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Gay Rights Activist Applauds County Benefits Decision April 22, 2011 | WMFE - On Tuesday, the Orange County Commission voted to offer employment benefits to domestic partners and children of gay and lesbian county employees. Orange joins several other Florida counties and cities in extending benefits such as life, health and dental insurance to same-sex partners. There was hardly any objection to the ordinance, unlike a City of Orlando hearing back in 2002 when the city first passed rules protecting gays and lesbians from discrimination. 90.7's Tom Parkinson spoke with Joe Saunders, state field director for the gay rights group Equality Florida. He says the scene on Tuesday at the County Commission was quite different from what went on during Orlando's anti-discrimination vote nine years ago.
Following is a link to Richard Florida's website, discussing principles that Joe Saunders referred to in this interview. Florida first put forward in these ideas in his 2004 book "The Rise of the Creative Class": http://www.creativeclass.com/ Following are some critiques of Florida's work: Terry Nichols Clark questions the correlation between large numbers of gay men in a city and the presence of high-technology industries: http://www.coolcities.com/useruploads/files/UrbanAmeneties.pdf Harvard economist Edward Glaeser says educational levels not the presence of gay residents or people Richard Florida calls "bohemians" are correlated with economic development: http://www.creativeclass.com/rfcgdb/articles/GlaeserReview.pdf Jamie Peck argues against many aspects of Florida's "Creative Class" idea: http://www.boell-bw.de/fileadmin/Heinrich-Boell-Stiftung/2008/city/Peck_Struggling_with_the_creative_class.pdf
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