Fear And Bigotry Win!

Human Rights took a right turn yesterday in Huston when fear, hatred, and bigotry won. When you look at civil rights you will see that there have been very few wins, women suffrage, integration, gay rights, and now trans have lost at the ballot boxes. The oppression of the few by the many is what happens when you put human rights to a referendum. It took the courts or legislation to open up the ballot to women and blacks. It took the Supreme Court to overturn state constitutions the legalized discrimination against lesbians and gays.

The lies won out. An article in the Huffington Politics said,

This factually dishonest message proved to be incredibly effective: Many Houston voters seemed to think the measure was solely about access to restrooms and were unaware of the broader nondiscrimination protections in the measure.
[…]
Lance Berkman, who used to play for the Houston Astros, cut an ad with the same message, saying he was concerned about the safety of his female family members if HERO passed.

"My wife and I have four daughters," he said in the spot. "Proposition 1 would allow troubled men who claim to be women to enter women's bathrooms, showers, and locker rooms. It's better to prevent this danger by closing women's restrooms to men, rather than waiting for a crime to happen."

And of course we know that sports stars always tell the truth and walk on water.

So what was the final vote?

Texas Tribune reported that,

With 95 percent of votes counted, 61 percent of voters opposed the measure. The embattled ordinance, better known as HERO, would have made it illegal to discriminate against someone based on 15 different “protected characteristics,” including sex, race, religion, sexual orientation and gender identity.

When you connect with a pure emotion of joy, anger, anxiety, pensiveness, grief, fear, or fright it is hard to change to a person’s views and the “bathroom” ads connected with two of them anxiety and fear.

Huffington Post looks at the strategy to counter the fear and hate that right wing bigots use against us.

The Trans Movement Needs a New, Science Based Strategy
By Brynn Tannehill
Posted: 11/03/2015

Tuesday's defeat of the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO) highlights several conclusions that the LGBT movement needs to take to heart for the next decade or so. Foremost is that we will not win transgender issues directly at the ballot box, or in the gerrymandered republican legislatures which dominate the political landscape.
[…]
When opponents frame legal protections for transgender people as a choice between a group strangers (who are suspected of being perverts anyway) and the safety your wives and daughters, transgender people will lose every time. So far, anti-LGBT forces have been far more successful at pushing their narrative.

I don't foresee this changing anytime soon.

And neither do I, we can’t win through referendums but ballot initiatives also most never give away the oppression by the majority. The article goes on to say,

Time and time again over the past seven years we have seen gains for transgender people have come from convincing individuals in positions of authority to make simple policy based changes. Passports, Medicare coverage of transgender health, driver's license gender marker changes without surgery, inclusion of gender identity protections and health care in the private sector: all of these were accomplished with smart and surgical approaches.

Similarly, when we win in court, it is because we have made better arguments in front of someone who is supposed to be a neutral arbiter. Judges are not supposed to be swayed by emotion, fear, or religious beliefs. [That is why I feel judges should not be elected because they are thinking about what will get them elected again, not the law.] Their job is to interpret the law, and the law is often decided based on scientific evidence.
[…]
There are four ways to change the legal framework that transgender people live under: legislation, ballots, case law, and policy changes. The sooner we stop wasting our time tilting at legislative and ballot windmills, the better. Doing the latter requires building the strongest scientific consensus possible.

I don’t quite agree with this, it all depends on the legislative climate. If the legislature is moderate and can be persuaded to do right thing we should try going the legislative route.

However, bigotry and fear of people who are different won out yesterday in Huston.