Houston, we definitely have a problem.
Less than 24 hours after the citizens of Houston voted to legalize discrimination by doing away with the city’s non-discrimination ordinance, H-Town is already facing backlash.
First, OutSports reports that the College Football Championships of 2018, 2019 and 2020, all of which Houston had been bidding for, were just awarded to Atlanta, San Francisco and New Orleans — three cities that offer non-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Whether or not the decision to exclude Houston was a result of yesterday’s vote is not entirely clear, as the College Football Championships didn’t directly comment on the matter, but many have noted that the timing of the announcement as being “interesting.”
Second, there are “rumblings” that the 2017 SuperBowl, which is scheduled to happen in Houston, may be being moved to a different city.
“The Super Bowl is slated to come in 2017,” Houston attorney John LaRue, who helped lead the campaign to support HERO, told ABC News. “There are rumblings of plans to ask the NFL to move and go elsewhere in support of LGBT people and other groups [the non-discrimination law] would have protected.”
Sadly, Houston’s openly gay mayor, Annise Parker, doesn’t seem the least bit surprised by any of this. After the election results were announced last night, she told the media: “I fear that this will have stained Houston’s reputation as a tolerant, welcoming, global city. I absolutely fear that there will be a direct economic backlash as a result of this ordinance going into defeat and that’s sad for Houston.”
Looks like those fears will be coming true.
Related: Trans Women Using Women’s Bathrooms Is “Filthy,” “Disgusting” Say Texas Republicans
Rupert Garcia
I have a feeling that Houston is starting to become a dystopia.
Robert Bartlett
Enjoy your death-spiral into obsolescence and irrelevance, Houston!
David Brownfeld
Sad day for Houstonð??¢
Bill Willis
Money speaks. Maybe this will wake some people up.
Desert Boy
It’s Texas, y’all. Land of the bigots, homophobes, George W. Bush, Ted Cruz, and Louie Gohmert. What do you expect?
Cielo Perdomo
Stupid Houstonians use their hatred to stay warm.
BlueDude
All the LGBTQ folk should move to Austin, San Antone, and Dallas. Leave Houston to the rednecks, and those leftover “confederates”. Every time I read anything about Texas, I dislike it more.
Ronald Kaczorowski
I agree
Matte Kale
Brian Hunter
Mark Pointon
Pathetic, sad excuse for humans.
Rob
Texas is a complete toilet. It’s about time we flushed those turds. I wish they would secede so they’d stop being such an embarrassment.
Arcamenel
I really doubt that had anything to do with it.
Don Hanover
Bigots support bigotry and wonder now how this backlash happenedâ?¦ oh, yeah, they are the victimsâ?¦. helloâ?¦. they aren’t the victims. They are the oppressors â?¦ and if I can offend them and not support themâ?¦ I will.
Tom Gouzoules
It is the organizers fault in that they did not target or explain the issue to the Latino community which makes up 45% of the overal vote. There waslittle ad blitz….to many it was about “guys with dicks” using the girls/womens bathrooms. The right did their homework but the liberal community did a very bad job with advertising and explaining the issue. We are still fighting a hard battle and unless we present the truth, we will lose across the board from coast to coast. The right will use whatever tactics to win whenever, wherever.
Glücklich
I am sure the SF Bay Area would be happy to host it in 2017, too. Fingers crossed the NFL’ll pull the plug.
Miami was the runner up to Houston but the stadium there couldn’t finance required renovations.
Mark Johnson
I wonder how many illegal mexican voted for this that are Catholics? Cause this is not America today….
Jayson A Messner
Gee, the lgbtq should’ve gotten off their asses and voted
KerryB
I would suggest giving Texas back to Mexico, but they probably wouldn’t want it either.
John Malin
May Almighty God, Creator of the Universe destroy Houston and salt the Earth beneath its rubble! Oh, and send all who voted against civil right into slavery on a planet far, far away! (Too, too much?)
