FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Tobias Packer takes after his father. Those eyes. That smile. Only Packer wasn't born a man.

"When I was born, the doctor looked at me and said, 'That's a beautiful baby girl,'" Packer said. "People knew me in the world as a girl and there was a point in my life where it didn't feel right."

Packer is a transgender, and now he and others like him living in Broward County will be protected from discrimination.

In a unanimous vote Tuesday night, Broward County commissioners gave transgender people civil rights protection.

For Packer, it was a fight for life.

"About two years ago, I had to go to the hospital," Packer said.

In the ambulance, Packer said, the emergency medical technician didn't want to help him.

Under the new ordinance, it is illegal to deny housing, jobs or medical care to anyone who is transgender.

Packer said he's fortunate the county has outlawed transgender discrimination.

"I'm lucky," Packer said. "I'm really lucky, because a lot of trans people are not as lucky as me."