Tampa is adding gender identity to it's human rights ordinance. The city council members voted 6-1 in favor of adding it, late this afternoon Council member Joseph Caetano changed his vote to a "Yes" to make it unanimous.
It is technically not quite a done deal because there will be a final vote in 2 weeks.
Business leaders in the Tampa Bay area including Manny Alvarez of BB&T Bank and Nick Kouris from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida spoke in favor of the measure as a common sense approach to creating an effective workplace where people know they will be judged based on merit, not prejudice.
Two years ago, the city of Largo could have avoided nationwide attention if there had been such an inclusion in their human rights ordinance. Largo's city manager Steven Stanton, now known as Susan Stanton, was fired in a blatant act of discrimination when it was learned she planned to have sex change surgery.