Dieter Michaels
The NFL has already released a statement saying that they will NOT pull the Superbowl out of Texas… so this really does not have much of an effect.
Aron Marks
Why is Houston still a thing??
Ra Hill
Time for businesses to Boycott Houston. .. no conventions. ..
No tourism. .. no visits!!!
Ricardo Molina
What a horrible place!
James Flowers
Votes speak! No one spoke!
Patsy Green Shoaf
Houston could’ve learned from the damage done to Indianapolis.
Brian Bowen
Message from Chad Griffin, HRC President, RE: #HERO
This evening, anti-LGBT activists in #Houston succeeded in rolling back crucial nondiscrimination protections for the city. As a result of today’s election, Houston is now the largest city in the United States WITHOUT these local protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, women, minorities, veterans, and many others.
It’s almost unbelievable that this could happen in a vibrant and diverse city like Houston. And make no mistake: if we don’t double down on our commitment to equality today, we’ll face the same thing again and again in cities across the nation.
As you well know by now, the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO) passed the City Council with the support of HRC and our pro-equality allies last year, before being forced onto the ballot by the all-elected Texas Supreme Court. Then, over the last few weeks, our opponents shamelessly spread misinformation and ugly lies about LGBT people in an effort to trick fair-minded voters into voting against HERO.
Alongside the ACLU, NAACP, Equality Texas, and our local and national partners as well as with local businesses and faith leaders, we formed Houston Unites to push back on the lies and attack ads. Together â?? thanks to thousands of supporters like you â?? we were able to launch an unprecedented deployment of staff and resources to Houston to support the coalition’s effort.
Over the last several months, across Houston and across Texas, our supporters and allies stepped up like never before. I’ve witnessed the grit and determination firsthand as you’ve made phone calls, knocked on doors, talked to friends and neighbors about why HERO matters, and volunteered countless hours because you understood why nondiscrimination protections are needed in Houston.
Today is a no doubt a setback for all of us. In the end, we fell short in getting enough votes that now mean the difference between 15 classes of Houstonians being vulnerable to discrimination instead of protections that help ensure they’ll be treated equally under the law. But believe me when I say this fight isn’t over.
Because of you, our members and supporters, we helped the coalition in Houston wage this crucial campaign with unprecedented strength. When we have faced attacks on equality, you’ve kept our work going.
Here in Texas we are going to keep up the fight for equality. And we are not going to let tonight’s loss in Houston set the tone for the upcoming year. We are counting on our faithful supporters like you to be there alongside us again for the tough battles ahead.
Thank you for everything you have done and continue to do,
___________________
MY TAKE: While I agree with Chad in the main, I also believe the abysmal 25% voter turnout was the REAL reason we lost this fight. We MUST do better, or we could lose the White House in 2016, no matter how high Hillary Clinton’s poll numbers are!
When Democrats VOTE, Democrats WIN!
REGISTER TODAY!
http://www.rockthevote.com/get-informed/elections/?referrer=https://www.facebook.com/
Bob LaBlah
There is a very important issue attached to recent events in Houston that seems to have gone unreported here. That issue was bathrooms. What would have happened was the right to use any bathroom. That is what galvanized people, whom many were not along side the religious right.
They simply felt as I do, use the bathroom of your sex. Its just that simple. I don’t want to go into a stall where a woman has just changed her……..think for a minute. Some things are better off as they presently are in my book. If it ain’t broke…..you know the rest.
Tom Glasson
Good
Milton Appleby
Texas is on my never visit or have a layover state list.
money718
Drop the T
Michael Mueller
I hope the city feels the wrath
Ronald Wei
What a horrible cesspool of pests. Houston will never be half the city Austin is, even if it is 4 times the size.
Mike_M
I think these are not bad things but, y is no one laying the blame at the feet of the people of Huston who could not be bother to get off their collective asses and go vote for something they felt so passionately about? All of this nonsense could have been avoided if the people of the city had bothered to make sure it went down as a win instead of national embarrassment. Why was there no outreach to the Hispanic population of the city? At 44%, they could have helped secure a win. Why was there no outreach to the African American or other minority groups making up another 27% of the city? Why did the LGBT population feel they had this win in the bag before a single vote was counted and in the face of such inflammatory anti-ordinance commercials?
