This past week we celebrated the 1 year anniversary of the passage of the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO)! HERO provides protection against discrimination in public accomodations of on the basis of 15 different classes. Individuals cannot be denied employment, housing, or access to public accomodations due to their: race, sex, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, familial status, marital status, military status, religion, disability, sexual orientation, genetic information, gender identity, and pregnancy.
The Houston community celebrated at a party at Boulevard Realty. I was proud to serve as one of the sponsors of the event along with other organizations and individuals who were instrumental in the passage of the Ordinance. I was happy to see that the attendance reflected the diversity of the LGBT community in terms of race, sexual orientations, and gender identities.
Now that we have celebrated, the real work begins with respect to the Ordinance and addressing the issues of discrimination that we face within our communities. At the party we talked about the next steps with respect to the Ordinance. The Ordinance is still being challenged in the Texas State Court of Appeals. Leading the opposition is the Houston Area Pastors Council, Dave Welsch, and Dave Wilson. (What is it with men with the initials DW and equal rights?) Therefore, there is still a possibility that Ordinance could be on the Novemeber ballot. The Ordinance is necessary to ensure the protections of all marginalized people who live in Houston, Texas. Therefore, we must educate everyone on the Ordinance and dispel the myths that are being perputated by the Opposition. We are organizing an education campaign that will include canvassing throughout Houston. I am encouraging everyone to participate through donations and participating in the canvass. You can donate and signup through: www.houequality.org.
The Ordinance is a first step to a large conversation that needs to occur within our businesses, services, and society: What are we doing to protecting and including all members of our society? We through around words such as diversity and inclusion, but are we truly reflecting those words. Look at your business, does it have people from different races, genders, and sexual orientations. If it doesn't think about your hiring practices and think about how are you recruiting to include that diversity within your organizations and institutions. If your mission and vision statements include references to being inclusive, make sure that you are indeed acting in that manner. For example, if you are part of a service that is supposed to provide for the LGBT community, are you truly providing services for all aspects of the community. Is your literature bisexual exclusive? Do you have employees who can provide support to the transgender community? If you cannot answer these questions, then that means you are not living up to your expectations.
I am very proud of this Ordinance and I am dedicated to ensure that it remains in the City of Houston. However, we need to move on to the next step of ensuring that our services and accomodations are inclusive of all people and not microaggressively discriminating.
Yours always,
The BGM
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