I was reading some what passes for analysis in the media about the smashing electoral defeat in Houston of the equal rights ordinance. I came across a piece by a usually unreliable source, Sally Kohn, in the Daily Beast. Kohn is amazed that the ordinance lost. She says that it would have protected everyone, not just transgendered people wanting to use particular bathrooms. Here is the gist of her argument:
So let’s be very clear about the facts: The Houston Equal Rights Ordinance would have barred discrimination in housing, employment and so-called public accommodations like restaurants and movie theaters for pregnant women. And returning veterans. And immigrants. And black people. But also white people. Women, but also men. People with disabilities. The elderly. Single folks and married couples. In fact, the law would have also prevented discrimination against heterosexual people.
The actual reality, however, is one that was not lost on voters. Discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations for women, immigrants, blacks, whites, the disabled, etc. is already barred by a series of federal and state laws that carry much more weight than a local ordinance in Houston. Adding all those other categories to the ordinance was, in fact, an attempt by the sponsors to make it seem like many would be affected in a positive way when the ordinance actually was focused on the LBGT community, and actually mostly on the transgendered portion of that community. Kohn, of course, would never admit this truth.
It would have been easy for the ordinance to include a section that made clear that it could not be used to require access bathrooms, locker rooms and the like for people whose bodies were of the opposite sex (no matter what their "identity" is). Maybe Kohn will explain why, if the ordinance was to help so many people, the authors just could not bring themselves to carve out that minor exception. After all, polls in Houston showed that there was great support for a ban in discrimination against transgender in housing, employment and public accommodations other than bathrooms. It was just those pesky bathrooms and locker rooms that were the problem.
The truth is that Houston did not reject equal rights.
So let’s be very clear about the facts: The Houston Equal Rights Ordinance would have barred discrimination in housing, employment and so-called public accommodations like restaurants and movie theaters for pregnant women. And returning veterans. And immigrants. And black people. But also white people. Women, but also men. People with disabilities. The elderly. Single folks and married couples. In fact, the law would have also prevented discrimination against heterosexual people.
The actual reality, however, is one that was not lost on voters. Discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations for women, immigrants, blacks, whites, the disabled, etc. is already barred by a series of federal and state laws that carry much more weight than a local ordinance in Houston. Adding all those other categories to the ordinance was, in fact, an attempt by the sponsors to make it seem like many would be affected in a positive way when the ordinance actually was focused on the LBGT community, and actually mostly on the transgendered portion of that community. Kohn, of course, would never admit this truth.
It would have been easy for the ordinance to include a section that made clear that it could not be used to require access bathrooms, locker rooms and the like for people whose bodies were of the opposite sex (no matter what their "identity" is). Maybe Kohn will explain why, if the ordinance was to help so many people, the authors just could not bring themselves to carve out that minor exception. After all, polls in Houston showed that there was great support for a ban in discrimination against transgender in housing, employment and public accommodations other than bathrooms. It was just those pesky bathrooms and locker rooms that were the problem.
The truth is that Houston did not reject equal rights.
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