Houston Voters Reject Broad Anti-Discrimination Ordinance

New York Times 3 November 2015
A yearlong battle over gay and transgender rights that turned into a costly, ugly war of words between this city’s lesbian mayor and social conservatives ended Tuesday as voters easily repealed an anti-discrimination ordinance that had attracted attention from the White House, sports figures and Hollywood celebrities.

The City Council passed the measure in May, but it was in limbo after opponents succeeded, following a lengthy court fight, in putting the matter to a referendum. The measure failed by a vote of 61 percent to 39 percent.

Supporters said the ordinance was similar to those approved in 200 other cities and prohibited bias in housing, employment, city contracting and business services for 15 protected classes, including race, age, sexual orientation and gender identity. Opponents said the measure would allow men claiming to be women to enter women’s bathrooms and inflict harm, and that simple message — “No Men in Women’s Bathrooms” — was plastered on signs and emphasized in television and radio ads, turning the debate from one about equal rights to one about protecting women and girls from sexual predators.

“It was about protecting our grandmoms, and our mothers and our wives and our sisters and our daughters and our granddaughters,” Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican, told cheering opponents who gathered at an election night party at a Houston hotel. “I’m glad Houston led tonight to end this constant political-correctness attack on what we know in our heart and our gut as Americans is not right.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/04/us/houston-voters-repeal-anti-bias-measure.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=1

Houston voters repeal transgender bathroom bill in a landslide
LifeSiteNews 4 November 2015
Their HERO turned out to be a zero.

Voters in Houston – the nation’s fourth largest city – voted in a landslide last night to repeal an ordinance that gave people who identify as transgender the right to use the restrooms, showers, and changing facilities of the opposite biological sex.

More than 60 percent of voters rejected the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO), which city council passed last May. The controversial measure punished businesses that refused to allow biological males to use women’s facilities with a $5,000 fine per infraction.

“Houston has become a rallying cry for Americans tired of seeing their freedoms trampled in a politically correct stampede to redefine marriage and sexuality,” said Family Research Council President Tony Perkins. “Houstonians sent a message heard across the country: They will not allow the government to flush away their money, and more importantly, their values and religious liberties.”
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/houston-voters-repeal-transgender-bathroom-bill-in-a-landslide