Fighting for Our Rights

In 1991 Tampa was the 1st city in Florida to adopt and maintain legal protections for its LGBT citizens. Because of the unprecedented leadership and success of Nadine Smith, Keith Roberts, Todd Simmons and other Tampa Bay activists, they got calls from around the state asking “Give us your playbook.” As a result, the state-wide group Equality Florida was founded in and remains headquartered in Tampa Bay.

1989: Gay Rights Denial Awakens the Community

In October 1989, Hillsborough County Commission held a six-hour long public hearing about adding sexual orientation to the County’s Human Rights Ordinance. It was standing room only, attracting a crowd of over 500 people. Local residents testified about their personal experiences of discrimination. Keith Roberts, speaking for The Bay Area Human Rights Coalition, a political group organized to support the amendments, submitted 5,000 letters of support.

After the contentious public hearing, Tampa and Hillsborough County both overwhelmingly rejected amendments to their human rights ordinances to protect LGBT citizens.

The defeat politicized the community to educate the public and get involved in City Council and County Commission elections, forcing candidates to address gay issues for the first time.

1990: LGBT Electoral Politics

“The thousands who turned out for the Gay Pride march and rally Sunday in downtown Tampa showed what a politically powerful force the gay community can be. That has not been lost on candidates.”
– Tom Scherberger, Tampa Tribune columnist

Gay and lesbian activists worked on several County Commission campaigns, targeting two popular incumbent County Commissioners who voted against the gay rights ordinance the previous year.

They supported and fundraised for Sylvia Rodriquez Kimbell. A long-time school teacher and administrator, Kimbell was new to politics. She defeated long-time incumbent Rubin Padgett, a towering figure in the local African-American community. On election night, Kimbell acknowledged what accounted for her slim (298 votes) victory: “the gay vote in Seminole Heights.”

At a Winter Pride event at the Cuban Club in Ybor City, politicians pledged their support for a gay rights ordinance. “ I know what discrimination is like. Perhaps that is why I can relate to you,” noted Kimbell.

May 28, 1991: Joint Meeting of Tampa City Council and Hillsborough County

In May 1991, 2, 500 people attended a rare and contentious joint meeting at the Performing Arts Center of the Hillsborough County Board of Commissioners and the Tampa City Council to discuss amendments to their respective Human Rights Ordinances to add protection from sexual orientation discrimination. More than 30 people were removed from the meeting for threatening audience members or disrupting the proceedings.

David Caton and the Tampa chapter of the American Family Association (AFA) brought busloads of people to speak against the amendments. AFA also sponsored newspaper advertisements and inflammatory mailings urging a no vote. Flyers falsely claimed that 73% of male homosexuals had sex with boys and that passage would lead to transvestites teaching in public schools, “one day as a man and the next day as a woman.”

Opponents outnumbered gay rights supporters almost two to one. Many waved bibles and chanted “God hates sin.”

“the opponents themselves provided the strongest argument why this ordinance is needed.”
– A Hillsborough County Commissioner

Victory!

In a 4-3 vote, the Tampa City Council passed a law prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation in housing, public accommodations, and employment. In a series of similar 4-3 votes, the Hillsborough County Commission voted to outlaw discrimination only in housing, public accommodations, and public contracts. Gay rights advocates had asked that each section of the ordinance be voted on separately, knowing that Commissioner Ed Turanchick, a labor attorney, would abstain on the employment protections due to a perceived conflict of interest. Mayor Sandy Freedman immediately signed the legislation, making Tampa the first jurisdiction in Florida to ban anti-gay discrimination in housing, employment, and public accommodations.

Fighting at the Ballot Box

But the fight was not over. Almost immediately after the two human rights ordinances were revised, David Caton and his American Family Association began work to overturn them. Organized as “Take Back Tampa,” they acquired enough signatures to put the gay rights provisions up to a referendum. In response, LGBT citizens and allies formed Say No to Hate to oppose the upcoming vote on repealing Tampa’s gay rights ordinance.

On November 4, 1992, voters went to the polls and voted to repeal Tampa’s gay rights ordinance by an overwhelming 58%. Voters in Dade and Broward counties had overturned similar ordinances. Take Back Tampa outspent the Say No to Hate activists 5-1 using the slogans “No Special Rights” and “Sodomy is not a Civil Right.”

In response, Queer Nation protested in the streets of Tampa, burning a figure in effigy outside city hall. Queer Nation objected to the “Say No to Hate” campaign run by the LGBT community, claiming the strategy erased gay people.

“Why didn’t Fags and Dykes and those that support them unite in anger and burn this f**king city down”

– Queer Nation

Buycott not Boycott

In the wake of the repeal of the gay rights ordinance, The Human Rights Task Force initiated a “Buycott,” encouraging patronage at gay-supportive businesses. They hoped to avoid the national boycotts initiated against Colorado and other areas where anti-gay measures had passed. The buycott represented a more positive approach.

Todd Simmons, Nadine Smith, and Keith Roberts (below), were leaders of Human Rights Task Force and the Buycott campaign.

Referendum Redux

But the Fight was still not over. The next year, LGBT activists, working through the courts, succeeded in getting the repeal overturned by successfully challenging signatures gathered by the American Family Association. 462 signatures were ruled invalid by the Florida Supreme Court. This invalidated the referendum. That meant Tampa’s Human Rights Ordinance continued to include protections against LGBT discrimination.

David Caton started a second attempt to gather signatures and overturn the Ordinance, this time organized as “Yes! Repeal Homosexual Ordinance Committee.” To fight the repeal effort, opponents re-organized as “Citizens for a Fair Tampa” (CFT), a broad coalition of civic, religious and business groups. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force dispatched campaign consultant Susan Hibbard to help. Both Mayor Freedman and local business leaders opposed the repeal, wanting Tampa to project a welcoming image to the nation.

Nadine Smith was hopeful the referendum could be defeated at the ballot box. But as with the first repeal effort, this fight would be won in the courts. Keith Roberts and other lawyers connected with Citizens for a Fair Tampa sued, claiming the City Council had altered the wording of the referendum and omitted required information. The referendum was on the ballot for Tuesday, March 7th. On Monday March 6th, circuit judge Manuel Menendez struck down the ballot measure, letting the Human Rights Ordinance stand.

Hillsborough Repeal

We will never know how the vote on March 7th would have turned out. But that election did bring two new members to the Hillsborough County Commission, putting wind in the sails of Commissioner Jim Chillura, a gay rights opponent who long opposed the sexual orientation protections in the county’s Human Rights Ordinance. He and chairman Jim Norman said they wanted to end division and let the community “heal.”

The Commissioners held another contentious public meeting, this time at the Florida Expo Park, where hundreds of opponents and backers of the repeal signed up to speak. After the four-hour meeting, the County Commission, as expected, vote 4-3 to repeal the 4-year old ban on discrimination.

“We’ll be back!” shouted LGBT activists as the meeting disbanded. A small group of them held a candlelight rally outside the County Building in front of a sign declaring “We’re still here.”

Only in 2014, under the leadership of the county’s first openly gay County Commissioner Kevin Beckner, did the Hillsborough County Commission re-instate legal protections for LGBT citizens.