HOUSTON, Texas – A coalition that represents hundreds of pastors who opposed Houston Mayor Annise Parker’s pro-LGBT ordinance, are calling the resounding defeat of the Houston bathroom ordinance, a “national victory” and the local defeat of a national Leftist LGBT agenda.
Voters in Houston came out in massive numbers and soundly rejected Mayor Parker’s ordinance proposal that would have allowed men to enter women’s bathrooms, showers and changing areas based on gender identification. The HERO (Houston Equal Rights Ordinance) proposition was rejected by a vote of 61 to 39 percent.
Reverend Dave Welch, the Executive Director of US Pastors Council said, “The deception engaged in by Mayor Parker, the Greater Houston Partnership, even some of the media to deflect what this issue is about was ultimately unsuccessful, with the people of this city.”
Welch continued, “Houston citizens spoke resoundingly by an incredible twenty two point margin of victory that we will protect our women and children, preserve our freedom of religion, and promote at all costs what is good, decent and right before our God.”
The pastors’ organization pointed out that this has never been a “local issue” but part of the national pro-LGBT Human Rights Campaign agenda to use local ordinances to accomplish what they have been unable to do at the federal level apart from activist courts.
“We will not allow national anti-faith, anti-family groups like Human Rights Campaign, the ACLU and Planned Parenthood to destroy this great city. Houston is not a perfect city, however it is indeed the most diverse and welcoming city of its kind in the nation, so from the very beginning this was a solution looking for a problem; creating division where there was none,” stated the pastors.
The pastors asserted “their mutual commitment to staying united and ‘on the field’ to assure that future city administrations are held accountable to the rule of law, what is best for all the people and to basic standards of decency and integrity.”
As reported by Breitbart Texas, Mayor Annise Parker’s response to the trouncing on the bathroom ordinance was to blame the pastors and call them liars. Parker called the campaign against her pet ordinance a “calculated campaign of lies” and blamed area pastors and their messages from the pulpits of churches across the city. As a candidate, Mayor Parker, the first openly gay candidate for mayor in Houston, promised not to bring a gay agenda to the city.
“We are blessed beyond measure that God has honored the eighteen months, thousands of volunteer hours, persevering against a massive legal machine and abuse of law to achieve two Texas Supreme Court victories restoring the right of the people to vote and finally the incredible work to turn out the vote by our churches throughout Houston,” stated the representative of the pastors’ coalition.
Lana Shadwick is a contributing writer and legal analyst for Breitbart Texas. Follow her on Twitter@LanaShadwick2