Palm Beach County Human Rights Council - President's Message

The elections are finally over and America has renewed sense of our democracy. The Council wishes the best for our nation's new leaders in these challenging times.

In Palm Beach County and across America, GLBT voters voted in record numbers. Together with our allies throughout the County, we helped elect (or re-elect) public officials who clearly understand the challenges facing our community. For a complete list of PBCHRC-endorsed candidates elected in 2008, click here.

Much of the Council's ability to screen, interview and endorse candidates rests on the shoulders of Rae Franks, who has served as the Council's Secretary since the early-1990s. The entire Board of Directors is grateful to the time and energy Rae has spent over the past seven months - and over many, many years - contacting candidates, scheduling interviews, and asking the questions that help us make difficult endorsement choices.

Unfortunately, Amendment 2, the so-called "Florida Marriage Protection Amendment" was approved by slightly more than 62% of Florida's voters and will now become part of Florida's Constitution. Statewide, less than 38% of Floridians voted to keep this discriminatory provision out of the constitution. In contrast, thanks to your help, more than 48% of Palm Beach County's voters rejected Amendment 2.. (In raw numbers, that represents more than a half million people). Only two of Florida's sixty-seven counties (Alachua and Monroe) showed stronger opposition to this mean-spirited and misguided amendment.

At the Council's request, in October, both the West Palm Beach City Commission and the Lake Worth City Commissions unanimously passed resolutions opposing Amendment 2. And while Commissioner Jeff Koons offered to introduce a similar resolution before the Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners, his efforts were thwarted by Commissioners Mary McCarty, Addie Greene, and Bob Kanjian.

Special thanks go out to West Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel, County Commissioner Jeff Koons, Tax Collector Anne Gannon, West Palm Beach City Commissioners Jeri Muoio and Bill Moss, Lake Worth Mayor Jeff Clemens, Lake Worth City Commissioner Dave Vespo for playing key roles in the Vote "No" on 2 Campaign. Additional thanks go out to Congressmen Alcee Hastings, Ron Klein and Robert Wexler; State Senators Dave Aronberg and Ted Deutch; and State Representative Kelly Skidmore, who also lent their support to the campaign.

In Lake Worth there will be a run-off election on November 18 for the District 4 City Commission seat. While PBCHRC-endorsed Dave Vespo received more votes than his two opponents, he did not receive 50% of the vote. Dave is one of our strongest supporters on the Lake Worth City Commission. In October, Dave sponsored the resolution by which the Lake Worth City Commission went on record opposing Amendment 2. Last year, Dave was outspoken in his support of the commission's successful effort to add gender identity and expression into the Lake Worth Human Rights Ordinance. In addition, Dave has always been a strong supporter of COMPASS and PrideFest. Please go to the polls on November 18 and vote to re-elect Dave Vespo.

At the beginning of 2008, the Council pledged to bring public schools in Palm Beach county up to speed on our issues. In the past few months, we have made progress on our educational initiatives.

By the time the School year began in late-summer, the School Board of Palm Beach County announced that it would extend health insurance coverage to the children of employees' domestic partners. And at yesterday's meeting, the School Board adopted a GLBT-inclusive policy prohibiting the bullying and harassment of students. The Council lobbied extensively to ensure that "sexual orientation" as well as "gender expression and/or identity" were specifically included. Special thanks go out to the ACLU of Florida and the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) for their assistance in our efforts.

In early-September, after more than a year of delays engineered by Palm Beach Community College Trustees Carolyn Williams and Kenneth Kirby, a majority of the members of the college's Board of Trustees voted to offer employees the opportunity to purchase health insurance for their domestic partners. As always, Williams and Kirby both voted against domestic partner benefits. Thanks to the persistence and understanding of Trustees William Berger, Wendy Sartory Link and David Talley, starting in January, college employees will be able to purchase health insurance for their domestic partners, and their domestic partners children.

Still no word from Florida Atlantic University President Frank Brogan...... However, the Council's work on domestic partnership issues continues elsewhere.

At the request of a Seacoast Utility Authority employee, the Council has been working for almost a year with Seacoast's Director of Administrative Services Andrea Holmes on domestic partner benefits. We are very optimistic that Seacoast will soon offer the full range of domestic partner benefits to its employees. Seacoast is a quasi-governmental entity that provides services to Palm Beach Gardens, North Palm Beach, Lake Park, Juno Beach and some of the unincorporated areas in northern Palm Beach County.

In mid-September, the Council also began to work on domestic partner benefit issues with the City of Boynton Beach. We will keep you posted of any progress there.

One final note on domestic partner benefits, at the request of the Council and the fire fighters' union, the Village of Tequesta now includes domestic partners as members of Village employees' immediate families. As a result, employees with domestic partners may now take bereavement leave in the same manner as employees who are married.

Now to the state level. Thanks to very educated and motivated voters (and to term limits) there are a lot of new faces in the Florida Legislature. The Council wishes much success to several longtime allies who have been elected this past year, including Senator-Elect Chris Smith, and Representatives-Elect Joe Abruzzo, Mark Pafford and Kevin Rader. The Council trusts that each of these legislators will champion the cause of GLBT equality statewide.

And on that topic, for the third year in a row, Representative Kelly Skidmore will introduce legislation to amend The Florida Civil Rights Act and Florida's Fair Housing Act to prohibit discrimination against our community. This year's bill will ask the legislature to add "sexual orientation", "gender identity or expression" and "pregnancy" as additional protected classes.

A companion bill will be filed either by Senator Ted Deutch (D-Boca Raton) or by newly elected Senator Chris Smith (D-Fort Lauderdale). The Council is optimistic that Senator Jeff Atwater (R-North Palm Beach) will continue his commitment to move this bill forward. In 2008, he was the only Republican co-sponsor of the bill. His efforts made it possible for the bill to be heard in the Commerce Committee, where four Republicans and three Democrats voted in favor of the bill. When Senator Atwater begins his term as President of the Florida Senate in 2009, he will be the key to any progress made on the bill.

The ACLU of Florida has made the GLBT civil rights bill a priority for the 2009 session, and the Council trusts that other organizations such as Equality Florida and NOW will do the same. Working together should help move the bills forward. However, whether Representative Skidmore's bill gets a hearing in the House of Representatives will be up to incoming Speaker Ray Sansom (R-Destin). In the interim, we trust Representative Skidmore will continue to convince her colleagues to express their support for the bill by signing on as co-sponsors. Perhaps in 2009, she will break the record - her record - of 31 House sponsors!

Finally, it is our hope that Governor Charlie Crist will take another look at Florida's diverse population - and the election results - and come out in favor of the GLBT civil rights bills.

In the interim, Governor Crist could take the lead on GLBT equality by issuing an Executive Order prohibiting discrimination in state employment based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability and marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and familial status, and by extending domestic partner benefits to all state employees. The Council will continue to urge him to do so, and as always, we will keep you posted.

Best wishes for the Holidays!

Judge Rand Hoch (retired)