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Annise Parker, the openly homosexual mayor of Houston, has rowed back on an attempt to force church pastors to provide her with copies of their sermons. The church ministers opposed the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO) which, amongst other things, sought to provide access to single sex toilets by those identifying as transgender.
However, following public controversy over the move, the City of Houston has announced that it will narrow the parameters of the demands.
Rejection of repeal petition
The provisions of HERO have attracted widespread opposition. A petition seeking to repeal the ordinance attracted over 50, 000 signatures. However the City authorities claimed that only 15, 249 of the signatures met the requirements and hence the petition fell short of the 17, 269 required to put the question of repeal to a public ballot.
A legal challenge to that decision was launched. In response, the City indicated that it would seek to subpoena material including sermons preached by church pastors who it is claimed encouraged people to support the petition to repeal HERO.
The religious liberty group, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), responded by filing a motion on behalf of the pastors to stop the subpoenas describing them as “overbroad, unduly burdensome, harassing, and vexatious.” ADF described the city’s “needless and unprecedented” subpoenas as “a witch-hunt…designed to stifle any critique of its actions.”
Mayor Parker’s demands to see the sermons shocked many Americans who saw them as a direct attack on constitutional First Amendment (freedom of speech) and freedom of religion rights.
'Bullying'
Steve Riggle, one of the subpoenaed pastors claimed, “This is an attempt to chill pastors from speaking to the cultural issues of the day. The Mayor would like to silence our voice. She’s a bully.”
Meanwhile Texas Senator Ted Cruz called the moves a “grotesque abuse of power” by the city government, adding, “For far too long, the federal government has led an assault against religious liberty, and now sadly…Houston is joining the fight.”
Initially the Mayor responded to criticism by saying that the pastors’ sermons were “fair game” but has more recently admitted that the demand to see sermons should not have been made and city officials have confirmed that the scope of the subpoena will be narrowed.