What Houston's HERO Defeat Has In Common With Jim Crow

[stephaniec]

What Houston's HERO Defeat Has In Common With Jim Crow

http://www.advocate.com/commentary/2015/11/16/what-houstons-hero-defeat-has-common-jim-crow

The Advocate/By Nikki Brown November 16 2015 5:00 AM EST

"Houston voters recently overturned HERO, the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, which sought to create protections against discrimination based on 15 characteristics, including sexual orientation and gender identity. In the weeks leading up the election, the campaign to overturn the proposition focused on a deep fear in American culture: a sexual menace in the form of transgender people, who might use the private space of a bathroom to assault women and children."

[Deborah]

That which has been is that which will be,
And that which has been done is that which will be done.
So there is nothing new under the sun.

[Tessa James]

Oh we know plenty about how irrational fears can be used against people.  Now we need more people to stand up and own our right to just "go in peace."

[michelle1983]

This whole argument against us using the bathroom for the gender we are because we are gonna sexually assault people really hits hard for me. I know im not alone in this but first I have a child who I am very over protective of. Second I am a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. So to hear someone say I am a deviant or a pervert just because I wanna pee where I am comfortable I take that personally. Maybe I shouldn't but I do. It hits me in two ways that are very personal.

[gennee]

What gets me is that so many people were so gullible for the garbage spewed by the anti-trans crowd. Damn shame how ignorant some people are. 

[Deborah]

Most people don't think critically about much of anything at all.  They just absorb the last thing they heard in the news or at church.

[Asche]

I was reading an article on another trans website by someone who is involved in TG activism in Houston, and her version of events is that trans people were pretty much sidelined by the groups campaigning to defeat the repeal.

She mentioned HRC in particular.  I recall that HRC has been criticized for, at least within the organization, marginalizing everyone who isn't middle-class, cis, white, and (gay) male, so it makes me wonder if organizations like HRC are interested in representing our interests, at least as they operate currently.  (IIRC, HRC was criticized a while back for dropping gender identity/presentation protections from a LGBT+ rights bill they were promoting.)

What's stupid about this is that the "trans peril" trope was kind of a stalking horse for attacking civil rights for the entire LGBT+ spectrum.  HERO's defeat was not just a defeat for TG people, but for all LGBT+ people.  We're told that TG people need to join forces with LG people for the benefit of TG people, but I think that non-trans people in the LGBT+ spectrum need to realize that failing to support the T ends up not supporting anybody else, either.

(Sorry if this is a bit incoherent, I don't have several hours of free time to put my thoughts into better words.)

[Dee Marshall]

Worse than a defeat for LGBTQ people, the defeat of HERO was a defeat for a lot of minorities. HERO covered more than just LGBTQ. I didn't see anything implying we were thrown under the bus. The way the referendum was written, either the whole thing goes or the whole thing stays. If it gets reintroduced without us, then it would definitely be as you say.

[Oliviah]

This whole argument against us using the bathroom for the gender we are because we are gonna sexually assault people really hits hard for me. I know im not alone in this but first I have a child who I am very over protective of. Second I am a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. So to hear someone say I am a deviant or a pervert just because I wanna pee where I am comfortable I take that personally. Maybe I shouldn't but I do. It hits me in two ways that are very personal.

Me plus a thousand.  We all feel like this.  Today is TDOR.  I can't wait to hug all the people who I haven't seen since before the election at the event tonight and Saturday. 

It has taken so much from so many here.