A conservative pastors’ group in Texas recently sued Annise Parker, Mayor of Houston, over issues related to the city’s Equal Rights Ordinance, which prohibits discrimination based on a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. The Houston Area Pastors Council filed the lawsuit beginning this month, demanding legal fees and damages for an earlier suit that accused Houston’s administration of obstructing the group’s efforts to put the ordinance in question to a popular vote.
The City Council had passed the Equal Rights Ordinance in May 2014, shortly after which, its opponents, led by the pastors’ group, started to distribute a petition demanding that the measure be put before voters. While the petitioners claimed to have the necessary signatures to put the ordinance on the ballot, Houston officials alleged many of the 17,269 signatures had been forged. Even though the petitioners filed a lawsuit challenging Houston’s findings, a judge ruled that their petition was in fact short by 565 signatures and the city’s allegations were thereby correct. However, the state’s Supreme Court recently overturned that ruling, thus implying that Houston must either repeal the ordinance or permit its voters to weigh in on the issue this November.
The new lawsuit, which has been filed at Harris County District Court, accuses Parker of infringing upon the citizens’ right to vote while also seeking damages related to subpoenas Houston issued to some local ministers with regards to the previous case. While the city said that it was seeking the content of prayers for building its defense in the case, the move drew a lot of criticism from various quarters, including allegations that Houston was violating its citizens’ right to religious freedom. City officials were eventually compelled to withdraw the subpoenas.
“Parker trampled the voting rights of over a million people in the fourth largest city in the United States of America,” Andy Taylor, an attorney for the pastors’ group, said. “And so we’re here today to say ‘uh-uh,’ there’s going to be accountability for doing that. We are not going to sit idly by and let you do that.”
Even though Parker has said nothing about the latest development, her close aides opined that she was being attacked for being an outed lesbian and open LGBT mayor of the largest city in the United States.
Photo Credits: Caffeinated Thoughts
