‘It gives so much hope.’ Will Bibb County pass anti-discrimination ordinance?

Macon-Bibb County Commissioners will vote on an anti-discrimination ordinance Tuesday, but they will hear from the community first.

If passed, the ordinance will prohibit discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations based on race, religion, color, sex, disability, national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation, gender identity or military status.

A public hearing to discuss the ordinance will be held on at 3 p.m. Tuesday in the chambers of the Government Center, according to a news release.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, only 20 people are allowed to speak before the commission. Ten people who oppose and 10 who support the bill were chosen to speak before the commission, but others who would like to submit a comment can send an email to Commission@maconbibb.us by noon.

About this ordinance

Scott Mitchell, owner of Travis Jean Emporium, worked with Claire Cox and Georgia Equality’s Southern Georgia Field Organizer DeMarcus Beckham, who are both members of the Comprehensive Civil Rights board, to write the ordinance and submit it to commissioners.

“We’ve been working on this ordinance for a while. One thing that we did was we kept going back to it and tweaking it and making it the best document that we could. We wanted to make sure that everyone in Macon-Bibb County was included,” said Mitchell.

Macon-Bibb County passed a similar ordinance in 2017 for county employees, Mitchell said, but they wanted to have an ordinance that protected the general public.

“Everything in this ordinance is currently in the federal law, but this keeps it local. So right now if someone were to file a case, it has to go to the federal court system which is extremely expensive, and most people just don’t do it because they can’t afford it, and this saves money for businesses and for individuals,” Mitchell said.

The ordinance has four sponsors on the commission: Commissioners Larry Schlesinger, Elaine Lucas and Virgil Watkins, and Mayor Pro Tem Al Tillman.

DeMarcus Beckham, with Georgia Equality, said Georgia is one of three states that doesn’t have an anti-discrimination law, and Macon would be the 12th city in the state to pass this type of ordinance and the first county.

“I think it will allow the community to understand that… Macon is a place where we will not allow discrimination. It allows our community and our community leaders to have control over the narrative of how our town reacts to discrimination or how our people are being treated,” he said. “I think it’s just a peace of mind. I am a Black LGBT person, and… I don’t have the same rights as another person in the cities who already have these ordinances.”

If enough cities in Georgia pass these ordinances, Beckham said, it will signal to the state General Assembly that Georgia is ready to pass a statewide law to protect people against discrimination.

“It gives so much hope to know that we’re moving in the right direction, not just as a community, but as a state, we can move forward,” he said.

The opposition

During the Committee of the Whole meeting, commissioners discussed the ordinance for more than an hour with the most vocal opponents being Commissioners Mallory Jones and Valerie Wynn.

The main issues Wynn and Jones raised were about transgender residents competing in athletics in schools and whether men can enter women’s bathrooms.

When Schlesinger introduced the ordinance, he said it would not impact public or private schools in Bibb County.

“This has absolutely nothing to do with schools here, and to purport that it is, to say that we’re heading on a road to somewhere is speculative,” he said. “We’re just dealing with the reality of discrimination within our community, and we want to do whatever we can to make sure that all of these cases are going to be confronted ...and if possible resolved in house.”

Wynn and Jones both made comments about transgender residents having gender dysphoria and a “medical problem.”

“We need to always treat everybody the same that’s what I’ve done my entire life. That’s what I’ve continued to do, but I’m not in favor of giving extraordinary rights to a certain class of people over others,” Jones said.

The commissioners who sponsored the ordinance repeated that schools and bathrooms were not the focus of the ordinance and that Atlanta has had a similar ordinance for 20 years.

“There are people trying to pay money for service, trying to get houses, trying to work at jobs, just do their job and because they are different, for whatever reason, they find a different experience than the rest of the majority of society, and that’s what we’re here today to talk about,” Watkins said.

Lucas urged those listening to the meeting to fact check the comments made by Jones and Wynn.

Beckham said their comments were erroneous and untrue.

“They are pathologizing and reviling a subset of our community here in Bibb County, and I don’t say that out of anger. I say that out of disbelief that they are fearing equality across the board,” he said. “It’s not about giving special rights to anyone. It’s about giving the rights that we deserve as a community and as citizens.”

This story was originally published November 17, 2020 at 5:40 AM.