I'm not familiar with this story.
Religious liberty being preserved is one point I believe in.
Here Wake:
Update Equal Rights Transgender controversy divides Houston US Message Board - Political Discussion Forum
Here is where the issue started.
Mayor Parker used her last term to fulfill promises to the LBGT community that raised
millions for her to get elected multiple times to office, especially using funds from California
and other people outside Houston where she is supposed to represent the citizens first, not national agenda.
Now I am a supporter of LBGT and believe in Constitutional equality.
however, refusing to redress grievances by other citizens and denying equal due process, protections and representations
to those interests is NOT in the Constitutional interests of LBGT but is playing the same political games that excluded them!
So I am NOT into "two wrongs make a right"
I believe the right solutions do not REQUIRE this political gameplaying on EITHER side.
So that is why I am opposed to violating consent of the governed and the laws in place;
they need to be changed but by consensus not overriding other taxpaying citizens now having to sue to get
the City to follow its own rules.
You change the rules by changing them, not breaking them.
Where Mayor Parker went really off base,
even after the ordinance was passed which was contested enough,
there were 51,000 signatures of registered voters submitted (about 3 X what was required) to
put the contested ordinance on hold until it could be reviewed in Court.
But Mayor Parker used the City Attorney/Legal Dept
to override that condition, and formally declare only 15,000+ signatures were
valid, short of the 17,000 needed.
Even AFTER the City Secretary stopped counting at 19000 because she
already verified enough signatures.
So the citizens groups had to SUE to prove in Court they had
the necessary minimum number of signatures.
So Parker is trying to drag this out until after she leaves office.
Citizens having to SUE to get the City to follow its own rules,
when the ordinance was already questionable and contested.
And they pulled this voiding or miscounting of signed petition names,
even publishing the names online to try to verify if these were forged,
to HARASS the names of signatories and now HARASS the churches
by demanding documentation from them to try to prove something wrong on the other side of this conflict.
All this time the City has
N O M O N E Y
to save TWO national registered historic landmarks in Houston
* the Astrodome
* Freedmen's Town national historic district
but Mayor Parker has used the Legal Dept to fight for this
and the citizens are having to use legal resources to fight back
While the City is losing our national history for "lack of funds"
So the levels of insanity go out the roof on this one.
The original ordinance was already a problem.
Then the petitions had to be collected to counter that.
Now the lawsuits over the petition the City declared void.
Now the hassle over the church involvement has gone national.
So now this is going to get out and more people will see
the antics going on in Houston that have abused
citizens and taxpayers with these conflicts of interest.
Other mayors had conflicts of interest with developers and
making money off deals from the Katrina contracts to
the federal funds that got redirected instead of preserving
national history.
But that didn't get into the news like Mayor Parker's LGBT agenda
behind this ordinance. Previously Parker got away with similar conflicts over
* red light camera policy found unconstitutional
* homeless ordinance argued as govt imposition on religious freedom
* and now this mess over the equal rights ordinance
that went too far and threatened fines on people who asked questions
about cross dressing transgender people in public restrooms, showers and other facilities
At least this might get national attention now!
In short, the lesson is that the City is acting as its own private interest or corporate entity
at the public's expense with a conflict of interest in controlling the taxes, policies and legal dept.
And that we need Constitutional checks on the City Govt to prevent abuses
that the federal govt could not get away with in violation of the Bill of Rights.
Because the City is a private municipality, it has to be SUED
to get them to follow the laws. So this is a conflict of interest.
The City uses tax dollars to fund the legal dept that is pushing private agenda
the citizens did not consent to who are paying for this administration.
If we have separate beliefs, we need to separate jurisdictions and not
abuse public policies,resources or authority to endorse conflicts beliefs.
Annise Parker is trying to act as a private citizens but using public institutions to establish policies.
You can't have it both ways unless all the people consent to that policy so it is equally inclusive of beliefs.
What a mess!
The same thing came up with other issues in the past,
but this time, this finally went national.
