San Diego’s transgender community had plenty to celebrate over Pride weekend, secure in the knowledge that on Monday, Jan. 28, the city council would cast a second and final vote to approve the addition of protections based on gender identity to the city’s 10-year-old Human Dignity Ordinance. The ordinance previously only protected gay and lesbian San Diegans from discrimination.

Following the city council’s unanimous vote to add the protections, members of the GLBT community met at Bourbon Street to celebrate.

“We’ve been working on this since late January of this year and we were kind of on a six-month plan, wanting to end around Pride,” Amanda Watson, a transgender activist and co-chair of the Human Dignity Amendment Coalition, told the Gay and Lesbian Times.

Jess Durfee, president of the San Diego Democratic Club, called Watson “a rising star in the community” and commended her for her involvement in the coalition, which the Democratic Club formed to push for the vote.

“I’m sure other individuals and organizations were thinking about it, but I think we sort of took the initiative to put the word out that it was time to come together and get the ball rolling,” Durfee said of the Democratic Club’s involvement. “We did that immediately after the fall election, when we saw the makeup of the new city council. We thought the timing was right.”

Members of the coalition worked with the Mayor’s GLBT advisory board to educate Mayor Murphy on the need for laws that protect people based on gender identity.

“We don’t fall under sexual orientation laws because our sexual orientation is really separate from our identity of who we are,” Watson explained. “There is no protection under the word sex, because sex is more what you are born with; gender is more who you are.”

The city council first voted to amend the HDO July 14 and reaffirmed its vote earlier this week — with no one speaking in opposition to the vote.

“I had some concerns [about conservatives], but we tried to keep … kind of low key, not even letting a lot of the community know what was going on until we knew where we were going to go in getting there,” Watson said. “There were some concerns. Some people said Mayor Murphy is kind of conservative and Republican and that he wouldn’t pass it, but our GLBT advisory board did a good job of presenting it and explaining why things need to be done and he followed their recommendations. I think it’s commendable.”

Councilmember Toni Atkins was the only elected official in attendance to celebrate the victory at Bourbon Street. Atkins spoke about how the climate towards the GLBT community has changed in the short time since the original HDO was passed. “We didn’t have one person in opposition — as compared to years ago when we did the original HDO and the place was packed and we didn’t get a unanimous vote,” she noted.

Atkins also commended the task force for all the hard work they did to get the council’s support on this vote, which came just one week after the state Senate voted, 23-11, to add gender identity to the list of categories protected in the areas of housing and employment in California. That bill (AB 196) is currently awaiting the governor’s signature, which is expected soon, despite the fact that some are urging the Davis to wait until after the recall election.

“You made what I had to do today easy, very easy,” Atkins added. “What you did, in terms of going out and getting the support of Mayor Murphy ahead of time, all of the work you did and information you pulled together on cities that have already done this. You did all of the work; you did it as a coalition and then you went to all of the other councilmembers and you really made this happen.”

At the celebration, Watson, on behalf of the HDO Amendment Coalition and the transgender community, presented certificates of appreciation to Atkins, Durfee and AJ Davis-Defeo of The Center for their help getting the new ordinance passed.