Things are getting ugly:
Anti-HER Ordinance vote puts "business" leaders, recruiters on edge. Erin Mulvaney, HoustonChronicle.com ($$$)
Business and tourism leaders worried Wednesday that voters' rejection of a citywide anti-discrimination ordinance has hurt what had been one of their best recruiting tools: Houston's emerging reputation as a diverse metropolis that supported an openly gay mayor and welcomes young talent looking to launch careers in a progressive environment.
It is important to note that there is no empirical evidence of this. All we have right now are "the feelz" of Greater Houston Partnership President Harvey and a churlish Mayor Parker. In fact, both the NFL and NCAA have stated that the vote will have no effect on the upcoming events in Houston. And while there are attempts to tie Houston's not being awarded the College Football Playoff 2020 title game to HER Ordinance the president of the committee has made it very clear that this is not the case.
So right now all we have are a bunch of chickens running around with their head's lopped off, screaming something about how the sky is falling without any actual proof that it is.
For all of the messaging about so-called "scare tactics" employed by opponents, the true scare-tactics are now being employed by disgruntled supporters who still cannot quite cope with the fact that they have lost and the Earth is still rotating as normal.
On a related note. The Daily Caller recently ran a story that presented an argument against HER Ordinance that has not been presented in any Houston Media that I can find, but which is a fairly damning argument against:
Houston voters reject law allowing cross-dressing men to use women's bathrooms. Eric Owens, Daily Caller
Banzhaf also observed that Houston’s failed law would not provide equal treatment but, instead, an affirmative accommodation.
“Blacks, Jews, and even gays do not require or even seek separate restrooms or other different treatment; they ask simply to be treated like everyone else,” he told TheDC. “But transgender people demand a special accommodation, not available to others, because of how they feel, and regardless of how typical women might feel about a person with a penis sharing their restroom.”
The "special accommodation" argument is, perhaps, the strongest argument against HER Ordinance, and something I tried to address rather poorly here, that I've seen to date. It provides some credence to the opposition's claims that Parker's folly was not simply a bill that provided "equal rights to all" but was, in fact, seeking special treatment to a favored Parker group that other groups do not enjoy.
I've stated, from the start, that gender self-identification was a key problem in Parker's folly, but I never had the legal chops to explain exactly why. Professor Banzhaf's observations do a very good job of that, but were never presented as a legitimate reason to oppose the ordinance by anyone in Houston's media.
Instead of reasoned arguments for or against we were force-fed a diet of lies, half-truths and uncontested spin from supporters which really never told the entire story behind HER Ordinance. That it's coming out now feels like it's too little, too late, but the above should be prominent in defending defeat of Parker's folly to those who are currently running around screaming that Houston is doomed.
Somehow, before HER Ordinance existed, Houston had a reputation as a thriving urban environment where people can come, succeed, and prosper while making lifestyle choices (either urban or suburban) that fit their lifestyle. Houston also ranked number 1 or 2 on several "best cities" lists published by several National publications. Why this is suddenly null and void because Parker's folly has failed is not being adequately explained by HER Ordinance supporters nor are they even really trying. Right now the efforts are largely around explaining to Houston why you are all a bunch of back-water, mouth-breathing rednecks who are not as enlightened as your progressive betters.
While this might serve as a catharsis to the losing side, it hardly provides for much of a framework going forward, which is really what the city needs.
