Confronting hate speech

Shift forward

Regarding “HERO foes narrow focus” (Page A1, Monday), I commend reporters Mike Morris and Katherine Driessen for their in-depth article about Houston’s Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO), disclosing the name of the person primarily funding the fear-mongering opposition to it and his decades-long war against gays.

All major cities in Texas, as well as major cities all over the country, and even 17 states, have ordinances similar to HERO, covering gender identity in public accommodations. And I am not aware of any reports of men, claiming to be transgender, assaulting women in women’s restrooms, as those fear-mongering ads warn.

And it’s important to remember that HERO bans discrimination not only on sexual orientation and gender identity, but also sex, race, color ethnicity, national origin, age, religion, disability, pregnancy, genetic information, and family, marital or military status — and that Houston is one of only a few of the 200 major cities in the country without any kind of antidiscrimination ordinance whatsoever.

Lorraine Wulfe, Houston

Stand for justice

Steven Hotze may have dulled his anti-gay rhetoric and incendiary theatrics, focusing instead on the fallacious argument that HERO would allow men into women’s restrooms; but, such a change in tactics cannot obscure the fact that he is peddling hate, not love and demonizing transgender individuals.

One might be tempted to simply dismiss him as extremist, but I am reminded of the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who said: “The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists will we be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice?”

Becky Edmiston-Lange, cominister, Emerson Unitarian Universalist Church, Houston