Ben Hall Comes Out Of The Closet Against Houston LGBT Rights

For those of you who have perused my posts about the Houston city elections that are now in the early voting phase, you know I have not been a fan of former Houston city attorney Ben Hall, who is the leading challenger in current Mayor Annise Parker's quest for getting her third and final term as Houston's mayor.

He was trailing her in the last poll done on the race by double digits, but unless she polls more than 50% of the ballots cast in the early voting and November 5 ballot casting, it will go to a December runoff and he would probably be the person she faces in it.

Now I have another reason to not want this man sitting in the chair as my hometown's mayor.  If he were elected, he would become only the second African-American ever in Houston history to do so.

And he's not the person I want making that history.  Ben Hall's campaign literature claims he's for all of us living in the Houston city limits, unless you're a TBLG Houstonian.

Hall just confirmed in an interview on the KUHF-FM radio show Houston Matters what I point blank asked him at a mayoral candidate forum on October 14.  He is not only NOT in favor of adding sexual orientation and gender identity language to the city's non-discrimination policy,  Hall took it a step further and said he would repeal Executive Order 150, the one issued by Mayor Lee Brown that protects SGL city employees from discrimination.

Mayor Parker added trans city workers to Executive Order 150 coverage in 2010.

I'm not surprised he's coming out of the closet as a LGBT rights oppressor. He told me to my face at that candidate forum that he opposed it (and gave me a BS reason why) when I asked him at that mayoral forum I wrote. 

He flip-flopped from the municipal candidate questionnaire answers that he gave to the Harris County Democratic Party when he was seeking their endorsement in which he answered he would support a non-discrimination ordinance for all Houstonians, including those in the LGBT community.

Hall also failed to sit down with both the Houston Stonewall Young Democrats and the Houston
GLBT Political Caucus when those organizations were screening municipal candidates.

So how surprising is it to me or the Parker campaign that Piney Point Ben is caught in another situation in which his deeds don't match his lofty rhetoric?  

And FYI, in the KUHF-FM radio interview,  when a homophobic man called in to announce indignation towards Mayor Parker for offering protections to transgender Houstonians, Hall joined in on the hate by announcing that, in his opinion, it was unacceptable for transgendered people who are “anatomically another gender” to be treated as anything but the anatomical gender. Further, he doubled down on the prejudice by fully opposing a non-discrimination ordinance, calling homosexuality a “lifestyle choice.”

And you of all people who prosecuted discrimination cases for the city should know better. 

Okay Piney Point Ben, it's on like Donkey Kong now.  I'm not only not going to accept trans human rights crumbs in my hometown, I will fight tooth and nail against any rollback of the meager rights trans Houstonians employed by the city have courtesy of Executive Order 150 now.

So yeah, H-town trans and SGL community, y'all know what to do.  Handle your electoral business in the remaining early voting period and on November 5 to ensure Ben Hall  is not the person taking the oath of office for mayor in the Wortham Theater this January.