Tag: Texas

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Incoming Texas Attorney General Opposes LGBT Protections In Proposed Plano Ordinance

In an open letter, incoming Texas Attorney General-elect Ken Paxton has asks the Plano City Council to rethink their consideration of an LGBT protections ordinance up for discussion at tonight’s meeting.

From Paxton’s letter:

Honorable Mayor and City Council: As members of the Plano delegation to the Texas legislature and the Collin County Commissioners Court, we are appealing to you to postpone any vote relating to an ordinance to amend Section 2-11 relating to the adoption of a policy based on protected characteristics. We do not believe there has been adequate time for the public and community leaders to be a part of the discussion of such a major, wide sweeping change in law and policy for Plano. As husbands and wives with children, we have concerns that your sexual orientation and transgender ordinance may place women and children at risk and does not consider the moral or religious beliefs of Plano citizens or vendors who do business with the city.

Creating “special protections” for gays and “men in women’s bathrooms” are all included in Paxton’s worries and concerns over the proposed LGBT focused ordinance.
Of course, all the hand wringing in done in the name of “religious freedom.”

Stay tuned to see if tonight’s vote even takes place.

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Lubbock Mayor Calls HRC Report “Totally Bogus” After Receving A Zero On LGBT Rights

In the recent Human Rights Campaign’s 2014 Municipal Equality Index, five cities in the country (out of 353 rated) received scores of zero. Of those, four are in Texas and one is Lubbock.

(I should point out from the get-go here I was born and raised in Texas…)

The Index scores cities specifically on six broad categories: non-discrimination laws, relationship recognition, the municipality as an employer, municipal services, law enforcement and overall relationship with the LGBT community. Cities begin with a score of zero and are awarded points for meeting certain criteria.

Mayor Glen Robertson, a white heterosexual man, says there are no problems for gays in Lubbock and the survey is unfair.

Via LubbockOnline:

“This survey is not, in my opinion, designed to get facts. This survey is designed to create problems that aren’t there,” he said.

The report from HRC says the city has passed no ordinances to protect LGBT folks in the workplace. The mayor says all that is covered by federal and state laws.

This, sadly, is not true. There is currently no federal legal protections in place for LGBT employees in the workplace. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act was passed in the US Senate last year, but the GOP-led House has refused to take up the legislation.

Texas is not among the 18 states that have passed such protections. Nor is Lubbock one of the six Texas cities to pass local protections. So, Mr. Mayor – you’re dead wrong on that one. I sit here shaking my head that you could serve as mayor for two years and not know that.

Tony Thornton, president of the Lubbock chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, says the city has come a long way but probably deserves a zero for its efforts to include the gay community.

“I think the city needs lots of work from the perspective of policy and administration in these areas,” he said. “And I want to work with the city. I want to work with the mayor and the City Council and the HR directors to fix this.”

But don’t count on any action from the mayor anytime soon. Mayor Robertson says he’s never seen LGBT discrimination as a problem – a typically conservative, white, heterosexual male position to take, in my opinion.

Mayor Robertson says, “I haven’t seen it. I haven’t seen any problem. That doesn’t mean we don’t have it, but if we do, nobody’s being vocal about it. Typically, if somebody’s being treated differently because of their gender or sexual orientation, they speak up, and I have heard nothing.”

(source)

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Texas: Campaign Launched To Highlight Support For Marriage Equality

Freedom to Marry, in partnership with Equality Texas, today launched a public education campaign to amplify the bipartisan momentum for the freedom to marry in the Lone Star State.

The campaign, called Texas for Marriage, will highlight that support as well as the continued harms that committed gay couples face everyday until the state’s marriage case, DeLeon v Perry, is decided by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals early next year.

“Nearly every state and federal court from last year on, more than 50 — with judges appointed by Republican and Democratic presidents and governors — has ruled in favor of the freedom to marry and moving the country forward,” said Evan Wolfson, president of Freedom to Marry.

“Texas families should not be left behind. Government has no business interfering in important freedoms like who Texans marry, and no business putting obstacles in the path of families and employers trying to do the right thing. Our new campaign will show that Texans are ready for the freedom to marry, and so is America.”

The website features essay and interviews with equality supporters, as well as information like the economic impact same-sex marriage would have on the Texas economy ($182 million, don’t you know?).

Check out the website here.

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Texas: State Judge Orders Houston To Stop Providing Same-Sex Benefits

A Texas state judge has ordered the city of Houston to stop providing benefits to same-sex spouses of employees, according to Lone Star Q, but the city says a prior federal judge’s ruling trumps the state ruling:

State District Judge Lisa Millard issued a temporary restraining order halting the benefits Wednesday in response to a request from former Harris County GOP Chair Jared Woodfill, who has filed a second lawsuit against Mayor Annise Parker and the city over her decision to extend benefits to same-sex spouses.

In August, U.S. District Judge Sim Lake ordered the city to continue offering the benefits pending a final determination on the constitutionality of Texas’ same-sex marriage ban, likely to come from the U.S. Supreme Court.

