Posted on 07/26/2015 6:04:06 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
There is now near certainty that Houston's controversial equal rights ordinance, known as HERO, will appear on the November ballot, as Texas Supreme Court has suspended it, ruling that City Council must repeal it by August 24 or put it to popular vote.
"We will now get to vote on Mayor Parker's personal, liberal, LGBT agenda this November!" Jared Woodfill, former Harris County Republican Party chief and ones of the plaintiffs, wrote in a blog post.
The gay rights ordinance, which, among other things, allows members of the opposite sex to use each other's restrooms, hit the headlines after a group of conservative pastors, known as the Houston Five, were subpoenaed after they sued the city saying their effort towards placing it on the ballot last November was incorrectly thrown out.
The city's lawyers at the time demanded that the pastors turn over all sermons addressing homosexuality, gender identity or the city's first openly lesbian mayor, Annise Parker. Although the mayor later withdrew the subpoenas, it was not before she received national scrutiny for doing so.
Opponents of the ordinance launched a petition that generated more than 50,000 signatures which was well above the 17,269 signatures needed to put the ordinance on the ballot. City Secretary Anna Russell also determined there were enough valid signatures. "Mayor Parker decided to ignore the will of the people and the city charter, and unlawfully rejected the almost 55,000 signatures," Worrdfill said.
The Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday that "the legislative power reserved to the people of Houston is not being honored."
The state's highest civil court's ruling stated, "The City Council is directed to comply with its duties, as specified in the City Charter, that arise when the City Secretary certifies that a referendum petition has a sufficient number of valid signatures. Any enforcement of the [Equal Rights] ordinance will be suspended... If the City Council does not repeal the ordinance by August 24, 2015, then by that date the City Council must order that the ordinance be put to popular vote during the November 2015 election."
Woodfill wrote that Mayor Parker should apologize to the people of the city "for the huge amount of resources spent on this litigation."
"Additionally, the city is now potentially liable for hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees," he added. "It is now time to gear up for the battle that lies ahead in November. Mayer Parker and her liberal allies will do everything they can to promote her personal LGBT agenda at the ballot box this November."
Jonathan Saenz, the president of Texas Values Action, called the court order a "total victory."
"This is a total victory for the people of Houston, for free speech, and a major loss for Mayor Parker and LGBT advocates who fought so hard to silence the people's voice," Saenz said in a statement. "We are thrilled that the rogue and dictator style tactics of lesbian Mayor Annise Parker and her crew have been stopped by the rule of law and the persistence of faith-based leaders in Houston. The Texas Supreme Court got it right on this one."
Thank God for this victory and congratulations to all those who refused to roll over and give up in the face of the Gaystapo in Houston. This should encourage others to “fight the good fight with all your might”, as the old hymn says.
About time. Some of the nastiest political chicanery you’ve even seen has been going on to force this down the people’s throats.
Make the dyke pay for HER agenda.
Why waste the time and effort for a vote?
The Supreme Collection O’Clowns will meet in the local gay bar and negate anything they do not feel is adequately repulsive to the general public.
It’s not a victory until the votes are counted in November.
I bet that queer mayor is about to blow a gasket over this.
The will of the people or Gods will means nothing to the perverts. This dyke needs to be kicked out for good.
God bless Texas!!
The thought that any guy can play dress up and use women’s public restrooms is beyond insane.
Well, isn’t this interesting? I hope they opt for the ballot vote.
Would like to hear the individual Mayoral candidate’s position on this issue.
Parker is termed out and will leave office after the general election this coming November. Here’s a list of potential candidates. It would be very helpful to conservatives to have the “gay rights” ordinance on the ballot at the same time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houston_mayoral_election,_2015
Or a diaphram...oh, wait.. nevermind .. ;^)
This, I gotta see. Oh wait, I don’t think so.
You know last year, I kid you not, I accidentally walked into the women’s locker room at LA Fitness.
All of the women I saw for a second were wearing clothes though—what a waste of an embarrassing mistake.
Didn’t the lesbo mayor there demand the sermons of conservative Christian pastors?
I reside here in Houston and I remember the months leading up to the election for Parker's first term. She and her staff did a good job of successfully hiding from the public that she was a closet lesbian. In fact the Houston Chronicle here did not report that Parker was a queer until well after she won that first term. (and I am stating "queer"...scr*w this politically correct cr*p)
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