Houston Mayor Annise Parker
Houston’s battle over an equal rights ballot measure that would expand transgender access to public restrooms is part of a much wider plan to bring the same kind of legislation to every city in in America.
The Washington Times is reporting on the battle brewing over Proposition 1, known as the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, which will which bar discrimination based on 15 categories, including race, gender, religion, ethnicity, veteran status, sexual orientation and gender identity. Although existing laws already award many of these protections, the addition of gender identity is where most of the attention is being drawn in Houston because this would grant expanded access to public restrooms for transgendered persons.
In other words, men would be permitted into women’s public restrooms.
A particularly hard-hitting ad recently aired depicting Houston mayor Annise Parker denying that sex offenders going into women’s restrooms “just doesn’t happen.” The ad proves Parker wrong by citing actual cases of restroom assaults that occurred in Texas.
The bill already has already left a bad taste in the mouths of many citizens after Parker, who is considered to be the main driver of the bill, tried to force the law into effect earlier this year through the machinations of the City Council. Apparently, the Council refused to acknowledge that the city secretary certified a sufficient number of signatures to force a vote on the measure, and enacted the law.
The votes in favor of a public ballot initiative were garnered by a pastor-led coalition which Parker later tried to bully by demanding that they turn over all sermons related to the bill, a move that sparked national outrage. The matter was eventually brought before the Texas Supreme Court who ruled that the Council had run afoul of the city charter when it refused to accept the signatures and gave the Council 30 days to either repeal the ordinance or place it before voters on the November ballot.
But this battle is about more than just the great state of Texas.
Jared Woodfill, spokesman for the Campaign for Houston, which opposes the measure, said if Houston allows opposite-sex restroom use by transgenders, it will build momentum to introduce similar measures into other conservative states.
“What they’re trying to do is if they can win here, they want to take this ordinance to every county and city not just in the state of Texas, but across the country,” Woodfill said.
He cited a campaign known as Project One America, the brainchild of the gay activist group, the Human Rights Campaign, as a program that openly seeks to expand gay and transgender rights in traditionally conservative Southern states, including Texas.
“The Human Rights Campaign has committed a half-billion dollars as part of their Southern strategy to get these types of ordinances passed,” said Mr. Woodfill. “And that’s why Houston is so important to them, because they realize that the eyes of the country are watching Houston right now.”
Meanwhile, supporters of the bill are telling citizens that a failure to pass it could cost them in the Super Bowl in 2017.
However, that ploy fell flat recently when the owner of the NFL’s Houston Texans donated $10,000 to the “No on Prop 1” campaign.
However, the scare tactics of those who oppose the bill are much more impactful. The following ad proves that our worst nightmare about this kind of law has already come true in some places in the country – and could be coming soon to a town near you!
