Heads up, Houston: you’re on the verge of joining other major Texas cities in passing an equal rights ordinance. If it passes, Houstonians will finally be protected from discrimination in employment, housing and public services.
But we’ve got some work to do, and that’s where you come in.
This Wednesday, April 30, the Houston City Council’s Quality of Life committee will take public comments. It’s important for supporters of Mayor Annise Parker’s Equal Rights Ordinance to speak out at the hearing. Can you help?
The process for speaking at the committee meeting is simple:
- Clear your calendar for 2 p.m. on Wednesday, April 30.
- Prepare and practice a one- to two-minute statement in support of the Equal Rights Ordinance. Make sure to thank the Mayor and the City Council for their leadership on this issue.
- On Wednesday, get to City Hall Chambers at 901 Bagby St., 2nd floor (Google Map here), and find the Quality of Life committee meeting.
- Add your name to the sign-up sheet at front of the room.
- Wait for your name to be called, share your statement, and be proud to support equal rights in Houston.
It’s particularly important that the committee hear stories from Houstonians who have personally experienced discrimination in employment or housing.
Like Mayor Parker said in her announcement Monday, “We don’t care where you come from, the color of your skin, your age, gender, what physical limitations you may have or who you choose to love. It’s time the laws on our books reflect this.”
Let’s make it happen, Houston.
I hope that Houston will continue to lead on these issues. We should be moving past old, misinformed views.
Equality is a human right. Let’s treat one another with dignity, respect, and get past our narrow-minded ways of thinking. Make it happen, Houston!
I worked for the City of Odessa, Texas as an administrative Secy…Retired in 1990. I never experienced any discrimination due to my being a Jewish Female. After being married to a career USAF Officer, I never experienced any there, either. Maybe it’s because I was knowledgeable in both Fields and had self-respect along with respecting my Fellow workers and associates.
It is both a moral and Biblical mandate that all people should be treated with respect and dignity. In spite of the misuse by some of a few Biblical passages, the loving God who created the universe and all that is within in does not discriminate among people. We all carry within us the divine spirit, and we all are loved equally by God. We all carry within us an inherent right to dignity and respect. I am proud that the city of my birth is prepared to make it known that Houston does NOT discriminate! Let it be so. Rev. Helen P. DeLeon
EQUALITY IS A BIBICAL RND MORAL HUMAN RIGHT THAT ALL INDIVIDUALS/HUMANS BE TREATED WITH RESPECT AND DIGNITY IN ALL SITUATIONS.
I am all for equal treatment in the workplace and every other aspect of life, but why do we need a city ordinance to protect us when there are so many federal laws already giving us those protections? Wouldn’t the City of Houston be better off doing city things, such as making sure our lives and property are protected from criminals?
City Council, it is not your job to protect our Constitutional rights. Do not waste our tax dollars on frivolous ordinances that only serve to make you appear politically correct. Instead, do your job, and spend our taxes on improving the police force and reducing crime in Houston!
Equal Rights are good for the economy. Politically they were passed in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights decades ago by the UN. Equal Rights are a quality of life issue of freedomand should be supported like apple pie and motherhood. So like Nike says “Just Do It”.
Is it the purview of any city council to pass a civil rights ordinance? How much time, money and energy have been diverted in this pursuit? Did the mayor and the individual city council members run on this platform? Is there an overwhelming demand by the citizens of Houston regarding this matter?
I am a citizen, taxpayer, voter, US Army veteran, and I also happen to be a lesbian transsexual who has lived and worked as a women full-time for about 15 years. While most people, businesses, and government agencies treat me with respect, I have been discriminated against when job hunting, and I have been chased out of a restaurant in Houston. We need to expand our non-discrimination laws to include more protected categories at city level since the Texas Legislature and Congress are currently dominated by “tea party” bigots that openly hate people like me.