The community organization Citizens for Good Public Policy filed a petition to place a repeal of Gainesville's Anti-Discrimination-Gender Identity Ordinance on the next city election ballot.
The group's chairman, Cain Davis, said it will have enough signatures by the July 29 deadline.
The ordinance makes it illegal to discriminate against people based on their gender identity, which is defined as an inner sense of being a specific gender or a vocalizing of gender identity through verbal statements, appearance or mannerisms.
The ordinance also states a person can claim to be a specific gender without regard to his or her designated sex at birth.
City Commissioner Jeanna Mastrodicasa said repealing the ordinance and reverting to the Florida civil rights code would affect other antidiscrimination ordinances.
"A lot of people don't realize in repealing this -assuming that there are enough petitions to place this item on the ballot in March -it also repeals the protection of sexual orientation," Mastrodicasa said.
The law allows people to use the restroom or shower facility consistent with their gender identity, said Jimmie Williams, director of the Gainesville Equal Opportunity Office.
Williams added that this rule does not apply to places where people could be seen fully undressed, such as public showers without individual stalls.
The ordinance also requires employers to provide adequate facilities for transgender individuals at their own expense, adding that "unisex, single-occupancy shower stalls or dressing areas" would be adequate.
Davis said the fact that the ordinance does not require any form of registration or official proof of being transgender, other than simply saying so, can lead to people taking advantage of the ordinance.
Williams confirmed that no official proof of transgender status is required.
When the ordinance was being considered, Davis wanted it to require transgender individuals to officially register as such, though he did not specify how that might be carried out. Now, he and his group want the ordinance completely repealed.
They believe state laws offer sufficient protection for transgenders.
"Our main problem is that the way the ordinance is written, it facilitates people abusing it," Davis said. "If you read the ordinance, it basically says that any man can go into a female restroom by simply stating, 'I have a gender identity disorder.'"
Davis said it is irresponsible to allow Gainesville's 265 sexual offenders and predators access to restrooms and showers for women.
Mastrodicasa said sexual predators are irrelevant to the ordinance.
"It's a scare tactic designed to frighten people," she said.
