Activists want recognition of gay communities of interest in drawing new legislative districts

[Freddie Stubbs]

Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Florida has never had an openly gay state representative for senator, something a gay rights group says could change if gay and lesbian voters are considered as the Legislature prepares new districts.

Boundaries for the 120 representative districts and 50 Senate districts will be changed next year to reflect population changes uncovered in the 2010 Census. The Legislature is conducting redistricting hearings across the state.

"Florida is considered to have the fourth highest population of LGBT people, but gay and transgender people are still not represented in Florida’s state or federal politics. Florida’s redistricting process could change this if maps are drawn to make concentrated LGBT populations a community of interest," the group SAVE Dade said in a statement.

From the group's statement:

Read more: http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2011/08/activists_want_recognition_of.html

[TwentyFive]

1. The original Floridians were Native Americans - and gays were considered Two Spirit

So yes, Forida definitely needs a Two Spirit.

If you want to read up on the two spirit, here is a link.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-Spirit

[Cool Logic]

2. This would seem to suggest a new form of gerrymandering...

If I recall, there was a recent court decision, which made racial gerrymandering illegal.

Would gerrymandering based on anything other than population density (not gerrymandering) be legitimate...?

[saras]

3. It's done all the time - NO ONE uses population alone

Pretty much every redistricting takes into account a lot of information about which populations are where. A sensible redistricting tries to group people by not just physical but cultural proximity, and the conflicts arise because of differences of opinion about which cultural categories are important.

Personally I'd say it was gerrymandering only if it was explicitly done on partisan political grounds, but in fact that is the most common system in America - the one that happens every time the redistricting is done by partisan bodies such as Senates and Houses of Representatives.

The question is whether this category will be considered in a way similar to other categories that are already considered.

In places like DU that aren't governed by teabaggers, "racial gerrymandering" is more commonly known as affirmative action.