On Tuesday, Nov. 4, the city of Houston voted down Proposition 1, which would have kept the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO) on the books after the Texas Supreme Court ordered the city to put the issue to popular vote. HERO would have outlawed discrimination against certain groups.
While some groups were already protected under other federal and local laws, HERO was the only law in Houston preventing discrimination against gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender individuals—making it a focal point for equal rights activists and reactionaries alike. Reactionary forces, some religious, some secular, used tactics of misinformation and willful ignorance to reduce the issue down to “No Men In Women’s Bathrooms.”
You should never be shocked at seeing such tactics in use, as the reactionary ideology revolves around an ignorant and distracted voting population in order to subvert the will of democracy for the benefit of the few in the name of “freedom” or whatever contemporary cultural practice allows the privileged few to continue their ever-increasing hold on political power.
Even with that in mind, it’s still rather shocking to see the final tally for Prop. 1: 60.97 percent to 39.03 percent. You have to wonder how many ‘No’ voters even read the ballot when their turn to vote came, as it is hard to reconcile the vitriol spewed by reactionaries with the text of the ballot:
“Are you in favor of the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, Ord. No. 2014-530, which prohibits discrimination in city employment and city services, city contracts, public accommodations, private employment, and housing based on an individual’s sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, familial status, marital status, military status, religion, disability, sexual orientation, genetic information, gender identity, or pregnancy?”
Of course, if you were going into the voting booth and your only impression of the issue came from ads like the one below, you wouldn’t care what the ballot said.
No, that isn’t a Grimdark parody of bizarre American reactionary politics – that’s an actual, not unique, ad that aired in Houston prior to the ballot for Prop. 1. With such a vicious emotional appeal, it’s obvious why people would vote no. Who would vote yes on a “Bathroom Ordnance” that allows men to “claim they are a woman that day” and become legally invincible rapists of women and girls? With such a ridiculous reduction of the issue, it becomes meaningless to try to dissuade people who believe they are voting in defense of such a strong moral issue. The problem with this stance, as with most reactionary positions, is that reality doesn’t hold up to support their claims.
In a compilation of data from 12 states that have adopted laws similar to Houston’s former “Bathroom Ordnance,” there is no link between allowing transgender individuals into the restroom of their choice and an increase in sexual assaults or rapes. Reality has a liberal bias once again, but it didn’t stop Republicans from piggybacking onto this issue to keep up their facade of “family values” in order to keep the Religious Right voters firmly on their side and to continue to use identity politics as an issue to inflame uninformed voters with a stream of lies that force deep emotional responses instead of informed decision making. This is nothing new, but it is disheartening to see it in such force in an age where information is quite literally at your fingertips.
What happened in Houston was a tragedy that is being played up as a victory for women in the city, but if you extend any effort whatsoever to look at the facts of the situation, it’s the most hollow victory imaginable. With the law off of the books, no one is any safer than they were with it on them. However, a large number of people in Houston, the fourth-largest city in the U.S., now face living in a city that no longer gives them legal protection in cases of discrimination because of sexual orientation or gender identity, a baffling step backward for not only the city, but this country.
