The Hillsborough County charter review board decided not to press forward on an amendment that would place LGBT protections in the county charter, voting 11-1 against a 2016 ballot initiative on Tuesday night.

The decision came after a public forum that had almost thirty speakers, including both religious conservatives and members of the LGBT community, all of whom came out against the measure. Not a single member of the public spoke in favor of the amendment.

While the religious conservatives and LGBT supporters had met on a common ground in opposing the measure, each side reached their conclusion in drastically different ways.

LGBT equality advocates focused on letting the County Commission's 2014 ordinance placing similar protections have time to develop, while also expressing a distaste with what could have become a very ugly debate if the amendment had gone to public vote.

“These campaigns create an opportunity for people to demonize LGBT people,” said Jim Harper of Equality Florida. “It becomes a referendum on what you think about LGBT people. They distort our lives, they make us less safe in our own communities. We do have the ordinance and it's important that we have the ordinance. It's also important that we give the ordinance time to work, time for people to see that the ordinance will improve things before we take the unnecessary step of calling for a public vote.”

The religious conservative speakers did very little to quell those fears.

While issues such as maintaining a level of broadness in the County Charter and questions of the political motivation of the amendment were brought, the major issue became whether the passing of this measure would allow men to go into women's restrooms, a common yet unfounded fear among opponents of such protections, as was seen in Houston in November's election. These included benign anecdotes of awkwardly sharing a unisex bathroom in other parts of the world to genuine fears that rapists and pedophiles would prey on their loved ones.

“As a senior citizen, I totally resent any consideration of a referendum that would allow some man to walk into a ladies room,” said Kathleen Brown. “And what about my granddaughter? If my little granddaughter went into a restroom, I wouldn't want a man in there. Sexual assault is becoming more and more commonplace these days. What am I supposed to do to protect myself? Do I need to get a concealed carry permit and walk into the ladies room armed?”

Bathrooms are exempt under the 2014 county ordinance and the amendment would not have changed that. Still, the bathroom argument became the focal point of the attack.

“This is wrong,” said Pastor Travis Smith of Hillsdale Baptist Church. “This is a gross perversion. And it flies in the face of nature and creation. It defies every definition of common sense and moral decency. This lunacy sets every father and mother on edge. It puts the innocence of our youth at risk. It makes every shopping mall restroom, every gym locker room and every public shower a playground for pedophiles and sexual predators.”

The total opposition to the amendment during the public forum period brought the charter review board to a quick decision, as Jan Platt, who had originally proposed the amendment, brought up the motion to bypass the expert testimonies and vote. While the board acknowledged that the night had been a victory for democracy, Gerald White, the lone voter in support of the ballot amendment, was left disturbed by what he had just witnessed.

“I thought this issue would move Hillsborough County forward, towards the top in the fight for protection of all people,” said White as he spoke before the vote. “It is really just sad and heartbreaking that this evil, wicked dialogue has taken place tonight. I will pray that the pastors, the lay people, that their souls and their hearts will be touched and open up and not make folks not want to come out and not want a public question because of fear and harm that they feel may come to them because of a valid question. … They're not saying they're not for this. They're saying they're afraid of harm that will come to them and their families. I want you to think about that. To me as a citizen something is wrong with that.”

This article appears in Nov 26 – Dec 2, 2015.