Michael Martinez
Boycott all you want but, The question that must be asked is; “Why di no one go out to vote for the ordinance if it was so important to see it passed? Why did the LGBT population of the city do ZERO outreach to the very minority groups it would have helped to protect? Why did they assume they had a win in their hands when they did nothing to make it happen?
Marc Hall
Have never been a fan of gun crazy states and this just another reason why I choose to live in a much more liberal and highly educated neck of the woods. This happened out of ignorance and lack of education. Isn’t Texas the state that has a school where teachers are all carrying guns? That’s a real smart idea since statistics show you’re 4.5 times more likely to get shot if carrying a gun and 4.2 times more likely to get killed vs someone not armed. Oh yeah I’d send my kids there as really want them to experience a shootout…NOT! Ignorance and lack of education again rears it’s head, then and now…nuff said.
Harold Hal Kelly
A lot of you sure have a lot to say about Houston from your perches and from your perfect cities. Houston is not going to die because of this and our gay community will either learn from this or they will slide further into apathy. I voted. I got in an argument with my boss and with straight people who love and adore me and my gay friends over his vote. The other guys did their work and we lost our ass, that’s true. They played to fear and used it so well. But, we are a growing city. This is one loss over many victories in our city since having our first gay mayor. So get off our backs and stop trying to armchair quarterback something you didn’t fight for or work for either. It’s easy to make it look like this is our problem and not your problem, too. I’m glad we won’t run into a corner and die as you all are suggesting. Don’t worry, though. This type of bullshit is coming your way to your city one day and I hope you’ll learn from our mistakes in this election. But that will mean you’ll have to actually stop blowing smoke up your own righteous asses long enough to learn something. Get off our throats and offer support to the gays and lesbians here and in your own cities. We need Heroes not bullies.
David Red
Hate should have consequences.
cleverusername
I don’t live in Houston. I grew up in the Chicago area and Austin, TX. But I went to school in Houston, and it is not a bigot redneck city or whatever. It’s actually metropolitan compared to most southern cities and has a vibrant gayborhood. This was an extremely poor campaign, and while I have gripes about Houston, it was a pretty gay friendly city and is objectively one of the most diverse cities in the country. The turn out was mostly old hicks from the surrounding suburbs/country. They had poor outreach, and the vote turnout was pathetic, but it didn’t help that the bigoted lawmakers in Austin unfairly forced it to a vote in the first place, when much of the petition was determined to be forged. Shame on Houston for passing this law, but Houston is still no Alabama.
cleverusername
Also, recall that Houston is the largest city in the country to have ever had an openly gay mayor. I’m not defending the apathetic citizens of Houston who don’t give a crap enough about their city to vote, but it did have a lot of support in the polls before the vote, so take this with a grain of salt. Also, this is certainly not over. Rest assured, this will be a lengthy legal battle.
Mike Knazek
So what world do you live in where it is discrimination to say MEN cannot use WOMEN’S restrooms??????? Give me a fucking break. WHAT A JOKE
Nick Marriott
Maybe Irwin Allen was onto something in,’The Swarm!’……..for you youngins,he burnt the fucking city down!
DarkZephyr
@Harold Hal Kelly: your rant was misdirected, Harold. A LOT of us are indignant *on your behalf*. We are pissed that our LGBT brothers and sisters are being treated this way. If we were the self centered douche bags that you are trying to paint us as, we wouldn’t feel so passionately about this. So take your anger and focus it on the bigots who actually DID this to you, and not those of us who are just pissed on your behalf, dammit.
DarkZephyr
@Harold Hal Kelly: BTW, I am a former Texan and so I took your loss fairly personally.
