For far too long women have fought for their rightful seat at the decision-making table in local governments. In 1887, in a small town in Kansas, the United States elected their first woman mayor. Yet, in 2019 women and nonbinary people are still having to carve out space for themselves in ways that men do not.
During a recent vacancy appointment process, I learned that my beloved city, Tallahassee, was slow to create a culture of inclusiveness in the documents that govern us—our City Charter. A charter makes up the underlying rules of how a municipal government operates in its responsibilities, processes, structure, and functions. It outlines powers enumerated to various positions such as the city attorney, city manager, and mayor.
Alexandria Washington is the Tallahassee Ambassador for United State of Women.
Take, for example, the power enumerated to the city manager:
“The city commission shall appoint a city manager who shall be the administrative head of the municipal government under the direction and supervision of the city commission. He shall hold office at the pleasure of the city commission. He shall be chosen solely on the basis of his executive and administrative qualifications, without regard to his political belief, and he need not be a resident of the city or state at the time of his appointment. The city manager shall have the power and authority to appoint an assistant city manager to serve during the pleasure of the city manager and under his direction and supervision, which assistant city manager shall have the power and authority in the name of the city manager to execute all powers and duties of the city manager as provided in this Charter.”
The only problem is that for more than 18 years Tallahassee’s city manager was a well-accomplished black woman, Anita Favors-Thompson. The gendered language does not stop there, the charter assumes at various points that the mayor, the city attorney, and commissioners are all men.
Fed up with the lack of representation in our city charter I decided to express my concerns through an opinion piece in the local newspaper, the Tallahassee Democrat. In the piece, I challenged my commissioners to rectify the inequity and amend the charter to reflect our robust community that is the mecca for tolerance and change. “I challenge our city commissioners to vote to place a local amendment on the 2020 ballot that would revise gendered pronouns from the city's charter, so maybe young women searching around our charter won’t have the reminder of a time we have fought hard to change—and claim their place of equal worth, equal pay and equal titles.”
To be honest, I was not sure how the commissioners would react—or if they would even consider my charge. The very day the opinion piece was published, I received a call from Commissioner Curtis Richardson letting me know that my voice was heard loud and clear and that he was going to act. During the city commission meeting on March 27th, Commissioner Richardson made a request to his fellow commissioners to introduce a gender neutral ordinance regarding the City Charter. This request essentially directs the city attorney to conduct a full review of the City Charter and present an ordinance for introduction and public hearing to amend the City Charter to provide for gender neutral language. I held my breath as the commissioners placed their votes and as fate would have it they voted unanimously to move forward. That action was introducing an ordinance to make the city charter gender neutral, which passed the city commission unanimously.
There are still some other procedural happenings that must take place before the ordinance is adopted. The city attorney’s office will work to review the charter and locate instances where only masculine gendered pronouns are used. They will also draft a potential ordinance for the city to adopt. But, before the ordinance can officially be adopted by the city there is an opportunity for community members to share their support or opposition to the ordinance through a public hearing. If everything comes to fruition Tallahassee will join the ranks of cities such as Warwick, Rhode Island; Portland, Texas; Rehoboth Beach, Delaware; and Newport Beach, California, that have already adopted gender-neutral language.
Although I will always love the city that I now call home, I recognize our shortcomings. And one of this shortcomings is the archaic language under which we are governed. I urge you all to take a look at your city charter and contemplate the following questions. Is the language reflective of the community you love? Is the language reflective of the progress that has been made in your community? Does the language even reflect your gender identity and gender expression? If you answered no to any of the questions then it is time to take action and let your elected officials know that your community deserves a gender neutral charter.
What it all boils down to is the fact that language matters especially when it comes to city charters. The words that comprise a city charter can play a powerful role in eliminating discrimination. By using gender-neutral language in our city charter, we affirm that our community is inclusive of everyone who lives there. By using gender-neutral language in our city charter, we affirm that equal representation in our local government matters. And–most importantly–by using gender-neutral language in our city charter, we carve out the space that woman and nonbinary people have always deserved.
