Alachua Voter Guide

This ordinance is not called “The Transgender Bathroom Ordinance,” but that is what has been discussed as the repercussions of a rather verbose expansion of rights for persons who identify themselves as being of a certain gender, whether that was their gender at birth or not.

Last week, City Commissioner Ed Braddy went on WSKY’s Bob Rose Show to alert constituents that the changes had the potential to harm the rights of business owners by forcing them to safeguard rights that are pretty ethereal. He believes that this will lead to new construction being required to add in the cost of unisex bathrooms.

The ordinance is here in its draft form and is 27 pages long. The phrase “gender identity” has been added as a protected class, equal to that of race, color, age, gender, religion, national origin, disability, or marital status. It is important that you take note that “gender” and “gender identity” are differentiated. Why go to this kind of trouble? If you are not aware of the difference, you might just put it down to government redundancy. But it is not. In fact, this is how the ordinance itself defines “gender identity”:

…an inner sense of being a specific gender, or the expression of a gender identity by verbal statement, appearance, or mannerisms, or other gender-related characteristics of an individual with or without regard to the individual’s designated sex at birth.

This ordinance has all the makings of a legal mine field for anyone who owns a business with public bathroom facilities. Especially vulnerable would be a place like Gainesville Health and Fitness. That is because this ordinance also applies to places with showers and dressing rooms.