Good afternoon, and welcome to This Week in LGBT! I'm running late again, so we'll jump right into the article. Feel free to sound off on the Northern VA Pride Facebook or emailing me at kyle@novapride.org!
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Back in May, the Great State of Texas was celebrating not one but two recent court victories which declared that state's ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional. The first occurred on February 26th in the U.S. District Court for the Western Court of Texas, while the second occurred April 23rd in at the 45th Judicial Court of Bexar County. Naturally, the state's republican Attorney General and current republican nominee for Governor, Greg Abbott, is fighting the rulings, as is his prerogative.
Don't Mess with Gay Texas
While LGBT Texans were celebrating the possibility of equal marriage rights coming to the Lone Star State, a different sort of LGBT rights battle was brewing over in Houston. Annise Parker, Mayor of Houston, bore the distinction of not only being the second female mayor of that city but also of being the first out LGBT mayor of Houston, as well as one of the first out LGBT mayors in the country. Under her leadership, Houston was about to become Texas' newest city with a gender-inclusive anti-discrimination ordinance, with a vote of the city council scheduled for May. Dozens of citizens, both for and against, appeared at the council meeting to voice their support or displeasure at the ordinance, with the usual ignorant and incorrect scare tactics of predators pretending to be women so they could hang out in the women's restroom to molest and rape young girls or about how biblical law should always trump the law of man.
Houston Mayor Annise Parker
Thankfully, the council ignored the naysayers and passed the ordinance 11-6, leading to both cheers and jeers from the tumultuous crowd. The opponents vowed to continue the fight and promised to petition for a referendum to put the issue before the voters.
In order to successfully put a repeal of the ordinance on the ballot, opponents by law needed to gather signatures of ten percent of the number of voters who voted in the last mayors election. In this instance, they needed 17,269 registered voters to sign the petition. After searching high and low over Houston, the opponents had over 50,000 signatures. The ordinance would go to a public vote.
At least, that's what they assumed. Once the city started going through the petitions, they found a number of irregularities and invalid forms, leading the city to slash approximately 70 percent of the signatures. After the review, only 15,247 signatures were declared to be valid - 2,022 signatures short of the required threshold to get a repeal of the Houston anti-discrimination ordinance on the ballot.
Anticipating legal action, Mayor Parker decided to hold the ordinance.
“I fully expect...petitioners will head to the courthouse. I’m confident that the courts will agree with the strict interpretation of the rules set out in the charter for the requirements and that the courts will protect the integrity of our petition process. Since I do have expectation that there will be some legal action, i’m going to delay implementation of the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, not indefinitely but certainly to allow these issues to work their way out.”
— Mayor Annise Parker
Pastor David Welch, who is the leader of the Houston Area Pastors Council, indicated that, despite their prior knowledge of the ordinance, despite their appearance at the initial public hearing prior to the vote to discuss their feelings and have their say, despite their letter writing and phone calls leading up to the vote, that they feel left out of the process.
“All we are asking for is the public to have their say. Unfortunately, this administration has once again excluded people. Complete lack of integrity. Which we’re not surprised either, so we’re going to pursue legal remedies and we’ll see what form that takes.”
— Pastor David Welch
Pastor David Welch
Opponents are involved in an active lawsuit against the city regarding the invalidation of signatures. As part of that lawsuit, the city is entitled to subpoena a wide berth of information. Acting on a tip, one subpoena requested copies of the sermons of pastors who are involved with this lawsuit.
Here’s where things get dicey. Opponents see this as a manipulation tactic to have government regulation of a religious matter (i.e. the notion that pastors must have their sermons reviewed by the government in a violation of their First Amendment rights to free speech and non-interference of faith by the government). However, the tip received by the city indicated that these pastors were advocating for their flock to take a particular position on government policies and procedures as opposed to a general “get out and vote” message. The reason this is even an issue is that, while churches are allowed to say whatever they wish to say without government sanctioning (short of inciting violence or treason, of course), this freedom does not extend to their tax exempt status, which is a luxury and not a constitutional requirement or right. Most churches in this country are tax exempt under the concept that they are both a religion and a charity, which is fine enough – but to retain that tax status, there are certain rules which they must follow. If and when they don’t (and if and when they are prosecuted for such), they lose their special privilege and become regular businesses again. The so-called government interference here does not hold a church criminally liable for what they say; it only regulates them on the specific privilege of not having to pay taxes as long as they meet specific criteria.
After the subpoena was served, the pastors and their supporters (AKA those opposed to anti-discrimination ordinances) screeched that their First Amendment rights were being trampled upon by the government through these subpoenas. One would hope that they were simply misunderstanding what was going on, that a subpoena for records pertaining to a lawsuit that they initiated was well within the scope of legality and that they weren't intentionally starting a smear campaign against the government, but considering their similar tactics to delegitimize the ordinance by claiming it was a secret front to allow child molesters easier access to children, one can understand how doubt could be placed over the pastors' sincerity in believing their First Amendment rights were being destroyed.
According to the council's attorney, the records were being subpoenaed to see how the pastors handled discussing the petitions in church, if they were meeting the letter and spirit of the law, and whether what they were suggesting in their lawsuit lined up with the realities of what they said in church. This all falls well within the scope of standard legal procedure; besides, if the churches were telling the truth about the way their pastors handled the petitions while in church and when speaking to their flock from the pulpit, wouldn't they want to include these sermons to back up their claims? Their timidity to release documents and/or recordings of these sermons seems suspect, considering the request of documents definitely does not violate their First Amendment rights to free speech or religion.
Naturally, the lunatic fringe of the Republican party stormed in to protect the always super persecuted Christians under attack from an evil lesbian who wanted to force the town to be respectful toward LGBT people (the nerve of her, really). Mike Huckabee, former Republican Governor of Arkansas and current host of Fox News' Huckabee, has been particularly vile concerning this case. His attacks against both Mayor Parker and other anti-discrimination ordinances around the country are fairly well documented, and he continues here. He alleges that Mayor Parker is trying to dictate what churches can and cannot say and that the subpoenas are essentially methods of destroying religion forever.
Ex-Governor of Arkansas and Failed Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee. That Hand.
Mike Huckabee isn't exactly the most logical person on the planet.
While the court battle continues on in Houston, Mayor Parker and the ordinance's supporters can rest assured that it will not be on the ballot this upcoming election. That doesn't mean, though, that it will never end up on the ballot, or that there couldn't be a special election for the repeal if the courts rule against the City of Houston on this issue.
On a personal note, I will never understand why people like Mike Huckabee and David Welch insist on lying to their followers about the nature of public record, or why some people aren't self-starters enough to go beyond what they are told in an attempt to better educate themselves. While I can sympathize with concerns about how these decisions could impact religious liberty, and I certainly understand how misconceptions can be made, I'm absolutely infuriated by the notion that leaders - politicians and pastors - who should know better can sit there and bold-faced lie to those who follow them. I am saddened by people who do not question their surroundings or what they are told. Blind faith frightens me because it's blind faith which causes grief and strife. I understand completely that there will always be people who just don't like us. I can accept that. However, I cannot accept people who lie and deceive in order to get their way. It's unethical and immoral, and for these two in particular (both of whom are ordained in their respective churches), it's disturbing that they aren't held to the same level of morality that they try to force on everyone else.
That's it for This Week in LGBT, See You Next Thursday!
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