender people allow sexual predators access to women's bathrooms.

The ensuing campaign against the amendment, led by the local group Equality is Gainesville's Business, drew support not only from Lambda Legal but also from the local chamber of commerce, League of Women Voters, NAACP, local newspapers, and student organizations and leaders from the University of Florida, as well as LGBT-supportive organizations throughout the nation. Local victims' rights advocates, responding to the suggestion that antidiscrimination protections somehow endanger women and children, also voiced public opposition to the amendment.

Lambda Legal was called on by community members seeking legal expertise to fight the amendment. We have deep roots in the community: In 1996, Lambda Legal successfully overturned an Alachua County law banning protections for LGBT people.

In September 2008, as the campaign was gearing up, Lambda Legal submitted a ten-page legal analysis of Amendment 1's legal weaknesses to the Gainesville City Attorney.

Later in the fall, Gorenberg was the keynote speaker at Gainesville's annual Pride dinner, where she addressed an array of LGBT civil rights issues, including the fight against Amendment 1.

Finally, on the eve of the March 24 election, Lambda Legal's Community Education team organized a phone bank of volunteers who placed calls to get out the successful vote. Gorenberg was born and raised in Gainesville, and worked on the legal analysis aimed at defeating the amendment.