Michelangelo Signorile On Why HERO Failed Last Night In Houston

LGBT activist and SiriusXM host Michelangelo Signorile gives his (spot on, in my opinion) analysis on why Houston’s Equal Rights Ordinance failed at the ballot box last night:

Political strategists warned LGBT activists in the days ahead of the vote: There was little Spanish-language outreach, no big ad buy in Spanish-language media — in a city that is 44% Hispanic — countering the lies of the opposition, who’d certainly been doing their own outreach. Monica Roberts, a long-time African-American transgender activist, warned of little outreach in the black community, which makes up 24% of the city. There was little emphasis by the LGBT rights coalition on the terrible economic impact that a “no” vote to equality would have on the city — something else that political strategists warned was lacking in their campaign as well. And no ads by LGBT rights proponents held the equal punch that the nasty hate ads embodied. Instead, they overwhelmingly ran nicey-nice ads about good neighbors and equality and human dignity.

And so, it wasn’t a shock, really, that the vote wasn’t even close last night. LGBT rights were clobbered, hammered, devastated in the city of Houston by voters, as the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO) was repealed.