"UnEqualRights Ordinance" Review

As a liberal, I am very willing to discarding traditional values and open to new behaviors and opinions. Equality is a very big part of my life and I feel that everyone should be able to express who they are as long as they are not harming or putting others in harms way. That is why and article titled “Repeal the Houston UnEqualRightsOrdinance” really caught my attention.

The author, David Jennings, begins his article with “we have one more day to stop an egregious assault on the rights of women and children to be safe when they use the restroom.” Wow, now he really has my attention. Basically, this article was written to persuade people into signing a petition that will put Mayor Parker’s ‘Sexual Predator Protection Act’ into a referendum.

The ordinance is to protect citizens from discrimination “on the basis of sex, race, ethnicity, national origin, age, familial status, marital status, military status, religion, disability, genetic information, or pregnancy” (Tony Merevick). Though it is largely focused around the LGBT community, it is a very broad discrimination ordinance protecting all kinds of people. This ordinance also gives the LGBT community the right to choose which restroom they feel most comfortable using. If a transgendered woman would like to use the women’s restroom, this ordinance will allow them to do so under protection. Jennings argument is only based off of this sector of the ordinance. He feels as though by allowing this, the city of Houston is allowing sexual predators to go into the women’s restroom and assult/molest young girls and women and protecting them through this ordinance.

I do understand his concern and where he is coming from. I have a 2-year-old niece that I love to death and would never want to see anything happen to her.  In his article, he says that he is biased on the topic because he is the father and grandfather of girls. However, this is not a valid argument. This a slippery slope argument; “if we allow transgendered men to use women’s restrooms, sexual predators will rape our girls and women.” It upsets me that the LGBT community is almost always criticized on the basis of sexual conduct. Homosexuality is not perversion and can definitely not be compared to bestiality as Phil Robertson once did. I think it’s funny how this ordinance is banning discrimination in sectors including housing and employment on all types of backgrounds and people are only focusing in on LGBT discrimination.

Though I do understand where he is coming from when speaking of the protection of women and children, this ordinance is not going to put anybody in harms way except for the LGBT community with regards to religious and anti-gay extremists in the restrooms.