"Godly Bigots" Threaten Recall Effort in Houston Over Non-Discrimination Ordinance

Houston skyline

The same mindset I mentioned in the last post that continues to hold back truly addressing the worldwide HIV/AIDS crisis is alive and well in Houston, Texas, and true to form we see angry white conservatives and their trained circus dogs, black pastors, railing against a proposed city ordinance that would give LGBT individuals non-discrimination protections.  The evil of religion just never seems to cease.  Think Progress looks at the spittle flecked opponents on non-discrimination and the simpering cretins within the black pastor crowd who are once again allowing themselves to be manipulated by those who, if allowed, would rescind non-discrimination protections based on race.  Here are excerpts:

Houston’s city council is scheduled to vote Wednesday on an ordinance to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. But anti-gay activist and Houston Community College Board of Trustees member Dave Wilson (R) is threatening to recall openly lesbian Mayor Annise Parker (D) and any city council members who support the non-discrimination policy.

According to KHOU 11 News, Wilson said he and other opponents of LGBT equality might collect signatures to recall anyone who backs the proposal under the city charter’s recall provision to allow removal of officials in cases of “incompetence, misconduct, malfeasance or unfitness for office.” Wilson told the station, “we consider them to be incompetent,” as he believes passage of the law would violate state law.

Though the threat could scare off some support — just 2,500 signatures would be required to mandate a recall election for a city council member — recall expert Joshua Spivak noted on his Recall Elections Blog Saturday that the claim that this vote shows incompetence would “probably will be extremely difficult to hold up in court.” Indeed Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, and San Antonio all have already passed LGBT non-discrimination ordinances without incident.

This is the latest in a long series of attacks of Parker launched by Wilson. In 2011, he got just 11.73 percent of the vote against Parker for Mayor of Houston. In that campaign, he mailed a flier to 35,000 voters featuring a picture of Parker standing by her same-sex partner and the caption “IS THIS THE IMAGE HOUSTON WANTS TO PORTRAY?” and made robo-calls to warn voters of Parker’s “alternative lifestyle.”

[T]wo years later Wilson narrowly won election to the Houston Community College Board of Trustees after misleading voters into believing that he is African American. In an overwhelmingly African American-dominated district, Wilson filled mailers with photos of African American people he admittedly pull off of websites, along with captions such as “Please vote for our friend and neighbor Dave Wilson.”

KHOU TV has this as well:

Parker’s proposal has stirred up an unlikely coalition of conservative whites who never cared much for the mayor anyway and African-American ministers offended by the notion that sexual orientation is a civil right. Church leaders have rallied outside City Hall in opposition to the ordinance, focusing largely on the idea that it would allow transgendered people to decide whether to use men’s or women’s restrooms.