By John Mack Freeman
It has not been a good week for Houston and LGBT rights. In the early part of this week, the Texas state Supreme Court told the city that they must either repeal the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO) or place it on the ballot this November. Advocates for HERO noted that the petition process to repeal the ordinance was rife with forgeries and did not follow appropriate practice. Via Project Q Houston:
The court handed down its ruling Friday in a case brought by former Harris County Republican Party Chair Jared Woodfill and other anti-LGBT activists. The court’s ruling effectively overrides a district judge’s April decision saying the petition to repeal the ordinance lacked enough signatures due to problems including widespread forgery. The opinion says that because City Secretary Anna Russell initially certified the petition, concluding it had enough valid signatures, the City Council had a ministerial duty to repeal HERO or put it up for a public vote.
“But what of the City Council’s complaints of forgery, false oaths, and the like?” the all-Republican court wrote in its 12-page per curiam opinion. “Although these issues were addressed at trial and are now pending before the court of appeals, we note that the City Secretary never claimed the referendum petition was plagued by forgery or perjury. Yet the City Council decided, of its own accord, not to act, disregarding the City Secretary’s certification that the petition had enough signatures.”
The court ordered the City Council to repeal HERO by Aug. 24 or put it to a public voter in November.
In other news, a petition that would enshrine a trans bathroom ban in the city charter has been authorized by a judge. The city had initially rejected the petition because it would have been a de facto repeal of the HERO; however, a judge ordered the city to process the petition. Mayor Parker has said that her office will appeal the decision.