Randy Bowling
Civil rights are human rights. Everyone is entitled to the same treatment. What is so hard to understand this, because you were misled and thought it was all about what public bathroom people should use. Typical religious republican extremist tactic, overshadow the truth and spread fear and ignorance.
SeeingAll
@cleverusername: I’ve heard that about Houston too (though I’ll admit I’ve never been to Texas). Gay mayor, big gayborhood. I guess the gays and their allies didn’t care too much about the whole thing.
SeeingAll
@Nick Marriott: That’s one of the movies that brought Irwin himself down.
SeeingAll
@Harold Hal Kelly: You forget Texas is one of the Gay-Required Enemies (up there with Israel, Ireland, Christianity, “Faux” News, and straight white athletes). Don’t fret over it.
SeeingAll
@Marc Hall: Statistically there are other cities where your kids are more likely to die in a shootout. And none in Texas.
SeeingAll
@Ra Hill: To….punish every Houston gay business for the gays that didn’t vote…?
SeeingAll
@Michael Mueller: Oh, another example of the benevolent gay person are you.
Russell Howes
We flew through Houston to Costa Rica all I can say is don’t bother and avoid America. The wait for passport control was over 1.5 hours with the excuse we have had cut backs and job losses. There was 6 desks open on a 146 desk passport control. There’s obviously major issues going on in Houston and all over America ….. Avoid this country at all costs when travelling
SeeingAll
@Russell Howes: Wish all of you foreigners would avoid the U.S. I’m sick of you clogging up NYC. Especially the British types. (And what’s with the NYC hospitality industry always hiring them just because of those accents? Is that supposed to be cool or something?)
Mike Lundstrom
HELEN KELLER could have seen that one coming
Brian
In this case, discrimination is good. Discrimination serves to protect women from having their rest rooms invaded by men who feel they are women, make-up and all.
Think about how women feel. It’s not always about you. You may feel you are a woman but you should stop to think how women feel when you enter their rest rooms. Put the selfishness aside and think about it.
Timothy Warner
Texas, what can I say.
jag4313
This is sad. As a native Houstonian, I am horribly disgusted with this city. I am looking forward to Houston feeling the backlash of this.
1EqualityUSA
Brian, given your past postings, I cannot believe you are concerned about how women feel.
Cam
@SeeingAll:
Annnnnd what a surprise, the guy who always defends anti-gay bigotry not only blames the victims but also gets in a section defending shootings in Houston.
At least you’re consistent.
Rimminit
Just goes to show how gullible people can be when they don’t spend the time to learn the facts. Let this be a lesson for all of us.
Rick Stoneham
Huge bummer! I thought Houston,Dallas and Austin were Democrat leaning islands in the sea of red that is Texas. Guess I was wrong or that people didn’t come out to vote!
Giancarlo85
@Cam: Ignore the homophone. He isn’t worth anyone’s time.
Houston will pay dearly for this error. The state economy is crumbling and crime is out of control. SeeingNothing is making things up once again.
California is the place to go… And we are creating more jobs and a far better atmosphere. Oh and we don’t elect idiot republicans.
onthemark
@1EqualityUSA: lol – “Brian” must have been hit on the head with a purse recently.
Mike Gillispie
First please note I’m using my name. If Houston doesn’t want you, perhaps it’s time to get out of Dodge. I know it’s easier said than Done. Family, economic conditions could hold you back, but please think about it. Those reasons are what the bigots are relying on for no economic backlash. The older you are the harder it is. The bigots synomous with christians (deliberate lower case) are aware the NFL Will not pull the SUPER BOWL OUT. BUT the LGBTQ community doesn’t have to aid in running, organizing or spending their large discretionary income on it.
Sluggo2007
Houston is deep in the heart of the Bible Belt. What do you expect?
MinnesotaNotNice
@Desert Boy: Well stated and sadly all too true about the mindset of Texas.
aliengod
It seems to me that this had more to do with T and less with LGB. I can’t say that I blame women for not wanting men using their restrooms. What on earth does that have to do with LGB?
