Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, a possible GOP presidential candidate in 2016, is blasting Houston Mayor Annise Parker for taking legal action to obtain from a group of local pastors copies of sermons that have anything to do with homosexuality, gender identity or the mayor.
As WND reported Monday, the subpoena came 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.
In a statement Wednesday, Cruz said he was proud “to stand with the pastors.”
“Religious liberty is the very first protection in the Bill of Rights, the foundation of all our liberties,” he said. “The city of Houston’s subpoenas demanding that pastors provide the government with copies of their sermons is both shocking and shameful.”
The subpoenas were issued to five pastors after opponents of the ordinance filed a lawsuit. The pastors were part of a coalition of Houston-area churches that opposed the law, but they were not part of the lawsuit.
Representing the pastors, the Alliance Defending Freedom has filed a motion to quash the city’s demands to see the sermons, arguing the pastors are not party to the suit.
Parker, a lesbian, has admitted the anti-discrimination ordinance is “all about” her and her lifestyle.
“The mayor should be ashamed,” Cruz said. “And we should all be proud to stand up and defend the pastors who are resisting these blatant attempts to suppress their First Amendment rights.”
Cruz said that for “far too long, the federal government has led an assault against religious liberty, and now, sadly, my hometown of Houston is joining the fight.”
“This is wrong. It’s unbefitting of Texans, and it’s un-American,” he said. “The government has no business asking pastors to turn over their sermons. These subpoenas are a grotesque abuse of power, and the officials who approved them should be held accountable by the people.”
Enabling sexual predators
The lawsuit challenging Houston’s Equal Rights Ordinance alleges the city violated its own charter in its adoption of the law, 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 Parker after officials announced a voter petition to repeal the measure didn’t have enough signatures to qualify for the election ballot.
According to a deposition from Houston city Secretary Anna Russell, her office had counted 19,177 signatures in the petition to repeal the measure and then stopped, because the qualifying number of 17,269 signatures already had been reached, with a margin.
The pastors’ coalition explained, “Her position is that it would be a waste of resources to continue to count when we clearly and easily had met the city charter standard.”
However, the deposition revealed that the mayor and the city attorney, David Feldman, then simply overturned the result.
Russell said she was told to add the following statement to her count: “According to the city attorney’s office and reviewed by the city secretary the analysis of the city attorney’s office, 2,750 pages containing 16,010 signatures do not contain sufficient acknowledgment as required by the charter. Therefore, according to the city attorney’s office only 2,449 pages containing 15,249 signatures can lawfully be considered toward the signatures required.”
The lawsuit was filed shortly later.
‘Big Brother overlords’
The city’s subpoena of the pastors, ADF contends, 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 about the voter lawsuit and 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.
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. Russell confirmed in writing Aug. 1 that the petition sponsors had submitted 17,846 qualified signatures, nearly 600 above the minimum 17,269.
Opponents have argued Feldman did not have the authority to step in and make the decision and that if there were concerns over the petitions, 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:
[jwplayer MXH2qmSc]
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.
