Houston: Opponents of LGBT protections ordinance fall short of signatures to force referendum

Houston Mayor Annise Parker

From Tony Merevick at Buzzfeed:

Houston Mayor Annise Parker and City Attorney David Feldman announced Monday that opponents of the city’s new equal rights ordinance, or HERO, failed to submit enough valid signatures for their petition to force a voter referendum on the measure. Feldman also said that much of the petition was too problematic to be considered.

“With respect to the referendum petition filed to repeal the ‘HERO’ ordinance, there are simply too many documents with irregularities and problems to overlook,” Feldman said. “The petition is simply invalid. There is no other conclusion.”

Feldman said that out of the tens of thousands of signatures submitted, about 15,200 were found to be valid — short of the 17,269 signatures required to bring the matter before voters in November. Opponents, organized by the No Unequal Rights coalition, claimed they had at least 30,000 valid signatures when they submitted the petitions to city officials July 3.

Parker said she anticipates the petitioners will now take the matter to court, and for that reason, she said she’s suspended the implementation of the ordinance, “not indefinitely, but to allow for these issues to work their way out.” With that, Parker said she is confident a court will agree with the city’s signature verification process.

The Houston Equal Rights Ordinance passed on May 28th in a city council meeting by a vote of 11-6.

Before the ordinance's passage, Houston was the largest city in the US without any LGBT protections.