Texas Supreme Court Orders Houston City Council: Repeal Pro-LGBT Ordinance or Put It to a Vote

By Al Perrotta Published on July 24, 2015

The Texas Supreme Court on Friday ordered the Houston City Council to repeal the controversial Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO) by August 24 or place it on the November ballot. The ordinance, when passed in May 2014, created an outcry in the faith community. While its supporters say HERO prohibits discrimination against LGBT people in employment, housing, public accommodations and city contracting, critics note the law goes much further. For example, it allows transgender individuals to choose whether to use a male or female restroom.

A group of local pastors and religious leaders teamed up to start a petition to get a referendum on the ballot to repeal the law. Houston Mayor Annise Parker and other government officials who support HERO launched a counteroffensive. As Time magazine reported:

The city subpoenaed sermons of several pastors who oppose a recently passed equal rights ordinance for gay and transgender residents. The subpoenas are an attempt by city officials to determine how the preachers instructed their congregants in their push to get the law repealed.

Mayor Parker, a lesbian activist herself, eventually backed down on collecting the sermons in the face of nationwide outrage over what was widely deemed a blatant assault on religious liberty. As for the pastors’ petition to get a referendum on the ballot, even though the City Secretary certified there were enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot, City Attorney David Feldman simply tossed out thousands of signatures, claiming they didn’t meet the proper criteria.

As Rev. Steve Riggle, pastor of Grace Community Church told The Stream at the time, “The mayor has gone to extraordinary lengths to keep this from going to the ballot, using every trick you can imagine, including recounts of petition signatories. We only needed some 17,289 signatures to put this ordinance before the voters. We presented the city with 54,000, but they tossed out more than 35,000, leaving us 585 short.”

The pastors took the matter to court, which brings us to Friday’s decision by the Texas Supreme Court. Put simply, the pastors won.

The court ruled that the petition was properly certified by the City Secretary and the City Council has a “ministerial duty” to repeal the ordinance by August 24 or submit it to a popular vote. Said the court, “The legislative power reserved to the people of Houston is not being honored.”

Former Harris County Republican Party Chair Jared Woodfill, one of the parties to the suit, reacted quickly. “This is all about the mayor and her personal agenda,” Woodfill said. “The actions she took were unlawful, and now the court has said the people are going to have an opportunity to vote, and that’s all we’ve asked for from day one. I think this mayor owes an apology to the people of the city of Houston.

The Texas Attorney General also celebrated the ruling:

However, the fight is far from over. Mayor Parker said she was “disappointed” in the ruling and that her team is consulting with outside counsel on “any possible available legal actions.”

And if HERO is placed in front of Houston’s voters this November, expect a hard battle. “You’re going to have money pouring in from across the country on this issue because it’s extremely important,” Woodfill said. “The eyes of the country are going to be on Houston.”

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