Late Monday, Houston Mayor Annise Parker and City Attorney David Feldman announced opponents of the recently-passed non-discrimination ordinance fell short of the signatures required to trigger a November vote to consider repealing the measure. While they had gathered enough raw signatures, thousands were on pages not collected based on the city charter’s legal standards and were therefore discarded. According to Feldman, less than half of the pages of signatures were valid, leaving the petition more than two thousand names short of the required number to trigger the vote.
Division over the ordinance focuses largely on protections for gay and transgender Houstonians who are not already federally protected from discrimination. Opponents of the ordinance now plan to take the city to court.
We talk with the Houston Chronicle’s Mike Morris about Monday’s announcement, and about the potential next steps in court.