Houston Repeals “LGBT Discrimination Law” That Allowed Transgendered People to Use Any Public Bathroom They Want

Yes, there were other provisions of Houston’s HERO nondiscrimination city law, but the one that got the entire kit and caboodle repealed by a pretty high margin of voters involved one very, very simple premise: the idea that people who were born with girl parts use a female restroom, and people who were born with male parts use a male restroom.

Results showed 61% of voters said no to HERO, while only 39% voted to keep it.

By the way, proponents of this law outspent opponents THREE to ONE in advertising, and still it did not pass.

As Buzzfeed reported earlier this week, most voters in Houston didn’t even realize there were other provisions to the law or that it had much to do with discrimination per se.

Getting down to brass tacks, all people talked about was whether or not transgendered individuals, and in particular men who live and dress like women, would be allowed to use the women’s restrooms in public places in town.

“I haven’t heard it bans discrimination,” Cory Alters told BuzzFeed News as he waited for the bus on a blustery Friday afternoon. With four days remaining before the vote, Alters said he had only heard that the measure required letting men and transgender women into women’s bathrooms.

“Bathrooms are the hot-ticket item — that’s what everybody is talking about,” he said. “I don’t want girls in my bathroom, and girls don’t want guys in their bathroom.”

One block down Travis Street, 44-year old Donna L., who refused to give her full last name, said the same: “I heard people saying pedophiles would be going into restrooms. That is the main thing everybody is talking about. I hadn’t heard anything else.”

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