An effort to repeal the homosexual rights ordinance of Miami-Dade County fell short in the Sept. 10 primary election in Florida. The anti-repeal vote totaled 63 percent with 37 percent in favor of repeal. Miami-Dade County Mayor Alex Penelas, a leading supporter of the homosexual-rights ordinance adopted by the Miami-Dade County Commission in 1998, said, “We sent a very strong message today,” the Associated Press (AP) reported.
“All ethnic groups were on the same page today,” Penelas said. “There’s no room for discrimination,” he said, describing Miami as “a community of inclusion.”
The Miami Herald quoted Penelas also saying, “We’ve come a long way since Anita Bryant,” the actress and singer who lead a religious coalition in a successful 1977 repeal effort against an earlier homosexual-rights ordinance.
AP reported that a leader of the Take Back Miami-Dade organization at the forefront of the repeal effort claimed the vote had been rigged. “Anti-repeal forces are in control of the mayor’s office and the department of elections,” said Eladio Jose Armesto, according to AP.
Armesto also accused Penelas and other local mayors who opposed the repeal effort of “pandering to homosexualist extremists,” the Miami Herald reported.
The ordinance adds “sexual orientation” to discrimination prohibitions in housing, employment, lending and public accommodations.
Since the law went into force in December 1998, 71 complaints of alleged discrimination have been filed with more than half the cases still pending, according to the Herald.
(BP)
Share with others: