Yesterday there was much cheering and gnashing of teeth as Houston City Council passed the newly minted Equal Rights Ordinance (name changed from the Non-Discrimination Ordinance mainly to make good use of the Twitter handle #HERO and provide for better chanting) on an 11-6 vote which was then signed into law by Mayor Annise Parker.
After weeks of suggesting the ordinance was about all discrimination the mask came off recently as Parker described passage of the act "a personal matter" and "all about me". After passage even the Houston Chronicle got into the act, running the following story with the following headline.
Council extends rights protection for gays, transgendered. Mike Morris, Houstonchronicle.com
The story is behind their pay wall, but it's certainly an editorial change for America's largest big-city daily to have never won a Pulitzer. You have to imagine Mrs. White is sniffling in the corner for titling their editorial "Pass the NDO" instead of HERO.
As for opponents, they have vowed to gather the 17,000 signatures needed to bring a repeal to the ballot in November. By City statute they have 30 days to do this, I'm betting they could get 50,000 in that time if they so desired. In other words, this is going to the ballot box, where I'm fairly certain it will be overturned by a wide margin.
In other news relating to the LGBT front, the Texas State Republican Party has denied the Log Cabin Republicans a booth at their upcoming convention. While I don't think Texas Republicans are in danger of paying any type of electoral price for this, I do think it's rather exclusionary and silly to not let a government group in just because they run counter to a plank in the state party platform.
Of course, I also doubt you'd see a booth at the Texas State Democratic Party convention entitled "Democrats for the defense of traditional marriage" so there's that as well. (And, if you're reading this Dems, you're welcome for the idea)
One thing about the LGBT political fight is that I don't think there is much electoral ground to be gained by either party. Most people with feelings strong enough to base their vote on it are already firmly entrenched in their camp of choice and anyone who could still, realistically, call themselves an undecided (or swing [no pun intended]) voter is typically worried about economic issues or just not really paying attention and they like the attention the media heaps on them come election time. In other words, support might be a mile wide, but I've a feeling it's about an inch deep.
Either way, I suspect we're be hearing about this all the way to the November elections and beyond. Will it matter? Probably not, from a political perspective that is.