Ken Upton, senior counsel at Lambda Legal, told Lone Star Q last week that the federal judge’s decision would override any decision from a state court.

“The US Constitution’s Supremacy Clause clearly provides that a decision based on federal law trumps a conflicting decision based on only state law,” Upton said last week. “This is a foundational principle that every first-year law student learns and is beyond question or doubt.”

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Drunk Homophobe From DFW Airport Incident Could Get Away With Only $1K Fine

McCleish Christmas Benham

Last week I reported on an incident at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport where a drunk homophobe attacked another traveler he assumed to be gay only to be stopped by a group of bystanders.

From Lone Star Q:

According to the report obtained by Lone Star Q, the man’s name is McCleish Christmas Benham, 27. He is currently charged with public intoxication and simple assault, both class-C misdemeanors each punishable by a maximum $500 fine, but no jail time.

However, if prosecutors choose to utilize Texas’ hate crimes law, they could enhance the assault charge to a class-B misdemeanor. Class-B misdemeanors are punishable by 180 days in jail and a $2,000 fine per offense.

Pretty hard to imagine the prosecutors wouldn’t charge the man with hate crime here since Benham was caught on video calling his victim a “queer.”

But in Texas, folks aren’t very concerned with protecting LGBT citizens, so don’t hold your breath on that one..

If not, Benham could get away with a maximum of $1,000 fine and no jail time whatsoever.

Here’s the arrest report:

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Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Sets January Date for Texas’ Same-Sex Marriage Appeal

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has tentatively scheduled oral arguments for the week of Jan. 5 in a lawsuit challenging Texas’ same-sex marriage bans.

In February, U.S. District Judge Orlando L. Garcia struck down the marriage bans as unconstitutional in DeLeon v. Perry. However, Garcia stayed his decision pending an appeal, and Attorney General Greg Abbott appealed it to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court in New Orleans.

The Texas case will be heard the same week as another marriage case from Louisiana, which is also in the 5th Circuit.

In September, U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman upheld Louisiana’s marriage ban in Robicheaux v. Caldwell, becoming the first federal judge to uphold marriage discrimination since June 2013.

(from Lone Star Q)

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Dallas: Drunk Homophobe Gets Taken Down After Attacking Possibly Gay Man

In an apparent anti-gay attack, a seemingly drunk traveler attacked what he clearly assumed was a gay man at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport yesterday.

From Raw Story:

The video is dated Thursday, October 23, and shows an unnamed angry man bellowing and threatening another passenger who is wearing a jacket and a pink shirt.

A tall man in a black cowboy hat approaches and asks the angry man what he’s upset about.

“Queers!” the man shouted. “That’s what I’m upset about. This faggot right here.”

After a tense exchange, the angry man kicks the man in the pink shirt, then slaps at him and grabs his hair.

A number of people rush to intervene as the man is tackled and put on the floor.

The man in the cowboy hat can be heard saying loudly, “No way! No way, you motherfucker. You ain’t doin’ that fucking shit, motherfucker.”

You can hear the man as he’s being handcuffed saying “I punched him square in the mouth in the fuckin’ mouth is what I did. Because this is America. When I get up I’m gonna beat the shit out of him.”

Props to the folks who jump in so quick.  AND to Andrew Kennedy who captured the scuffle on video.

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US Supreme Court Allows Controversial Texas Voter ID Law

The US Supreme Court has ruled that Texas can use its controversial new voter identification law for the upcoming November election.

Opponents of the law maintain that with no real examples of voter fraud, the law is actually framed to suppress voter turnout in Democratic districts.

From Talking Points Memo:

A majority of the justices rejected an emergency request from the Justice Department and civil rights groups to prohibit the state from requiring voters to produce certain forms of photo identification in order to cast ballots. Three justices dissented.

The law was struck down by a federal judge last week, but a federal appeals court had put that ruling on hold. The judge found that roughly 600,000 voters, many of them black or Latino, could be turned away at the polls because they lack acceptable identification. Early voting in Texas begins Monday.

“The greatest threat to public confidence in elections in this case is the prospect of enforcing a purposefully discriminatory law, one that likely imposes an unconstitutional poll tax and risks denying the right to vote to hundreds of thousands of eligible voters,” Ginsburg wrote in dissent.

The law sets out seven forms of approved ID — a list that includes concealed handgun licenses but not college student IDs, which are accepted in other states with similar measures.

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US Supreme Court Blocks Key Component of Restrictive Texas Abortion Law

The Supreme Court has blocked Texas from enforcing major components of a 2013 law that would close all but eight of the state’s abortion facilities.

The justices largely granted the request of abortion providers Tuesday. With three dissenting votes, the court suspended a ruling by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that allowed Texas to enforce a rule making abortion clinics statewide spend millions of dollars on hospital-level upgrades.

Voting 6-3, the US Supreme Court sided with abortion providers by suspending a ruling by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals which would have allowed Texas to require abortion clinics to spend millions on upgraded facilities in order to stay open.

The legislation was famously filibustered by current Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis.

(source)