Captain Obvious
Texas is a terrible place for any minority to live. I don’t understand why people haven’t figured this out by now. They’re not hiding it like other places, they’re right in your face with it. Your fault if you press on when they let you know from jump.
Cam
@aliengod: said…
“It seems to me that this had more to do with T and less with LGB. I can’t say that I blame women for not wanting men using their restrooms. What on earth does that have to do with LGB?”
_________________________
Ok, so what about a big muscled, bearded, Burley, transgender man using the bathroom? Remember, now, because the law didn’t pass, people born women who have been on hormones for years, and look like butch men will still have to use the bathroom. All those fearful women did is INSURE that they will be using the bathroom with men.
Bobby Florida Born
As they should feel the backlash!
Glücklich
The bill’s failure is as indicative of Houston in general as Prop 8’s initial success was of California’s.
Not like I’m a Houston booster but if you’ve never been to Houston (or only passed through IAH or HOU), shut your traps. It may not be New York or London but it is far more cosmopolitan than its detractors paint it to be.
The fact that Houston is home to one of the world’s largest complexes of hospitals and medical research facilities as well as the Johnson Space Center does not indicate a dearth of well-educated people, to say nothing of the fact the size of its economy ranks it about 25th in the world with GDP of close to USD half a trillion.
As other commentors have pointed out, there was low voter turn-out and like California’s Prop 8, the bad guys were better-organized. Like California, sooner or later Houston’ll get this right.
In the mean time I fully support boycotting the city by relocating scheduled sporting and other events to cities where the voters are more inclusive and perhaps pressuring the MANY Fortune 500 companies who make Houston their home to exercise their influence by supporting a revised measure on a future ballot or a reversal through the courts.
SeeingAll
@Cam: Stop being a fool. A boycott only hurts the gay mayor and every gay business in Houston.
SeeingAll
@Captain Obvious: Houston is over 50 percent black and Hispanic though.
SeeingAll
@Glücklich: If any topic has shown how many yapping know-nothing clownish need-to-bond posters come on Queerty, it’s been this one. All they see is the basic headline and they come on here like gaybots. In gaybot monotone : “Texas bad” “Texas should be given back to Mexico” “Texas should succeeed” “George Bush from Texas” “In Bible belt Texas they love to gaybash…” etc etc. They know nothing about how varied the cities are, Houston’s gay mayor, what the gayborhoods in each city have been like….
nickvanallen
DIDN’T THEY LEARN FROM WHEN THEY TEAXS VOTED TO NOT LEGALIZE GAY MARRIAGE THEY GOT A FUCKIN FLOOD WHILE IRELAND GOT A DOUBLE RAINBOW?? #GODSPEAKS #LISTENUP
Michael Claypoole
As well they should.
GayEGO
This is just the beginning of losses to Houston as many businesses will block Houston from their venues in order to protect their employees and to support equality for them and their customers. The Enron executives were from Houston weren’t they? This was a bad decision made by the Houston voters.
drivendervish
20 years ago Arizona voted to cancel the national holiday for Martin Luther King and they suffered the same kind of backlash. Ridiculed throughout the country and losing a super bowl,etc until they rescinded.
PROVING
The far right “fringe” never learns!
Mack
@Tom Gouzoules: I pretty much agree with you. I’ve had discussions with people who actually thought it meant that men in men clothing would be in the ladies room. It’s ignorance by the Religious Right groups that pushing this. I’m all for them putting someone on the door and asking for ID from anyone going into the restrooms. It would be an inconvenience to those jerks.
Mark Sullenger
Good. Bunch of back woods hillbillies! I won’t be back!
Giancarlo85
@aliengod: Again blame blame blame that’s all a gay republican can do on here. Now you’re blaming trans people (who are PART of our community no matter how much denial you are in).
Texas is a horrible state with horrible values. They can’t even respect their own environment. Houston is one of the most dirty polluted cities in this country, and even Los Angeles has cleaner air than it does.
