Last week, here in Miami-Dade County, I had the privilege of being present for one significant step forward in the march for justice for the transgender community in South Florida, painful though it was at times to witness.

Most folks (a supermajority) think that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity or expression is wrong and should be prohibited, and the vast majority of people think—incorrectly—that those explicit protections exist under state law. They don’t.

Some protections exist at the local level in a certain places, but protection for trans people didn’t exist in Miami-Dade County until last week, decades after protections were first put in place locally for lesbians, gay men, and bisexual people (although those protections were repealed in the Anita Bryant era, then later reinstated in 1998).

Long overdue though these protections were, that didn’t stop the opposition from turning out in droves, ill-informed about the ordinance’s implications and armed with a battery of harmful, cruel stereotypes.

Hundreds from both sides gathered in the morning to ensure that we could get a seat in the chamber to have our voices heard, although it would be ten hours later before the final vote would come.

I shed many tears in the Commission chamber listening to the over four hours of public testimony. I was proud to see the amazing community of advocates that I have come to know and love in South Florida, but the most powerful moments were listening to the many brave transgender women and men who shared their stories in spite of the dozens of folks there who called them pedophiles and sexual deviants and said that God did not love them.

One man, Tobias Packer, who is transgender, said, “Sitting in this room today, I was trying to remember when was the last time I felt so unsafe, so scared. It’s really painful when somebody who loves the community so much is sometimes reminded how much the community won’t love them.”

Hearing the pain in his words, just as I heard the pain in the testimonies of so many other individuals, I wondered—did the opposition hear them too?

Ultimately, fairness and equality prevailed, and the Commission voted 8-3 in favor of the changes to the ordinance. But as we move forward, I can’t help but think of all of those people who came out to oppose the ordinance, and how much work we still have to do.

I am ashamed that we continue to live in a world in which basic humanity must be debated, but I hope for many of those folks there—those who don’t understand what it means to be transgender, who don’t understand that transgender women are women and that transgender men are men—that they saw human beings standing up there, courageously sharing a part of their lived experience.

My goal, as an ally, is to help convince each and every one of those people, one by one, until the fight for justice for trans folks isn't such a lonely one.

Today is International Human Rights Day. On this day, we are reminded that all persons as members of the human family have certain inalienable rights. These rights are enshrined in our nation’s Constitution as a living testimony to our humanity. One of these rights is the right to vote, and this foundation of our democracy has become a human rights crisis in our state.

Florida is one of only a few states that denies the right to vote for individuals with prior felony convictions, and is by far the worst offender, with more than 1.5 million people in Florida shut out of our democracy. This situation was exacerbated under rules passed by the Florida Board of Executive Clemency – made up of Governor Scott, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and several other cabinet officers – shortly after their inauguration in 2011.

Under these rules, once individuals have completed their sentence in the state of Florida they must wait 5-7 years, depending on their offense, before can request to restore their rights.

The Clemency Board then reviews the applications one by one and decides if the applicant meets the qualifications to have their rights restored.

The Clemency Board meets today in Tallahassee for their last meeting of the year and the last meeting of Governor Scott’s first term.  Yet, we see no hope for the over 1.5 million Floridians who have lost their right to vote due to a past felony conviction.

In March of this year, we took the problem of disenfranchisement in Florida to the United Nations Human Rights Committee in Geneva. We made a strong case that the disenfranchisement of over 5.85 million U.S. citizens and over 1.5 million Floridians is a direct violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.  The U.N. Human Rights Committee agreed it is a human rights violation and called upon the United States to lift the ban on voting.

We came home with renewed energy to push for changes in Florida.  We have gathered close to 6,000 signatures on a petition calling upon the Governor and his Cabinet to make it easier for returning citizens to vote. As advocates, we have worked passionately to change this draconian policy.  We have had held rallies in Tallahassee and in Tampa. We have issued numerous press releases and op-eds that have brought international attention to Florida’s disenfranchisement policy. But despite our efforts, there is still no change in Florida’s Clemency Rules.

We have had enough. Today, on this day that commemorates human rights all over the world, we are in Tallahassee at the Clemency Board meeting seeking justice for the disenfranchised. Governor Rick Scott, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, and Commissioner of Agriculture Adam Putnam: restore the right to vote for our fellow Floridians.

Everyone deserves a second chance.