Houston Mayor Annise D. Parker, the city’s first openly homosexual mayor, yesterday withdrew subpoenas of sermons and other communications from five local pastors.
Parker’s decision concluded a two-week standoff between LGBT rights activists and champions of religious liberty sparked by a measure known as “the bathroom bill” because it allows men and women to use public restrooms based on their personal gender identity.
“After much contemplation and discussion, I am directing the city legal department to withdraw the subpoenas,” Parker said at a press conference.
The underlying issue, however, is far from resolved. City officials so far have refused to allow “the bathroom bill,” officially called the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, or HERO, to be subject to a voter referendum.
“[T]he subpoenas were only one element of this disgraceful episode,” said Erik Stanley, senior legal counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom:
The scandal began with another abuse of power when the city of Houston arbitrarily threw out the valid signatures of thousands of voters. The subpoena threat has been withdrawn, but the mayor and the city should now do the right thing and allow the people of the Houston to decide whether to repeal the ordinance.
The city had targeted five Houston pastors who led a petition drive and delivered what Parker called “the anti-HERO petitions” to City Hall.
The mayor stressed that she didn’t make the decision to satisfy high-profile critics such as Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, commentator Glenn Beck and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who called on Americans to send Bibles to Parker.
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“I did it because it was not serving Houston,” she said.
Cruz quickly hailed the reversal.
“Supporters of religious liberty have just achieved a tremendous victory,” Cruz said in a prepared statement, adding:
Today is an answer to prayer. … Americans defended our right to worship freely without fear of government intimidation, sending a message that was so loud and strong the city of Houston could not ignore it. And the city of Houston complied, withdrawing the subpoenas altogether.
Parker said local pastors and nationally known clergy who cited concerns about religious freedom persuaded her to change her mind.
“The goal of the subpoenas is to defend against a lawsuit, and not to provoke a public debate,” she said:
I don’t want to have a national debate about freedom of religion when my whole purpose is to defend a strong and wonderful and appropriate city ordinance against local attack, and by taking this step today we remove that discussion about freedom of religion.
Cruz said the reaction Parker sparked was telling:
Pastors across Houston – across denominations, racial and ethnic lines – all came together in support of religious liberty. As always, I was proud to stand with the pastors, and I applaud their courage for speaking up and drawing national attention to the ongoing attacks against people of faith.
The dispute began when the City Council passed an ordinance that critics say will allow men to enter women’s restrooms and vice versa. It’s officially called the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, or HERO, but popularly known as “the bathroom bill.”
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Several pastors responded by helping to organize a petition drive to remove the new law from the books. Organizers said they collected more than 50,000 signatures, although they needed only 17,269 to proceed.
City officials contended a total of 15,000 signatures were valid, and refused to place the issue on the ballot. In August, supporters of the petition drive filed a lawsuit intended to force Parker to allow voters to decide the law’s fate.
