The city of Houston took a big step backwards in guaranteeing equal rights for all of its citizens in Tuesday's election. Last May the city council passed the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO) which gave its LGBT citizens the same rights as all other citizens. Unfortunately, this upset the bigoted right-wingers in the city, and they went to court claiming the ordinance should have been submitted for a vote of the citizens of Houston -- and they won. So the ordinance was put to a vote last Tuesday.
Sadly, the ordinance went down to defeat (61% to 39%). I was shocked at the size of the defeat, and it just proves that bigotry is alive and well in Houston -- and indeed, in the whole state of Texas. It seems that too many of my fellow Texans have a long way to go before joining the civilized world in believing all citizens should enjoy equal rights.
But the LGBT community, and all decent Texans, should take heart -- because change is coming and it cannot be stopped. Note the chart below from the Pew Research Center. Just in the last seven years, the religious community in this country has significantly moved from opposition to acceptance of LGBT rights in this country. In 2007, only 44% of all christians thought homosexuality should be accepted by society, but in 2014 that had grown to 54% -- and there is no reason to believe that percentage won't continue to grow.
There are still battles to be fought, but this is a war that will be won.
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