Prejudice. It’s a cancer fed by a limitless
torrent of angry, fearful, unresolved energy. It infiltrates your logic, erodes
your capacity to be rational. A mean-spirited, mindless, megalomaniac beast, it
thrives on crushing others, denying their right to be loved, protected,
nurtured and celebrated.
Beware of feeding the beast! It will turn
on you. You can anesthetize yourself to that pain but anesthetics get less
effective with time, so you’ll face great discomfort at some point. But you can
live most of your life in blissful ignorance. Your victims, however, don’t have
that cozy option.
In May 2014, the Houston City Council
approved the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO), “…prohibiting
discrimination on the basis of protected characteristics in city employment,
city services, city contracting practices, housing, public accommodations, and
private employment; containing findings and other provisions relating to the
foregoing subject; declaring certain conduct unlawful; providing for a penalty;
providing for severability; and declaring an emergency.”
The ordinance had support from President
Obama, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Sally Field, and even Apple CEO Tim
Cook. In reality it protected 15 classes of people, from African-Americans and
women to veterans and disabled people.
But it was spearheaded by Mayor Annise
Parker, who is a lesbian, much loved by liberals for good reason; much hated by
conservatives for no good reason. The ordinance also included LGBT protections.
So it was cast as a gay rights measure.
It was challenged in court and the Texas
Supreme Court ruled in July that Houston City Council must repeal the ordinance
or place it on the November ballot. And all of Houston’s finest
conservatives came out in droves. One of the rights was for transgenders to be
allowed to use women’s public restrooms. Conservatives focused on that,
flighting TV ads to generate fear, the main message being that women and
children would have no protection from perverts masquerading as transgenders.
The fear-mongering campaign was very effective. A referendum held on
Tuesday yielded a 61.9% vote to repeal.
This despite that some 200 cities in the US
(Houston is the fourth largest) have passed similar Ordinances, including all
the major cities in Texas.
I learned about the Ordinance from the NewYork Times. I was in a hurry, and skimmed through the article. In retrospect I see that I only registered one aspect—the
paragraph about the opposition’s focus on women and children now being under
threat in public spas—and took that to be the whole. I was actually thinking about public saunas and locker rooms.
I understand if people are afraid that
heterosexual men will now have access to women and girls in locker rooms and
spas. I'd be afraid too, or at the least, uncomfortable.
It's not about intolerance, it's about my need to not be naked around heterosexual men I don't know. If there was a way of knowing that someone was a Transgender I'd be fine. But there's no way, without subjecting the person to scrutiny. And how does that work for a Transgender? It totally doesn't. So as far as this small aspect of the Ordinance is concerned, I think it's a lose-lose.
It's not about intolerance, it's about my need to not be naked around heterosexual men I don't know. If there was a way of knowing that someone was a Transgender I'd be fine. But there's no way, without subjecting the person to scrutiny. And how does that work for a Transgender? It totally doesn't. So as far as this small aspect of the Ordinance is concerned, I think it's a lose-lose.
I don’t want a society where any group is punished for who they are. And nor do I want a society that in any way enables perverted heterosexuals. If one little girl or woman or Transgender gets molested or raped because of this aspect of the Ordinance is that acceptable collateral damage? Not if you’re the woman or Transgender or little girl or she's your daughter/sister/friend. It would be different if molestation or rape were a rare occurrence. But it's not. This is a complex issue needing a complex solution.
Is it grounds for the entire Ordinance to be opposed and thrown out? Of course not. It's grounds for that one aspect to be looked at and for some kind of win-win solution to be found; one that may require compromise on both sides.
But the Opposition has blown up this element drastically and made out that it's the entire Ordinance. It's cheap fear-mongering; a thin veil for hatred and prejudice.
It was a shock to realize how easy it would be to manipulate me. I’m a liberal but I have fears from early experiences that shadow me sometimes so when I didn’t take the trouble to read the NYT article properly I quickly drew the wrong conclusion. I realized my mistake later, but it gave me insight into how easy it is to manipulate people through their fear. Especially people who aren't looking for the whole truth. And it was a wake-up call for me.
As for liberal Houston’s fight for quality life for everyone, I believe that ultimately they’ll win. Because they won't ever give up. But it’s tragic and heartbreaking that so many have to be sacrificed for that to happen.
Click here to read and/or download the full text of the Ordinance.
As for liberal Houston’s fight for quality life for everyone, I believe that ultimately they’ll win. Because they won't ever give up. But it’s tragic and heartbreaking that so many have to be sacrificed for that to happen.
Click here to read and/or download the full text of the Ordinance.
