Here is the speech I gave to the Houston City Council 4 August 2015. The Council was under an order from the Texas Supreme Court to repeal the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance or put it on the ballot in November. It voted 16 to 5 not to repeal it. We supporters were advised to wear red and the Mayor did.
We were also advised to give a testimonial about our own experiences with discrimination. I do not have a good testimonial and I was very much in rebuttal mode. I still think both testimonials and rebuttals are needed.
I had just one minute to speak. In the previous 2 speeches the bell rang on me, but this time I got to the end. Here is my speech.
Thank you. I am Scott Tillinghast, district C, for HERO. Two points:
I have friends who are transgender. This ordinance allows transgender persons simply to use restrooms for legitimate purposes. There still are laws against entering the wrong restrooms for nefarious purposes.
Second point: A jury found many invalid petition signatures, not enough good ones for the judge. I am not a lawyer, but to me it seems this state Supreme Court used a real technicality to sidestep the issue of signatures: namely, just because the City Secretary had already certified them, before the City Attorney asked more questions.
If there can be this 'bathroom hoax' and the dubious signatures, HERO must be needed. I thank you for your time.