Texas Supreme Court Decides on Houston LGBT Equal Rights Ordinance

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The Texas Supreme Court dealt Houston’s contentious LGBT ordinance a huge blow last week. The court ruled that the city of Houston must repeal it or allow a vote on the Equal Rights Ordinance.

The ordinance qualified for the ballot but was kept off by Houston’s mayor, who sparked outrage when she tried to subpoena sermons and communications of local pastors.

The Equal Rights Ordinance banned business that serve the public from discriminating against gay or transgender people. The ruling sends Houston a clear message from the state supreme court: We don’t like your law. In May 2014, the Houston City Council passed the ordinance to protect gay, bi, and trans people from discrimination in housing, employment and city contracts.

Opponents of the measure quickly gathered signatures to force a referendum on the law and at first the petition was seen to be valid. But on further examination, a jury found that many of the signatures were forged and a judge agreed that once you threw out the forgeries, the petition had too few signatures to move forward. Now, the Texas Supreme Court has reversed the decisions of the judge, jury, and city attorney.

The ruling states “But what of the City Council’s complaints of forgery, false oaths, and the like?” the ruling states. “Although these issues were addressed at trial and are now pending before the court of appeals, we note that the City Secretary never claimed the referendum petition was plagued by forgery or perjury. Yet the City Council decided, of its own accord, not to act, disregarding the City Secretary’s certification that the petition had enough signatures,” wrote Chris Johnson, a reporter covering this story for the Washington Blade.

Supporters of the ordinance have organized a variety of local business interests to ensure that it stays in place after a November ballot. Local businessman Bobby Singh is quoted in The Houston Chronicle saying, "Let's send a strong message to people across the country and across the world that Houston is open for business."

Read more about this issue in The Houston Chronicle.