FLORIDA: Miami-Dade County Advances Trans Rights Bill In Unanimous Vote

The usual "men in dresses will invade public restrooms" crackpots were apparently caught flat-footed in Miami-Dade County yesterday. Via the Miami Herald:

Gay rights activists prepared for a political skirmish Tuesday at Miami-Dade County Hall. They wore matching T-shirts, arrived early and filled several rows of the commission chambers in support of legislation expanding protections to transgender people. But no one — in the audience or on the dais — showed up in opposition. Commissioners gave unanimous — though preliminary — approval to amending the Miami-Dade’s human-rights ordinance to ban discrimination on the base of “gender identity” and “gender expression.” The law applies to public places and government services, as well as to employment and housing in the county as a whole. “This update that we’re working on would ensure very basic protections for a very vulnerable part of our community that many take for granted,” said Charo Valero, field organizer for SAVE, Miami-Dade’s leading gay-rights organization that has been pushing for the legislative change.

A similar bill was pulled last year in the face of opposition. The current bill gets its next hearing in November.