The Lincoln City Council on Monday will consider a motion to rescind the so-called Fairness Ordinance — a broad update that extends protections to include sexual orientation and gender expression.
City Councilman Richard Meginnis said he plans to introduce the motion to rescind the hotly debated ordinance that updates Title 11, the city's code that deals with equal opportunity in housing, employment and public accommodations. He will also move to rescind a more narrowly worded Fairness Ordinance that has been in limbo for a decade.
Meginnis said he introduced the motions because he thinks it’s important to start with a clean slate and make the process more community-oriented and ensure everyone is involved in the discussion.
“I’m doing it because I think it’s divisive,” he said. “I really believe our community is not ready to go to war on this at this point … I just know there’s a fear and people have been able to use this to drive a wedge between people in Lincoln.”
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Meginnis is supported by at least two of his colleagues: James Michael Bowers and Tom Beckius, two of three openly gay members of the Council. Both support expanding protections, but say they listened to concerns of the transgender and nonbinary community.
“The majority of attacks on Title 11 or the ‘fairness ordinance’ are based on lies and scare tactics against our transgender nonbinary community members,” Bowers said, and those voices must be at the center of the next steps.
“After hard conversations and some devastating losses in our community, the message is clear, we must rescind the ordinance, continue to strengthen our relationships with honest conversations, support, and acceptance, and move forward as a united community for all,” Bowers said.
Beckius said the decision to vote to rescind is "heart-wrenching" but the right one for now.
"Opponents have already used false and misleading information with no regard for the well-being of our transgender community," he said. "So the lack of an organized campaign to win at the ballot box is rash. It just isn't wise to proceed at this time."
The ordinance — introduced by Councilwoman Sändra Washington, the third openly gay member of the council — has been the subject of heated debate not only with opponents but with supporters who disagree on how best to proceed.
It passed on a 5-0 vote Feb. 14. Meginnis and Beckius were absent. Opponents, led by the Nebraska Family Alliance, mounted a successful referendum petition, which required the council either to put the issue to a vote of the people or rescind it.
Initially, it appeared there were enough council votes to take the ordinance to a public vote, but the death by suicide of a transgender activist brought the momentum to a halt.
Now, it appears the fate of the ordinance rests with Bennie Shobe, who has not responded to phone calls for comment.
While Meginnis, Bowers and Beckius support rescinding it, Washington, Jane Raybould and Tammy Ward oppose the move.
Lincoln For All, the organization created to support the ordinance that includes Washington and Raybould, issued a statement saying the ordinance was a result of a two-year process involving many stakeholders.
"The timing of this motion — during Pride Month, and at the start of Lincoln's Pride Week — is especially disappointing, and shows a lack of respect for the LGBTQIA+ community," Washington said. "A repeal of Title 11 slows our progress on non-discrimination for veterans, people with disabilities, and based on race."
Raybould added, "We remain committed to ensuring our city is inclusive and welcoming."
Ward said she’s sensitive to the concerns raised, but believes it should go before voters, though she’s unsure what the right timing for a vote would be.
“We don’t know if we don’t try,” she said. “A lot of people have waited a long time for this moment … I’m disappointed and frustrated. But it’s not mine to lead.”
Ward said she does intend to vote to rescind the 10-year-old ordinance, to get it off the books and move forward with a new ordinance.
Nate Grasz, policy director for the Nebraska Family Alliance, said rescinding the ordinance is the right decision:
"The City Council, we hope, will listen to concerns of citizens on both sides of the issue asking them to rescind the ordinance."
As written, he said, the ordinance's overbroad definition of public accommodation applied to private schools, churches and businesses but not public buildings, and the religious exemption was too narrow. He called the ordinance coercive, and said it would punish people because they had different ideologies.
Meginnis said he thinks protections should be expanded, but he signed the referendum petition because, at the time, he felt like a vote was the only way to settle the issue with the community.
Now, he said, he thinks it’s time to step back and start fresh.
Natalie Weiss, a transgender activist, is happy to see the motion introduced.
"I support this," Weiss said. "This what I, personally, have been working on since it was introduced in February, along with a lot of other people. I think it's the most responsible thing for the community to be doing in this moment and I'm glad they're doing it."
The issue of extending protections to include sexual orientation and gender expression in housing, employment and public accommodation has been in the shadows for a decade.
Ten years ago, a different City Council passed a more narrowly worded ordinance to extend such protections and, after a successful referendum, the council took no action either to rescind the ordinance or let voters decide.
When Washington introduced the ordinance updating Title 11 earlier this year, the landscape had changed significantly since 2012.
The U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in 2015 and in 2020 the high court ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 includes protection based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
The 2020 decision related to employment, but the Biden administration applied the language to the federal Housing and Urban Development and Equal Opportunity Commission, which is being challenged by 20 state attorneys general including Nebraska.
The ordinance introduced by Washington aligned Title 11 with federal law and included public accommodation. It also updates language and reorganizes the city code to clarify the process of the city's Human Rights Commission, adds military and veterans as a protected class and strengthens disability protections.
But early on, advocates in the transgender and nonbinary community expressed concerns about the timing of introducing the ordinance, predicted they’d be targeted and didn’t think supporters were adequately prepared to defend against the messaging of well-organized opponents.
And opponents did focus much of their campaign on the transgender community, dubbing it the “transgender bathroom ordinance.” They also blanketed the city with “Let Us Vote” signs, a reference to the 2012 ordinance that was never taken to the ballot box.
Milo Winslow, a transgender activist who had been vocal about concerns of transgender people being targeted, died by suicide just two days after the Nebraska Family Alliance announced they’d collected more than four times the number of signatures needed. Before his death, he sent council members a message asking them to rescind the ordinance.
Since then, the issue has been on hold, though both the Lancaster County Democrats and the Stonewall Democrats passed resolutions urging the council to rescind. Others have sent messages to the council urging them to move forward.
Abbi Swatsworth, executive director of OutNebraska — an advocacy organization that supported the ordinance — said they've heard from people on both sides of the debate by supporters and she hopes the council listens to all those perspectives moving forward.
“The council should recognize that our diverse community has a variety of perspectives on how to move forward with full freedom from discrimination for the whole Lincoln community,” she said.