Houston’s (obviously bigoted,
homophobic, red-neck) voters rejected the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO)
by a margin of 61 percent to 39 percent. The measure would have established
additional nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people in the city, as well
as ‘other’ groups.
"I fear that
this will have stained Houston's reputation as a tolerant, welcoming, global
city," Houston Mayor Annise Parker said of the result. "I absolutely
fear that there will be a direct economic backlash as a result of this
ordinance going into defeat and that's sad for Houston.”
The
mayor and city council are now expected to pursue a range of options, from
issuing clear rhetorical statements about inclusion and accessibility in the
city to attempting to push through other ordinances similar to HERO.
The
Super Bowl is scheduled to be held in Houston in 2017, and some activists are
mulling over plans to ask the NFL to move the game to another venue in support
of LGBTQ people and other groups that HERO was designed to ‘protect.’
Conservative
groups led the effort to defeat the ordinance, adopting the slogan, “No Men in
Women’s Bathrooms,” intimating that allowing transgender people to use the
sex-specific bathroom reflecting their
‘preferred gender identity’ would allow sexual predators to camp out in
women’s restrooms.
HERO’s
supporters, including mayor Parker, Houston’s first openly gay mayor, say they
will continue the fight, despite the voter’s victory via the ballot box.
"I guarantee that justice in Houston will
prevail,” Parker said. “This ordinance, you have not seen the last of. We're
united. We will prevail."
All right,
then. That statement doesn’t seem very tolerant
of the voters or of the democratic process itself. Nor does it seem very
open-minded or ‘inclusive’ of the majority.
But that’s not the point.
Sich Heil!
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