ldsuttonjr Loc: ShangriLa

Major U.S. city demands oversight of sermons

Posted By Bob Unruh On 10/13/2014

Houston Mayor Annise Parker

Officials with the city of Houston, Texas, who are defending a controversial ordinance that would allow men to use women’s restrooms now have demanded to see the sermons preached by several area pastors.

The recent move came in a subpoena from the city to pastors for copies of their sermons and other communications in the city’s legal defense of a “non-discrimination” measure that allows “gender-confused” people to use public restrooms designated for the opposite sex.

A lawsuit challenging Houston’s move alleges the city violated its own charter in its adoption of the Equal Rights Ordinance, which in May designated homosexuals and transgender persons as a protected class.

Critics say the measure effectively enables sexual predators who dress as women to enter female public bathrooms, locker rooms and shower facilities. A coalition of activists that includes area pastors filed suit Aug. 6 against the city and lesbian Mayor Annise Parker after officials announced a voter petition to repeal the measure didn’t have enough signatures to qualify for the election ballot.

Parker, who has acknowledged the ordinance is “all about me,” was legally married to her same-sex partner in California in January.

The Alliance Defending Freedom has filed a motion to quash the city’s demands to see the sermons. ADF argues the pastors are not party to the lawsuit, and the city’s strategy doesn’t meet the requirements of state law that requires such efforts “be reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence, not be overly broad, seek only information that is not privileged and relevant to the subject matter of the litigation, and not cause undue burden or harassment.”

ADF said city officials “are upset over a voter lawsuit filed after the city council rejected valid petitions to repeal a law that allows members of the opposite sex into each other’s restrooms.”

ADF attorneys say the city is “illegitimately demanding that the pastors, who are not party to the lawsuit, turn over their constitutionally protected sermons and other communications simply so the city can see if the pastors have ever opposed or criticized the city.”

“City council members are supposed to be public servants, not ‘Big Brother’ overlords who will tolerate no dissent or challenge,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Erik Stanley. “In this case, they have embarked upon a witch hunt, and we are asking the court to put a stop to it.”

ADF Litigation Counsel Christiana Holcomb said the city’s subpoena of sermons and other pastoral communications is needless and unprecedented.

“The city council and its attorneys are engaging in an inquisition designed to stifle any critique of its actions. Political and social commentary is not a crime; it is protected by the First Amendment,” she said.

While the public submitted more than three times the legally required number of petition signatures to require city action, and the city secretary certified the number as sufficient, the mayor and city attorney “defied” the law and rejected the certification, ADF said.

“The message is clear: oppose the decisions of city government, and drown in unwarranted, burdensome discovery requests,” said a brief in support of the motion to quash. “These requests, if allowed, will have a chilling effect on future citizens who might consider circulating referendum petitions because they are dissatisfied with ordinances passed by the city council.

“Not only will the nonparty pastors be harmed if these discovery requests are allowed, but the people will suffer as well. The referendum process will become toxic and the people will be deprived of an important check on city government provided them by the charter.”

WND has reported similar measures in other jurisdictions across the country. Opponents point to incidents such a man in Indianapolis who allegedly went into a women’s locker room at a YMCA and watched girls, ages 7 and 10, shower.

Opposition in Houston was led by a coalition including the Baptist Ministers Association of Houston, the Houston Area Pastor Council, the Houston Ministers against Crime, AME Ministers Alliance of Houston/Gulf Coast, the Northeast Ministers Alliance, the South Texas Full Gospel Baptist Fellowship, the South Texas District of the Assemblies of God and the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.

The coalition had submitted more than 55,000 signatures in the referendum drive. City Secretary Anna Russell confirmed in writing Aug. 1 that the petition sponsors had submitted 17,846 qualified signatures, nearly 600 above the minimum 17,269.

However, City Attorney David Feldman announced 2,750 petitions were invalid because of “technical problems.”

Opponents have argued Feldman did not have the authority to step in and make the decision and that it should have been handled by the courts.

Critics dubbed the Houston law the “sexual predator protection act,” claiming that by designating transgender or gender-confused persons as a protected class, women and children are threatened by predators seeking to exploit the ordinance’s ambiguous language.

Political activist Steven F. Hotze said the ordinance would establish minority status for transvestites, allowing men who dress as women to enter women’s public bathrooms, locker rooms and shower facilities.

“I want to protect my wife, daughters and granddaughters from being exposed to the dangers of male sexual predators masquerading as women in women’s public bathrooms and other facilities,” he said. “This is why it has been called the Sexual Predators’ Protection Act.”

