A pastor-led coalition fell short in its bid to overturn a Houston transgender-rights ordinance after a judge ruled Friday that the group had failed to submit enough signatures to place a repeal measure on the ballot.
Harris County District Court Judge Robert Schaffer said the coalition had turned in 16,684 signatures, short of the 17,269 required to bring before the voters a referendum on the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, which allows transgendered people to file complaints if they are denied access to public restrooms.
The battle gained national attention last year after Houston Mayor Annise Parker subpoenaed the sermons and other communications of five of the pastors involved in the coalition. The city ultimately backed down after an outpouring of criticism, omitting the sermons from its subpoenas.
“We intend to appeal and are confident the higher courts will agree that good handwriting is not a valid reason to deny citizens of their constitutional rights to vote,” coalition attorney Andy Taylor told the Houston Chronicle.
Ms. Parker, the first open lesbian elected mayor of a major city, praised the judge’s ruling in a Friday statement, saying that, “Now all Houstonians have access to the same protections.”
“This is a great victory in the courts, and a great day for civil rights in Houston, Texas,” said city attorney Donna Edmundson in a statement, adding, “I am gratified that the judge signed a final judgment rejecting the plaintiffs’ claims and confirming that their pro-discrimination referendum petition failed.”
The coalition, led by local pastors and the Houston Pastors Council, had submitted 31,000 signatures in August to place a referendum on the ballot. City secretary Anna Russell said the group had met the threshold, but former city attorney Dave Feldman later disqualified most of the signatures.
In a statement, the coalition criticized the “constantly changing manipulations of the law by the city’s ’legal machine’ and mayor’s team.”
“We will not yield the safety and welfare, the voting rights and constitutional freedoms of the citizens that have been stolen by the corrupt Parker regime,” said the statement released to WND. “The law and the appellate courts in Texas are very strong in preserving voting rights so are confident we will prevail.”
Geoffrey Harrison, lead attorney for the city, called the ruling “a powerful smack-down against the forces of discrimination and intolerance.”
“And maybe, just maybe, they’ll reconsider their misguided ways,” Mr. Harrison said in a statement to the Chronicle.
A jury also ruled against the coalition’s challenge, although referendum supporters have predicted that voters would overturn the ordinance if given an opportunity. The measure was passed in May by the city council at the urging of the mayor.
“The fact that the city’s own numbers of how many valid signatures we had submitted materially changed nearly a dozen times since August illustrates how desperate they are to keep this off the ballot,” said the coalition statement.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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