{"id":4105,"date":"2015-08-28T20:12:10","date_gmt":"2015-08-28T20:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=4105"},"modified":"2015-08-28T20:12:10","modified_gmt":"2015-08-28T20:12:10","slug":"campaign-launches-to-protect-equal-rights-in-houston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=4105","title":{"rendered":"Campaign Launches to Protect Equal Rights in Houston"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong>by Eric Galatas\/TNS<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>HOUSTON<\/strong> &#8211; A coalition of 35 organizations is mounting \u201cHouston Unites,\u201d a campaign to keep the city\u2019s equal rights ordinance on the books.<\/p>\n<p>Terri Burke, executive director with the ACLU of Texas, says a lot of money is at stake if the measure is repealed in the November election. She points out Facebook recently cited Fort Worth\u2019s non-discrimination law as one of the factors in choosing the city for a new data center.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey want to know that all of their employees will be welcomed,\u201d says Burke. \u201cFrom an economic point of view, it\u2019s extremely important. Houston is not a city that discriminates, everyone is welcome in Houston.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4106\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4106\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4106\" src=\"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/gr-47702-1-1.jpg\" alt=\" A campaign to prevent the repeal of Houston\u2019s Equal Rights Ordinance is underway. Organizers say the city\u2019s reputation, and the chance to host events like the Super Bowl, are on the line in the November election. Photo: Mark J. Rebilas\/Wikimedia Commons.\" width=\"600\" height=\"397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/gr-47702-1-1.jpg 600w, https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/gr-47702-1-1-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/gr-47702-1-1-405x268.jpg 405w, https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/gr-47702-1-1-60x40.jpg 60w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-4106\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A campaign to prevent the repeal of Houston\u2019s Equal Rights Ordinance is underway. Organizers say the city\u2019s reputation, and the chance to host events like the Super Bowl, are on the line in the November election. Photo: Mark J. Rebilas\/Wikimedia Commons.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Burke adds, if the measure is repealed, Houston would be the only major city in the state without discrimination protections.<\/p>\n<p>The Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, passed in May of 2014, suffered a setback last month when the Texas Supreme Court told Houston\u2019s city council to repeal the bill or put it before voters. The council opted to add the ordinance to the November third ballot.<\/p>\n<p>The Houston Unites coalition includes faith organizations, the Houston NAACP, various businesses and LGBT groups.<\/p>\n<p>Houston Mayor Annise Parker told the City Council transgender people are frequently at risk of losing their jobs due to discrimination.<br \/>\nLou Weaver, a transgender advocate, says Houston\u2019s national reputation is at stake.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are the fourth largest city in the entire nation,\u201d says Weaver. \u201cAnd we\u2019re going forward, we don\u2019t need to be seen as going backwards. The Super Bowl could be on the line, the Final Four could be on the line, conventions. If we don\u2019t get this right, we\u2019re going to lose all of that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Weaver is referring to events earlier this year. The NFL was poised to relocate the Super Bowl in February if Arizona had passed a discriminatory \u201creligious freedom\u201d law. League policy prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation.<\/p>\n<p>In April, the NCAA and Final Four coaches condemned a similar law passed in Indiana.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Eric Galatas\/TNS HOUSTON &#8211; A coalition of 35 organizations is mounting \u201cHouston Unites,\u201d a campaign to keep the city\u2019s equal rights ordinance on the books. Terri Burke, executive director with the ACLU of Texas, says a lot of money is at stake if the measure is repealed in the November election. She points out [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4106,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4105"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4107,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4105\/revisions\/4107"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}