There's a petition posted online to generate support for the Houston pastors targeted by lesbian Mayor Annise Parker with subpoenas for their "speeches."
It's all because they've spoken out about the biblical perspective on homosexuality and their disagreement with the city's new moral agenda, as outlined in an ordinance providing special rights to transgenders.
The petition was gaining traction via Twitter, when all of a sudden there was a "problem."
According to a report from Hot Air, the petition was blocked.
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Kelly Harkness at the Daily Signal noted the hashtag #HoustonWeHaveAProblem was flagged as possibly being unsafe.
"This link has been flagged as potentially harmful," the message said. "Harmful sites can include: Web forgeries or phishing sites, Sites that download malicious software onto your computer, Span sites that request personal information."
The blockage stirred the petition sponsors at FaithDrivenConsumer to react: "Not again! @Twitter is blocking you from typing www(dot)HoustonProblem(dot)com. Help us get the petition unblocked!"
The Daily Signal reported Thursday that Twitter was blaming it all on a "glitch," a "technical malfunction."
"The URL HoustonProblem.com was mistakenly flagged as spam last week, by an outside organization that tracks spam sources," a Twitter spokesman told the Signal. "We quickly restored access and apologize for the error."
The trouble doesn't seem to have impacted the petition greatly, as organizers say they were aiming for a goal of 10,000 signatures and by Thursday already had 11,360.
It states: "Dear City of Houston, Pastors have been at the very center of American society since even before our founding as a nation, and they remain an integral part of the lives of untold of millions of Americans today. They cheer us on when we succeed, lift us up when we fall, and pray with us in our darkest times of need. Pastors were leaders in the fight for American independence, pastors made the moral case to abolish slavery, pastors argued for women’s suffrage, pastors advocated for much needed child labor laws, and pastors – including one from Georgia whose life is celebrated by a new monument in Washington, D.C. – championed the cause of civil rights. During every national moment of crisis, we turn to our pastors for guidance, strength, and wisdom."
And it explains: "Our First Amendment protects freedom of speech and religion, which has made these significant accomplishments possible. If pastors had been silenced, if they had not been free to speak out on issues in our society, America would not be what it is today. In fact, America would not be."
It notes: "People of faith – who are a significant part of America’s rich rainbow of diversity – share the same fundamental rights as other groups. Your legal actions against a group of respected clergy members in the city of Houston constitute aggressive bullying, the very offense from which you seek to protect another community in the city. This is unconstitutional, un-American, and the very height of hypocrisy."
The petition lets signers "stand with these valued faith leaders and demand that you cease and desist all bullying and other offensive actions against them."
Through the petition signers say: "I also call on the city of Houston, in their quest to provide protection for LGBT citizens, to equally and explicitly acknowledge and ensure the equal rights of people of faith to live and express openly their deeply held religious beliefs. Furthermore, I ask that you apologize to the pastors, the people of Houston, and people of faith across the nation. Nobody should face persecution in America simply for what they believe."
Petition organizers noted that they also saw a similar result – a "glitch" – when a petition was posted in support of Gov. Mike Huckabee and others in support of Duck Dynasty's Phil Robertson and actor Kirk Cameron.
Asked Hot Air: "Is this a 'repeated pattern' we're seeing? I don’t know. Twitter seems to be a fairly open platform. In fact, conservative Twitter and the #tcot hashtag are some huge traffic draws. Twitter is in business to boost numbers. … Far easier to believe is that someone used the spam/abuse reporting system in large numbers to kill off the link and the hashtag. It's not something that one or two people can do, but if there is a concerted effort organized by a large group of users, they can all report a particular user or other instance of text and trigger a ban."