City Council member James Michael Bowers is emotional after talking about his vote on the city's so-called "Fairness Ordinance" during the Lincoln City Council meeting Monday at the County-City building.
JAIDEN TRIPI, Journal Star
Lincoln City Council member Bennie Shobe motions as he speaks during Monday's meeting, where the council voted to rescind the city's "Fairness Ordinance."
JAIDEN TRIPI, Journal Star
Lincoln City Council member Sändra Washington talks Monday about the "Fairness Ordinance," a broad update to the city's Title 11, the portion of city code that deals with equal opportunity in housing, employment and public accommodation. Washington originally introduced the ordinance.
JAIDEN TRIPI, Journal Star
Lincoln City Council member Richard Meginnis introduced the successful motion to rescind the city's "Fairness Ordinance" because, he said, he thought it was too divisive for the community right now.
The city no longer has a fairness ordinance that extends protections in city code to include gender expression and sexual orientation, following a narrow vote Monday by a City Council divided about how best to proceed on an issue they all said they support.
Bennie Shobe, the only council member not to say publicly how he would vote, ultimately sided with Richard Meginnis, Tom Beckius and James Michael Bowers in voting to rescind the ordinance the council passed on a 5-0 vote in February.
Sändra Washington, who introduced the ordinance, Jane Raybould and Tammy Ward all voted against rescinding it.
Meginnis made the motion to reconsider nearly four months after opponents launched a successful referendum, which means the council either had to put the ordinance to a vote or rescind it. He said now isn’t the right time to take it to a vote because it’s become too divisive.
Shobe, who is Black, said he believes it is wrong to allow one group to vote on the civil rights of another – putting him in the position of making a horrible choice.
He talked about growing up in Kentucky, where his parents went to segregated schools and lived as second-class citizens until the Supreme Court and the Civil Rights Act guaranteed their rights under the law.
“However, if the civil rights of my parents had been put to a vote of the people I am confident they would have been denied,” he said.
The vote to rescind is a do-over, he said, and he’ll work to educate people about the legal rights the federal government granted to LGBTQ residents.
The vote illustrated the division that’s arisen among supporters.
From early on, some members of the transgender community have said they were concerned they would be targeted by the opposition and that supporters were unprepared to launch a successful campaign to win at the ballot box.
Others, including those who have worked for decades to have such rights made a part of city code, were convinced voters who elected a Democratic mayor and three openly gay council members would uphold the ordinance.
Washington, who is Black and openly gay, spoke to that division Monday, saying as maddening as opponents claims were, it was the opposition from the left that disappointed her.
She talked about the civil rights struggle, and how those Martin Luther King Jr. considered allies tried to convince him to wait.
“The journey toward the promise (of equality) was never guaranteed to be easy or short or convenient,” she said. “To the upcoming generations – to the youth of our city – I want you to know I see you. I have been where you stand now and I promise you it will get better.”
Beckius and Bowers, the other two openly gay council members, both said they voted to rescind because they didn’t feel supporters were prepared to effectively win at the ballot box.
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But Beckius noted that although protections are not specifically included in city code after Monday’s vote, those protections exist because of a 2020 Supreme Court ruling that said the definition of sex in the Civil Rights Act includes sexual orientation and gender identity.
Based on that ruling, Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird signed an executive order last year saying the Lincoln Commission on Human Rights would investigate and enforce protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Initially, after the ordinance passed, it appeared there was enough support on the council to take it to a vote, but the death by suicide of a transgender advocate brought momentum to a halt.
Bowers also said, moving forward, it is important to put transgender voices at the center of the discussion.
“We will win when we have the ability and resources to counteract the lies and scare tactics from those whose actions intentionally or unintentionally create lifelong harm,” Bowers said. “We will continue to push forward while shielding our community from ongoing attacks on our freedom.”
Raybould appealed to her colleagues to vote against rescinding the ordinance because it negated years of effort by many.
Ward said she rejects the argument that fear of losing means the ordinance shouldn’t proceed to a vote. She noted that Omaha passed a fairness ordinance 10 years ago “with no defeatism getting in their way" and no tragedies have followed there.
“None. Yet here we are.”
The council also voted to rescind a fairness ordinance that’s been on the books since 2012, when a different council passed a more narrow ordinance extending the same protections to gay and transgender residents. That vote passed 5-2, with Tammy Ward joining the majority as a way to clean up the old legislation.
The Nebraska Family Alliance, which led the referendum petition drive, said the City Council did the right thing, and that the ordinance some opponents dubbed the "transgender bathroom ordinance" was “needlessly divisive and undermined both fairness and freedom.”
But those who have been working for decades to see such protections made a part of city code said they were devastated by Monday’s vote.
“I just feel despair,” said Kay Siebler. “I hear Sändra (Washington) saying ‘hope’ but how can you hope when the very people that you put into office to advocate for you betray you in this way.”
Council members vowed to keep working to codify such rights.
“I will continue to advocate for the full inclusion of all,” Washington said. “Our work is not yet done and I have not lost hope.”
City Council member James Michael Bowers is emotional after talking about his vote on the city's so-called "Fairness Ordinance" during the Lincoln City Council meeting Monday at the County-City building.
Lincoln City Council member Bennie Shobe motions as he speaks during Monday's meeting, where the council voted to rescind the city's "Fairness Ordinance."
Lincoln City Council member Sändra Washington talks Monday about the "Fairness Ordinance," a broad update to the city's Title 11, the portion of city code that deals with equal opportunity in housing, employment and public accommodation. Washington originally introduced the ordinance.
Lincoln City Council member Richard Meginnis introduced the successful motion to rescind the city's "Fairness Ordinance" because, he said, he thought it was too divisive for the community right now.