SeeingAbsolutelyNothing missed the point completely. We need to hurt Texas and punish the entire state in any way we can. Maybe a further oil price crash is in the works? Anything to strangle the state of revenues. Texas deserves it for having an economy based on one major commodity (oil) and electing dumb fucks to the Congress. This has nothing to do with the mayor of Houston. This has everything to do with the state as a whole.
They tried robbing California of certain companies and failed miserably, and in fact we basically stole jobs off them in the last year or so.
Karma is a bitch.
Giancarlo85
@Glücklich: Houston is a polluted toxic mess and the whole state is actually losing jobs and money. Texas is starting to slide down the rankings as other nations/states surpass it.
I’m glad I live in California. A progressive state, with the most advanced companies in the world based here including RocketX. A state that respects its citizens and no longer would allow such a thing to get to the voters.
Houston failed miserably and will continue to fail. It’s an oil city. That’s all it will ever be.
I would strongly recommend any major company based in Houston and Texas as a whole, relocate and eliminate any jobs they have in the state.
SeeingAll
@Giancarlo85: I always picture you wearing one of those really tall headdresses made out of fruit.
Giancarlo85
Did SeeingAbsolutelyNothing say something? Nope… someone must have passed gas.
ButtStuff
@SeeingAll: He looks like Bert, from Sesame Street. Just Google Giancarlo85, chathour, images. He’s the little white dude in the teal v neck.
SeeingAll
@Mark Sullenger: If you think Houston is a bunch of backwards hillbillies, I wonder if you were even there the first time.
Onno Visser
Houston we got a problem uhmmmm no Houston you got a problem …..
SeeingAll
@ButtStuff: Yikes (Bert doesn’t look that sinister).
SeeingAll
http://www.nationaljournal.com/next-america/economic-empowerment/how-houstons-black-voters-stopped-equal-rights-ordinance?mref=scroll So, was it because of black voters ?
zooby
@Giancarlo85: @Giancarlo85: I’m sure they will all listen to you.
Giancarlo85
ButtCrude: http://www.chathour.com/LilFatMan – I strongly urge people to register on that site and ask what they think about this troll. You’ll get a pretty sharp answer. A rabid homophobe who has called for the execution of gay people.
Not a white dude at all here. If you think so, you need to get an eyeball transplant (not even glasses would help that this point).
@zooby: Another republican brownnoser?
ButtStuff
@Giancarlo85: You really don’t remember me do you?
https://img.4plebs.org/boards/s4s/image/1411/17/1411172799436.jpg
Giancarlo85
@ButtStuff: OF COURSE I DO.
http://www.chathour.com/LilFatMan
They miss you there. Time to head back!
loujourtajour
Most people need to remember Houston has a fairly big LGBT community and yes there weren’t enough voters out there.
Yes, the work done was very minimal and concentrated without reaching out to voters outside the LGBT community.
Overall, it was disorganized and I’m surprised no one is calling out HRC on this (among other groups), but mostly HRC. HRC helps facilitate political campaigns across the country. The right-wing anti-HERO group was organized from day one once this ordinance was put up to a ballot.
HRC was no where to be found on day one. Why? They knew they would lose. Besides also attempting to aide Hilary Clinton’s presidential campaign (which is to gain more $$$ and donations if she is elected), they knew Texas generally being a red state would be a loss.
BUT THEY CERTAINLY CAME IN LAST MINUTE FOR THE PHOTO OP.
I’m not saying it’s up to a large political organization to fight local races every chance possible; but because HRC’s mission is to promote equality and use their resources (locally and nationally fundraised), they failed in taking care of this in a more timely manner.
And now the rest of country understands what HRC did understand, Houston is full of young non-voters and the LGBT community at large is mostly inactive in political races. Why? The majority of the LGBT community in Houston is non-caucasian, highly religious, and more than likely speaks another language. Not just Latino/Hispanic people, but also people from the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Yes, there are gladly many LGBT folks in Houston who are geniuses and work in various industries, but those folks are few and far between.
