Houston Equal Rights Ordinance Report

HERO: To be or not to be?

Introduction

HERO, the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, according to the City of Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (2014), covers nondiscrimination against sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, familial status, marital status, military status, religion, disability, sexual orientation, genetic information, gender identity, and pregnancy. The ordinance lists sections of protection within city services and employment, contracting with the city, public accommodations, private employment, and housing.

Although the ordinance protects several classes of people within five separate categories, the ordinance became the policy in favor of men in women’s bathrooms. With a lot of attention on transgender people within

In fact, according to Christina Mancini (2014), “an overwhelming majority of sex crimes committed are by known perpetrators such as family members, acquaintances, and intimate partners. This pattern is consistent across sex offenses involving adult and child victims (p.103). The National Survey of Children’s exposure to Violence (NatSCEV) also found that minors are significantly more likely to be abused by a known adult or peer than by a stranger. Even in the media and more widely used Amber alerts, children are being abducted and assaulted by family members or acquaintances. Even though there are studies and overwhelming statistics to say abuse is acted out by people known to victims, residents across the nation, including Houston would like to only acknowledge strangers, possible queers and those with differing gender

As many as 93% of children are abused by a known person; the reason a known person is able to gain access and opportunity to their victims is through grooming the child and the child’s family. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, “Grooming is a method of building trust with a child and adults around the child in an effort to gain access to and time alone with her/him… More common, though, are subtle approaches designed to build relationships with families. The offender may assume a caring role, befriend the child, or even exploit their position of trust and authority to groom the child and/or the child’s family” (p. 1). Grooming is the most common method for sexual predators to abuse children. Because grooming allows predators to become familiar, the victimization is more common than extreme cases of assault and rape publicly. Opponents of HERO, who are fully aware of stranger danger myths, lack knowledge that a large portion of victims know their abuser and the abuse is able to happen due to grooming of the victim and their family. If more residents were as privy to grooming as they were sexual myths, they would understand the ‘bathroom ordinance’ is not a threat or something to fear, especially after the mayor removed the bathroom specifics. Due to this unawareness on the part of most Houstonians, the LGBTQ community