The Fight To Keep HERO-September 23

Just in case some of you Houston LGBT peeps wish to disregard what I and the Houston Black LGBT community are saying regarding our concerns about how the fight to keep HERO is going, I would remind you about what happened when Pride Houston made the mistake of ignoring us when we told them they had a potential political problem brewing over the boneheaded move of Pride to Juneteenth, and the wise play would be to move it back to it's traditional last weekend in June date..

And we remember how that turned out.   They arrogantly ignored us, and paid for their lack of vision. Note that the Pride Parade was moved back to its traditional date, but only after the media firestorm we predicted would happen transpired.

So once again, you may wish to listen to what we Houston Black SGL peeps have to say, because the stakes are far higher in terms of whether or not we keep a human rights ordinance that covers the entire city.

The Battle to Keep HERO will be decided in the 'hood, not outside of it.  If Houston Unites believes otherwise, they are making a serious mistake that will cost them this election.

Here's a FB commentary from SGL community ally Tarah Taylor, who is concerned about how this HERO fight is transpiring.

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Tarah Taylor 

So I'm going to go ahead and say what everybody's whispering about because not saying it does my people a disservice 

WE WILL LOSE ON HERO IN NOVEMBER.  

Why? Because nonprofit interest groups are choosing to IGNORE the black community - the group that benefits the most from HERO and has the most opposition to the ordinance.The field is wrong, timing is wrong, staff is wrong, marketing is wrong, offense is wrong, defense is wrong. 

All who are involved, I love y'all, has nothing to do with you personally but the grant money has you locked into a strategy that WILL NOT WORK and only caters to one marginalized group. And the black community that supports HERO doesn't appreciate your late response to our issues if there is a response at all - hasn't been one yet.

 Can we fix it? Yes, but you'll have to make some alliances, hold supporting organizations accountable, cut some turf in black neighborhoods, and knock those doors WITH THE RIGHT messengers IMMEDIATELY!

If y'all are mad about be saying it, imagine how mad I am watching this get thrown together and go down in flames 

HERO has volunteers that WANT to canvas the black neighborhoods to talk about racial issues but there's no infrastructure set up for it. Good portion of black voters vote by mail, mail-in ballots go out next week. WTF? 

Where's the strategy and field plan for women voters? Veteran voters? DisABLEd voters? Religious voters, business owners... I mean, what are we doing here???

In the words of Dr. Cleo Manago, you cannot talk to black people about a human rights issue using a white LGBT framework.

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You can either listen to Tarah and make the necessary adjustments or ignore her and suffer the consequences.   I would rather us take precautions, do what is necessary to win so that we are celebrating on November 3 and not put the Houston Black LGBT community in the position of saying 'we told you so' as others scratch their heads and ask what happened?

This has too much of a Prop 8 feel to it right now, and I and the Houston Black community that supports HERO is not liking it.

Moving on, we have some interesting news in the fact that HERO Hatin' mayoral candidate Ben Hall has been busted by his GOP friends for his flip flop on HERO  and his past support of Democratic candidates.  W

What took them so long?   And why didn't our side hit 'em with that first?

There's also a Faith Leaders Breakfast For HERO tomorrow at Grace Lutheran Church from 8-10 AM.

One day close to the crucial vote on Prop 1.