The reason Annise Parker was elected is because she’s actually just a good candidate who was a successful a city comptroller and had the democratic within the city vote — and happened to be a Lesbian.
SeeingAll
@Giancarlo85: GianCarlo you’re definitely not white (SOME white, though). Not ugly either. But definitely androgynous and as mean-looking as I’d have expected.
Giancarlo85
I never said I was black. I am certainly not white. Androgynous is sexy. And mean looking lol? Thank you. Takes one to know one.
FamilyinTex
@Harold Hal Kelly: Well said, Harold!
FamilyinTex
All of you calling Houston a bigoted hellhole etc: how many openly gay mayors has your major city elected? Unh huh, I didn’t think so.
This vote all came down to one issue – men in women’s restrooms. The opposition was able to drum up fear over the issue, and HERO supporters didn’t do a thing to try to dispel it. It was a failure on the part of the HERO supporters. Actually multiple failures on the part of HERO supporters. The first failure was putting the verbiage in the ordinance to allow men who identify female to use women’s restrooms. Every other aspect of the ordinance was completely uncontroversial, it likely would never had gone to referendum if it hadn’t been for this component. The supporters of HERO could have done far more to allay people’s fears about this, and there are survivors of rape, etc, for whom seeing a man in the bathroom might be a legitimate trigger. But HERO supporters did none of this. Their approach to the “men in ladies rooms” campaign was pretty much “I’m not going to dignify that with a response”, and that was a colossal mistake. The pro-HERO TV spots were terrible. There is only one that stood out in my mind, and the only issue it addressed was a military veteran claiming a potential employer told him to his face that he was anti-military and wouldn’t hire him because of his service. It was hard to believe that really happened (it’s already illegal at the federal level to discriminate based on veteran status, so why would someone openly admit to doing that?), but it also seemed like a transparant attempt to pander to patriotism while sweeping the other protections HERO offers under the rug, so it fell flat.
FamilyinTex
@Giancarlo85: @Giancarlo85
“Texas is a horrible state with horrible values. They can’t even respect their own environment. Houston is one of the most dirty polluted cities in this country, and even Los Angeles has cleaner air than it does. “
You couldn’t be more wrong. Houston averages about 1 unhealthy air quality day a year, while Los Angeles averages about 14, similar to Riverside/San Bernadino, California. But that’s nothing compared to Fresno, CA, which has around 25 unhealthy air days a year, or Bakersfield, California, which has as many as 43 unhealthy air days a year. Four of the 10 most polluted cities in the country are in the “Golden” State.
FamilyinTex
@Giancarlo85:
“The state economy is crumbling and crime is out of control. SeeingNothing is making things up once again.
“California is the place to go… And we are creating more jobs and a far better atmosphere.”
Boy, you just really don’t know what the hell you’re talking about on any subject, do you? Maybe do a little research before you speak.
Texas’ economy is not “crumbling” and is not dependent on oil like you claim, it’s still growing despite record low oil prices because it has diversified so much: http://money.cnn.com/2015/08/17/news/economy/texas-economy-oil-prices/ Texas’ annual real GDP growth rate has been outpacing California’s by about 2.5 points, and is expected to continue to do so despite oil prices, again, because we have long since diversified beyond oil, but also because the state has a much lower cost of living and much more business-friendly environment.
Houston’s cost of living index is 92.2, versus Bakerfield’s 103.4, Fresno’s 117.3, Los Angeles’ 136.4.
SeeingAll
@FamilyinTex: Don’t worry about it. Most of those commenting here know nothing of the facts and just want to bond over an imagined stereotype of one of their official “enemies”, Texas being one. Note how the criticism of Houston stopped mighty quick when it was learned that voters were more than 50 percent minorities.
1EqualityUSA
diversified? Oh, Ted Cruz to Rick Perry, to Ken Paxton…maybe if Texas stopped voting for these freakers to represent them in public, we’d start seeing some of the beauty you see. My spouse went to Austin for a conference and was treated so well by the locals. She really was amazed at how gentle and kind they were to their SF posse. I have hope.