Houston is trying to establish nondiscrimination protections for gay and transgender people. The Nov. 3 referendum is causing many of the same conflicts on the state and local level as what the country is experiencing right now. According to the New York Times, at Houston’s last council meeting there was a, “drawn-out showdown between Houston’s popular lesbian mayor and a coalition of conservative pastors.”
Sarah Warbelow, who is a legal director of the Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBT-rights group, believes that whichever way Houston goes will carry national significance, because Houston has 2.2 million residents—which means it is more populous that 15 of our states. The law that Houston is trying to get passed is called Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, which is “a broad measure that would consolidate existing bans of discrimination tied to race, sex, religion and other categories in employment, housing and public accommodations, and extend such protections to gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people.” It is designed to prevent the “Married Sunday, Fired Monday” phenomenon.
Whether the Ordinance will be passed is anybody’s guess. TV stations' polls show the supporters just slightly in the lead, but one-fifth of voters is undecided. The opponents of this Ordnance are trying to use scare tactics and people’s religious beliefs to stop people from voting for the ordinance. Supporters argue against these scare tactics by saying, “problems…have been virtually nonexistent in the 17 states that have banned discrimination based on gender identity.”
Mayor Annise Parker, who is an openly gay mayor, is exasperated with all of this and the lies and misinformation that are being spread about the gay community. She is currently on her third and final term, so she wants this Ordinance to pass, which will show that Houston is a tolerant and open place to live. In May of 2014, the opponents sued the city hoping to force a referendum on the ordinance after the city council approved it. The lawsuit made it all the way to the Texas Supreme Court who said that the “nondiscrimination ordinance must be put to a popular vote—or repealed.”
Richard Carlbom—who is a campaign manager for Houston Unites, which supports the ordinance—says the ordinance is not just for the LGBT community it is about all forms of discrimination. Most discrimination complaints in the city are related to race and gender. Only 5 percent involve the LGBT community. Houston is culturally very diverse, but it is the only one of the ten largest U.S. cities without LGBT non-discrimination protection.
Marriage equality was a major priority for the gay community. Their next major priority should be obtaining nondiscrimination protections in all 50 states. Texas is one of 28 states with no statewide protections. Of the other 22 states, 17 prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing and public accommodations. New York will soon join that group, too. As of Jan. 28, 2015, at least 225 cities and counties prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of gender identity in employment ordinances that governed all public and private employers in those jurisdictions.
The battle for non-discrimination ordinances continues to be a rough fight, but the LGBT community is still hoping that one day all 50 states will be safe for everybody no matter race, gender, sex, or religion.
