After an incident of transgender discrimination that occurred on at downtown St. Petersburg's Bishop Tavern and Lounge, a town hall meeting was held last Thursday, March 22, to discuss the fact that neither Pinellas County nor Hillsborough County has a human rights ordinance that includes gender identity or expression. The meeting's primary focus was Pinellas County and what would need to happen to form partnerships in our community so we can insist that the Pinellas County Commission revisits this topic. The meeting was held in St. Petersburg at L Train Bar at 900 Central Ave., where the 42 theater seats were filled, with nearly 40 more people standing to the back and sides, and overflowing into the main bar area.
This was the third town hall meeting presented by Trans*Action Florida (formerly Transgender FORGE). It was the best attended so far and the most productive in the sense that participants walked away feeling like their voices were heard and that a plan was in place. Topics of previous meetings had been "The Trans Community's Expectations of FORGE" and "The Trouble With HRC: Should the Trans Community Support HRC?" No unified solutions materialized in either of these meetings, but in last week's meeting a solidified front began to form.
A discussion panel consisting of Nadine Smith, executive director of Equality Florida; Mariruth Kennedy, president of the Tampa Bay Business Guild; Beth Fountain from Stonewall Democrats of Pinellas County; and Reverend Jake Kopmeier from King of Peace MCC was the centerpiece of the evening.
This article appears in Mar 29 – Apr 4, 2012.