On Tuesday, the city of Houston, Texas, rejected the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance by a 61-39 percent margin, which has the left and Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender movement reeling.
Houston Mayor Annise Parker, herself a lesbian, said that because the ordinance’s failure to pass “will have stained Houston’s reputation as a tolerant, welcoming, global city. I absolutely fear that there will be a direct economic backlash as a result of this ordinance going into defeat and that’s sad for Houston.”
Human Rights Campaign, an LGBT advocate group, called the defeat of HERO “a devastating blow to equality.”
“If we don’t double down today, we’ll face the same thing again and again in cities across the nation,” HRC president Chad Griffin told the Associated Press.
Preventing men from entering women’s bathrooms goes against equality, apparently.
As the LGBT movement licks their wounds, they are still planning to implement their agenda with the following initiatives and tactics.
Focus On Bureaucracy
Brynn Tannehill, director of advocacy for SPARTA, an LGBT organization, wrote in The Huffington Post that the LGBT movement needs to stop focusing on legislation and ballot measure to impose their agenda, and should instead focus on getting their agenda implemented through bureaucracy and the courts, pointing out that the courts are what caused gay marriage to be legal throughout the country.
“Time and time again over the past seven years we have seen gains for transgender people have come from convincing individuals in positions of authority to make simple policy based changes,” Tannehill wrote. “Passports, Medicare coverage of transgender health, driver’s license gender marker changes without surgery, inclusion of gender identity protections and health care in the private sector: all of these were accomplished with smart and surgical approaches.”
“Similarly, when we win in court, it is because we have made better arguments in front of someone who is supposed to be a neutral arbiter,” Tannehill continued. “Judges are not supposed to be swayed by emotion, fear, or religious beliefs. Their job is to interpret the law, and the law is often decided based on scientific evidence.”
Scientific evidence actually shows that a man cannot biologically change himself to a woman and vice versa. Not that it matters to Tannehill.
Tannehill argues that instead of pouring money into campaigns for ballot initiatives and legislation, LGBT groups should focus on providing money to creating a scientific consensus on transgender issues and hire policy experts:
There is also plenty of evidence that this strategy works. The National Center for Transgender Equality has been working and insider, science and policy based strategy inside the Beltway for over a decade. A staggering number of the improvements in federal policy under the Obama administration are attributable to their work, and the strategy they employ. On a micro scale this tactic works as well. Ohio is one of the most legally hostile states to transgender people. However, it has one of the most progressive policies for changing driver’s license gender marker as a result of wonkish advocates like Julie Van Dyne pursuing a policy based strategy with in the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles.
There are four ways to change the legal framework that transgender people live under: legislation, ballots, case law, and policy changes. The sooner we stop wasting our time tilting at legislative and ballot windmills, the better. Doing the latter requires building the strongest scientific consensus possible.
What Tannehill is saying is that they can’t convince the people to support laws allowing men to enter women’s bathrooms, so instead his constituency will pursue bureaucrats and the courts to impose their agenda, AKA government tyranny. Keep an eye for regulations and court rulings that will accomplish this.
“There are four ways to change the legal framework that transgender people live under: legislation, ballots, case law, and policy changes. The sooner we stop wasting our time tilting at legislative and ballot windmills, the better.”
Brynn Tannehill, director of advocacy for SPARTA
Incest
This is not a joke, and this is something that the LGBT movement will likely implement through the courts.
CNN reported a story about a gay couple where one partner adopted the other to gain legal recognition as a family before same-sex marriage was legalized by the Supreme Court. Now the couple is trying to get the adoption annulled so they can wed, but they are technically father and son. One court ruled against the couple, but Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) and the American Civil Liberties Union are supporting the couple’s case.
“The ACLU is hopeful that the Superior Court will apply established legal principles to allow annulment of adoptions by same-sex couples who that they can finally partake of their constitutional right to marry,” Witold Walczak, legal director of ACLU Pennsylvania, told CNN.
Casey wrote a letter to the Department of Justice to intervene in the case.
“LGBT couples should have the right to obtain a marriage license, no matter the state or jurisdiction in which they reside,” Casey’s letter reads. “In adoption cases such as these, the law has changed dramatically since the adoptions were first carried out.”
If a father and son, even in name only, can change their legal status to a married couple, imagine the precedent that would set and the different marriage scenarios that would occur.
Boycott the Super Bowl
The left has a penchant for using smear and intimidation tactics to get their way. So now they’re trying to boycott the 2017 Super Bowl.
Griffin wrote to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell:
“With Houston slated to host Super Bowl LI in 2017, we are writing to request an emergency meeting about the urgent need for a nondiscrimination ordinance in this city that will ensure the thousands of employees, contractors and attendees at this event will be fully protected under the law. The Super Bowl will bring hundreds of thousands of visitors to Houston, and attract attention from across the nation and around the world. Commissioner Goodell, you have emphasized the NFL’s commitment to diversity and inclusion, respect and fairness. Out of that commitment we hope you will work with us to find a path forward in Houston. Finding a path to nondiscrimination protections that ensure all Houstonians are treated equally and fairly remains our crucial and urgent mission. We are eager to convene our partners in Houston for an urgent meeting at your earliest convenience to discuss how we can work together to make Houston a city that is welcoming for all residents and visitors. If the Super Bowl is to remain in Houston, these protections need to be in place to ensure the safety and well-being of all those participating.”
Houston attorney John LaRue, who ran for the Houston City Council and supported HERO, told ABC News about the possibility of a boycott.
“The Super Bowl is slated to come in 2017, and there are rumblings of plans to ask the NFL to move and go elsewhere in support of LGBT people and other groups HERO would have protected,” LaRue said.
The NFL has said that they will not move the Super Bowl. Good for them.
More Intimidation
LaRue also told ABC, “I also talked to some people last night, and we’re planning to create a voluntary system and group made of people who, while not obligated by City Hall, will still choose to enforce HERO’s protections in their businesses.”
So even though the law didn’t pass, the LGBT movement is going to act as if the law did pass and try to “enforce” it. In other words, intimidation.
Cultural Competency Training
One of the legislative initiatives that the HRC is promoting is a so-called Cultural Competency bill being proposed in the Washington, D.C. city council. The bill “would require licensed clinical healthcare providers in the District to include two credits of instruction on cultural competency or specialized clinical training focusing on patients that are LGBT.”
“Culturally competent care is especially important for LGBT people, as they continue to face substantial disparities in health, resulting from the stress of pervasive stigma; substance abuse and other health-endangering coping strategies; a reluctance to seek medical care due to fear of and actual healthcare discrimination; and the disproportionate impact of sexually transmitted disease,” HRC senior legislative counsel Alicia Gill said in testimony to the D.C. city council. “Lack of fully accepting, culturally and clinically competent healthcare contributes to these disparities.”
So now those in the healthcare industry need to have training in order to avoid LGBT discrimination? Seems like a waste of time and resources.
More Bathroom Bills
Just because HERO failed doesn’t mean the LGBT movement is going to give up passing similar laws around the country. The HRC’s website supports HERO-like bills in Ohio and Massachusetts, and opposes a law in Wisconsin that would prevent men from entering women’s bathrooms.
The left never gives up on their agenda, and the LGBT movement will continue to move forward with their agenda. Be on the lookout for the tactics and policy initiatives listed above.