Had HERO been in effect, it would have fallen under public accommodations discrimination, and these gentlemen could have gone to the Houston Office of Inspector General and filed a HERO complaint
But since it has been messed with by SCOTX, their only alternative is to file an expensive federal lawsuit. Texas does not have a statewide anti-discrimination law, and with the Republicans in control of the Lege and the governor's mansion, we aren't going to see one get passed any time soon.
And even if by some miracle the GOP controlled Texas Lege ;decided to pass one, guess which Texans wouldn't be covered in a GOP created law, much less would be useless in addressing discrimination
Something else that has popped up is this interesting Saikat Bhakra post that takes some Yelp data and asks the question what city has the most racist nightlife?
That post seems to corroborate what many folks testified to was occurring in the four City Council hearings we had prior to getting HERO passed on May 28, 2014.
As a matter of fact, what triggered the push to get HERO passed was Judge Alexandra Smoots-Hogan and a Latino friend being denied entrance to a club on Washington Ave and her subsequent discovery along with Councilmember Ellen Cohen that Houston and the state of Texas had no local remedy to combat discrimination.
Why should you have to hire a lawyer to file an expensive and time consuming federal lawsuit to combat discrimination? HERO provides a local remedy for discrimination issues that occur here.
A world class city doesn't enable or tolerate discrimination. It works diligently to eradicate it.
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