This Sunday’s Houston Chronicle editorial board weighs in on the intolerance at play by Houston’s local Republican Christian Bigots. THESE KIND OF PEOPLE are very good at finding, supporting and promoting the intolerance, bigotry and exclusion they find in Christianity while they are very poor at finding the love, compassion and inclusion Christianity is based upon. It is what THESE KIND OF PEOPLE do and what THESE KIND OF PEOPLE are. Mayoral Candidate Annise Parker suffers Houston’s Republican Christian Bigotry
A
band of socially conservative activists and ministers has injected
intolerance into Houston’s mayoral election. As reported Saturday by
the Chronicle’s Bradley Olson, the group plans to discourage voters
from supporting City Controller Annise Parker in the Dec. 12 runoff
because she is a lesbian, and because they’re worried about a “gay
takeover” of City Hall.Dave Welch, executive
director of the Houston Area Pastor Council, told Olson, “The bottom
line is that we didn’t pick the battle, she did when she made her
agenda and sexual preference a central part of her campaign.”That’s a lie.
While
Parker has never made a secret of her sexuality, the campaign debate
and agenda to date have been wholly defined by the issues facing the
city and the comparative qualifications and experience of the
candidates.Parker’s
opponent, former City Attorney Gene Locke, has stated that he favors
overturning a city charter amendment that bars Houston from extending
benefits to the domestic partners of city employees, a bolder stance
than that taken by Parker.But
Locke has also been courting the support of Dr. Steven Hotze, a
conservative power broker and apparently one of the prime movers behind
the effort to smear Parker. Hotze was the man behind the 1985 Straight
Slate, a roster of City Council candidates he recruited to run on an
anti-gay platform. (They all lost.)According
to a Hotze mouthpiece, he’s thinking about stirring up his distasteful
stew with a mailing inspired by Parker’s sexuality.Houston
deserves better. Our city has a well-earned reputation for tolerance
and openness. We don’t need inflammatory appeals to folks’ worst
instincts.We’ve
been here before. In 1997 a small-minded ballot initiative would have
ended the city’s affirmative action program that helped minority and
women contractors. Mayor Bob Lanier went on the air in an ad that
bluntly stated his opposition to a proposal that would “turn back the
clock to the days when guys who look like me got all the city’s
business.”Lanier couldn’t have been more clear: Discrimination is just not right.
It
was a powerful moment of leadership. The referendum went down to
defeat, and news outlets around the country marveled that a “wealthy
white developer” had taken the lead on affirmative action.It’s time for another such moment of leadership.
Saturday
afternoon, Gene Locke issued a statement rejecting “the style of
campaigning that was the subject of an article in the Houston
Chronicle.” He urged the people of Houston to choose a new mayor based
on the issues and avoid being “swayed by divisive rhetoric.”The
rhetoric of people like Steven Hotze and Dave Welch carries a high
cost. Their support should not be purchased at the price of bigotry.