H-Town Discrimination, Your Time Has Expired

With the rapid approach of the one year anniversary on May 28 of the passage of the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO), I've been going down a pleasant memory lane about that struggle to pass it.

I was proud to have fulfilled one of my civil rights dreams and be part of the team that fought tooth and nail, endured long council sessions, and did the  work that got  HERO passed.

For me, it began with the first of a series of TransGriot post I wrote starting in September 2013 in which I stated that I wouldn't accept any HERO that wasn't trans inclusive.  

But I wasn't just sitting behind my computer.  I was also taking my unapologetically Black trans behind to City Council starting in January 2014 to repeat what I said on the blog. 

Then it was being present for several packed and contentious hearings in late April and May with plenty of drama, ups and downs, two coming outs and the amazing feeling of joy when the 11-6 City Council vote for passage of it happened.

O course the haters tried to gather signatures for a repeal referendum, fubared that badly, then tried to sue their way towards getting that referendum.  

Never mind the fact their lack of reading comprehension about the clearly laid out rules for collecting signatures is why their riddled with fraud petitions were rejected by the city on August 4 and they failed in court.twice.

The HERO is finally being implemented, and note to Steve Riggle, we still haven't had ANY Houston bakers being forced to bake swastika cakes.  Neither have we had epidemic levels of cross dressed predators invading Houston feminine bathrooms.

If you're looking for sexual harassers and child predators, you need to look in your own pastoral ranks.   I'm sick and tired of you children and grandchildren of pointed hood wearing segregationists hiding behind the Bible to express your deep seated need to oppress people you don't like.

The people I have major  contempt for are the cookie chomping ministers and their sheeple who opposed the passage of HERO simply because it included sexual orientation and gender identity as two of the 15 categories it covered, and sold us out to kill your conservaazzes.

It was also hurtful to see people who share my ethnic heritage regurgitate right wing talking point and collude with the same individuals in the Texas conservafool movement that oppress the entire Black community

The bottom line is contrary to the lie you, Dave Welch and your kneegrow sellouts kept trying to pimp during the HERO fight, the fraud ridden collection of signatures for a ballot initiative and the runup to the trial is that we already had an election concerning HERO, and it was in November 2013. 

Guess y'all had selective memory about the fact the then proposed ERO was an election issue not only in the mayoral race that Mayor Parker won, but at the city council level races.   The candidates who supported implementing a non-discrimination ordinance won at the ballot, and the ones like Ben Hall who opposed it (and still does) lost.

But what we do have is a local remedy to address any discrimination happening in the Houston city limits in 15 categories, and if you faith based oppressors and your kneegrow auxiliaries don't like that because it covers the Houston TBLG community, too bad.

H-town discrimination, your time has expired, and I'm glad that my hometown has a human rights ordinance that covers me and all Houstonians.