Similar cases also have erupted in Maryland, Florida and Colorado, which adopted a radical “transgender nondiscrimination” bill in 2008 that makes it illegal to deny a person access to public accommodations, including restrooms and locker rooms, based on gender identity or the “perception” of gender identity. One consequence of the law is a ruling forcing authorities to permit 6-year-old Coy Mathis – a boy who says he thinks he’s a girl – to use the girls bathroom at his elementary school.

Nationwide, 17 states and the District of Columbia have embraced the transsexual agenda. Rhode Island added “gender identity and expression” to its anti-discrimination law in June with the support of Gov. Jack Markell, and Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden announced his support in an Equality Delaware video.

But other attempts to advance the transsexual agenda were defeated in Montana, Missouri, North Dakota and New York, where state Senate leaders refused to allow a vote.

Here what happened in Washington state:

The Obama administration is solidly behind the move to open locker room doors to some members of the opposite sex.

President Obama signed the U.N. Declaration on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity;
The White House hosted the first-ever meeting with transgender activists;
The Department of State made it easier for transsexuals to change the sex indicated on passports;
The U.S. Justice Department sided with a transsexual individual in an employment discrimination suit against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives;
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled for the first time last year that “gender identity or expression” in the workplace is protected under federal civil rights law;
The Office of Personnel Management inserted “gender identity” for the first time into its federal workplace anti-discrimination policy;
The American Psychiatric Association removed “gender identity disorder” from its list of mental health ailments in late 2012, a move some regarded as a lifting of the social stigma attached to transsexual behavior.

Folks...Its politics at its best!!!!

PaulPisces Loc: San Francisco

I spent 20 minutes searching the web for information on this and came up with nothing but the article quoted here from a conservative Christian website. Nothing in the Houston Chronicle or on AP Wire. This makes me question the article's validity. Can you site more references?

nwtk2007 Loc: Texas

I found this one. Looks like a legit site to me .... Not!

http://ddbarton48.com/2014/10/13/houston-texas-demands-copies-of-sermons-from-churches/

PoppaGringo Loc: Muslim City, Mexifornia, B.R.

Do you really expect the leftist media to report on this subject?

Caboose Loc: South Carolina

Any queer would question it.

lpnmajor Loc: Arkansas

So how much will the free speech cost? I assume there's a price list for our rights. They do seem to be for sale.

PoppaGringo Loc: Muslim City, Mexifornia, B.R.

Ask Obama and Holder, they are the sales people.

no propaganda please Loc: moon orbiting the third rock from the sun

I looked at the web, but found no further validation. Checking with friends in Huston apparently there was something on a local radio show a couple of days ago along this line. In the mean time I would give this as much validity as the Daily Kos which is none.

She Wolf Loc: Currently Georgia

As a woman, who is also, a mother, and a grandmother, I do not want transsexuals in the same rest room with me, my daughter and esp. not my Granddaughter. This will open the door for sexual predators to dress as women and commit rape and child molestation.

As for issuing a subpoena for a religious leader's sermon, what idiot judge granted that? My entire temple would go to jail before surrendering one word of what is said in the confines of our house of worship.

This is taking political correctness to far. When will it end?

PoppaGringo Loc: Muslim City, Mexifornia, B.R.

When we are rid of Obama and the Progressives currently ruling the Country.

cesspool jones Loc: atlanta

that's because your mind iz blind my friend...the media iz very biased, which i'm sure intellectuals like you have no idea about. suppose it's true, then what?

PoppaGringo Loc: Muslim City, Mexifornia, B.R.

If it is untrue then perhaps he should inform both CNN and FOX.

Caboose Loc: South Carolina

Hes not an intelllectual hes a queer.

Caboose Loc: South Carolina

The Texas AG is on this "queer mayor" and telling her to drop
the Subpoenas against the five Pastors. This queer has gone way too far and i look for it to blow up in her face.

no propaganda please Loc: moon orbiting the third rock from the sun

I have seen the same type of article from four different sources so far. Google it and I am sure you will find more. I even asked friends in Houston and they said it was in their newspaper already. It doesn't really surprise me with the way things are going Most people in Houston are more worried about Ebola. One of the friends to whom I spoke has cancelled his bypass surgery and is looking for another place to have it done, and hoping that his records can be transferred quickly, since it will be his third bypass and it NEEDS to be done, but not with the risk of Ebola as a secondary complication.