Thursday November 5, 2015 - HERO oh no

The Houston's Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO) failed with 61% voting to repeal the city's broad nondiscrimination measure, making Houston the only major city without such protections.  HERO would have barred discrimination on the basis of race, age, military status, disability and 11 other categories. Religious organizations and institutions would have been exempt from the requirements.


The LGBT community heavily outspent the opponents. But it did not matter as the anti-LGBT forces found a soft spot. By focusing the debate to the protections for sexual orientation and gender identity and scaring the public into thinking that male sexual predators could claim transgender status to enter women's restrooms and assault women.

We have a problem. I stated in an earlier post that the pictures showing transpeople in their birth-gender bathrooms and looking out-of-place is a good idea. We must combat this "Psycho Movie" fear. For those of us old enough to remember the Hitchcock horror film in which the killer was a crossdresser who wore and  imitated his mother.

Remember that famous shower scene?

The opponents used this fear to highlight a small minority within the LGBT community. The number of  transwomen who do not pass 100% but use the women's bathroom is very small. There are many for transwomen who use women bathroom who are stealth.

I think, we need to make sure that if we use the bathroom that matches our presentation, then we need to "pass".

For me, I only use single stall private bathrooms, family bathrooms or unisex bathrooms. I know the ones in my community and I use the Refuse website the find unisex bathrooms in an area.

But I need to find a way to help combat the use of transpeople as a tool of fear used to halt the growth of LGBT equality.

From the Daily Kos: 11/5/15
"Religious conservatives and their wealthy allies argued that HERO would make it easier for rapists to pose as transgendered women and prey on female victims in bathrooms. HERO's supporters never found a good way to respond. Proponents of future non-discrimination initiatives will need to learn from this debacle. Once conservatives successfully convince voters that they should be just a little concerned that women will get raped in restrooms, they've won."

Below is an ad from the anti-HERO group.