The MEI examined the LGBTQ-inclusive municipal laws, policies and services in 506 municipalities nationwide. Cities were rated based on nondiscrimination laws, the municipality as an employer, municipal services, law enforcement and the city leadership’s public position on equality.
“Our city’s perfect score demonstrates the clear-cut commitment elected officials in West Palm Beach have made to the LGBTQ community over the past 25 years,” said retired judge Rand Hoch, President and Founder of the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council.
The Council has long been Palm Beach County’s most effective civil rights organization. The independent nonprofit is dedicated to ending discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression. Over the years, the Council has been responsible for the enactment of more than 110 laws and policiesproviding equal protection, rights and benefits for Palm Beach County’s LGBTQ community.
“Our city’s inclusive laws and policies attract amazing people to live andwork in West Palm Beach,” said Mayor Jeri Muoio. “West Palm Beach is a wonderful place for LGBTQ people – and others – to live, study, play, work, raise families and retire.”
Of the 20 Florida municipalities included in the MEI, only five (West Palm Beach, Miami Beach, Orlando, St. Petersburg and Wilton Manors) scored 100 points. Nationally, 60 cities earned perfect scores.
Thanks Muoio’s leadership – along with that of former mayors Nancy Graham and Lois Frankel — West Palm Beach always has been in the forefront of LGBTQ equality in the State of Florida
In 1990, city commissioners established the West Palm Beach Employment Practices Review Commission to recommend improvements to the city’s personnel practices and procedures. Hoch, at the time a labor lawyer who represented the city’s municipal workers unions, served as the commission’s Chairman Pro Tempore. The blue ribbon panel’s final report included recommendations to improve the work environment for the city’s lesbian and gay employees. Within months, those recommendations were unanimously adopted by the city commission.
The following year, West Palm Beach became the first public employer in Florida to enact an ordinance prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in public employment. In 1992, West Palm Beach became the first public employer in Florida to provide domestic partnership benefits for municipal employees.
City leaders recognized that while the laws and policies had been put into place to help gay and lesbian municipal employees, action also needed to be taken to address discrimination faced by the city’s lesbian and gay residents. Therefore, in 1991, the city commission voted to prohibit the use of any public facilities or any public funding to any entities which had discriminated against members of a variety of protected classes – including gays and lesbians.
In 1994, the city commission enacted the West Palm Beach Equal Opportunity Ordinance, which prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation in private and public employment, housing and public accommodation. (The ordinance was amended in 2007 to prohibit discrimination based on gender identity or expression.)
Weeks after the ordinance was enacted, the local Christian Coalition collected enough signatures to hold a special election to repeal the ordinance. However, then-Mayor Nancy Graham stepped forward to lead the “‘No on 1!” campaign to ensure that the newly enacted gay rights law remained on the books. After a bitter and divisive campaign, West Palm Beach voters soundly defeated the repeal effort 56% to 44%. This historic effort marked the first time that Florida voters defeated an anti-gay referendum.
Since marriage equality was slow in coming to Florida, during the period when same-sex marriage was prohibited, Mayor Muoio repeatedly championed laws and policies to ensure that gay and lesbian municipal employees with domestic partners received the same benefits and take home pay as married opposite employees were entitled to receive.
Even when faced with federal laws that denied workers with domestic partners benefits granted to married employees, Mayor Muoio found her way to provide them for city employees. She persuaded her colleagues to extend equal health insurance continuation coverage (COBRA) and Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) benefits to city employees with domestic partners. She also convinced city commissioners to provide federal tax equity reimbursements for employees insuring their domestic partners, since married employees were exempt from that taxation under federal law.
Mayor Muoio also led the effort to enact the West Palm Beach Equal Benefits Ordinance, which required contractors doing business with the city to provide identical benefits to both married employees and employees with domestic partners.
Last year, the city commissioners updated the Equal Opportunity Ordinance by expanding the definition of “public accommodations” to prohibit consumer discrimination (e.g., “shopping while black”). The law also prohibits businesses in the wedding industry from discriminating against lesbian and gay couples.
When presented with opportunities to amend the state’s civil rights laws to protect LGBTQ people, Florida Legislators have refused to do so. In contrast, 22 states (and the District of Columbia) protect their residents from employment discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation. Nineteen of these states (and the District of Columbia) also provide similar protections on the basis of their gender identity.
“Since the Florida Legislature has repeatedly refused to enact
LGBTQ-inclusive civil rights laws, it is imperative that municipal and
county leaders throughout our state work diligently to enact local laws
and policies providing LGBTQ Floridians with equal protections and
benefits,” said Hoch. “All LGBTQ Floridians, regardless of where they
live or work, should be protected from discrimination.”
The full 2016 MEI report, including detailed scorecards for every city and a searchable database, is available online at www.hrc.org/mei.
