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Houston’s Anti-LGBT Activists Return With Disgusting TV Ad Opposing A New HERO (Video)

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Anti-LGBT “toilet trolls” aim to block equal rights ordinance from being revived.

The group that repealed Houston’s Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO) has released yet another disgusting, transphobic TV ad featuring a sexual predator preying on a young girl in a women’s bathroom. 

The ad, which recycles clips from one of the anti-HERO Campaign for Houston’s previous spots, encourages people to oppose efforts to revive the ordinance by voting for city candidates who oppose it in the Dec. 12 runoff. 

“We sent a message and defeated the bathroom ordinance, but some politicians don’t respect our vote, and want to bring it up again,” the ad’s narrator states. “That’s why we need to support candidates in the Dec. 12 runoff who will stand up for women’s privacy and safety. Look for your sample ballot or visit CampaignForHouston.com to see which candidates we can trust to say no to men in women’s bathrooms. Vote Dec. 12. The stakes are too high”

The Houston Chronicle reports that the ad was set to begin airing on cable and broadcast TV on Tuesday.  

After HERO’s resounding defeat at the polls Nov. 3, Mayor Annise Parker initially said it was possible the current City Council could consider a new HERO before she leaves office at the end of the year. However, Parker said Saturday she now believes it’s too late to resurrect the ordinance before her third and final term expires.  

“The problem is, I’m running out of runway,” Parker told The Texas Observer. “I have only so many council meetings left, and so it doesn’t look like I’m going to be able to do anything with it. The council members who supported it still support it, and I do hope the the next mayor of Houston will pick it back up again.”

Democratic state Rep. Sylvester Turner, who supports HERO, faces Bill King, who opposes the ordinance, in the Dec. 12 runoff for Houston mayor. The Campaign for Houston has endorsed King and at least five other city candidates who face opponents backed by LGBT groups in the runoff. The Campaign for Houston has also made 300,000 robocalls urging voters to contact council members and ask them to oppose efforts to resurrect HERO. 

“Our battle to keep men out of women’s bathrooms, showers and locker rooms is not over,” longtime anti-LGBT activist Dr. Steve Hotze wrote in an email for the Campaign for Houston on Nov. 11. “I will not tell you that it is imperative that we elect a mayor and members of council who oppose Houston’s Proposition 1, the Bathroom Ordinance. … If Sylvester Turner is elected mayor, then you can be sure that he will try to pass the Bathroom Ordinance again. The only way to prevent this is by electing a mayor and members of city council who oppose the Bathroom Ordinance.”

Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said this weekend during an appearance in Dallas that he believes TV stations in many markets would refuse to air false, fear-mongering ads like those put out by HERO opponents. However, Houston TV stations thus far have accepted them. 

Griffin also said he’s confident Houston will eventually have a new HERO. But he offered few specifics about what the LGBT movement’s strategy will be going forward when it comes to countering the transgender bathroom myth. 

“It is going to require fighting back much harder at the lies our opponents pushed forward, and I don’t know what all the answers to that are today, but I’m certain that by the time any other community in this country faces those scare tactics and lies, the movement as a whole will be ready for them,” Griffin told the Observer.

Judging by the newly released ad, that time has already arrived in Houston. If the Campaign for Houston is successful in using this strategy to defeat progressive city candidates in the runoff, it greatly diminishes the chances that HERO will be reconsidered anytime soon. 

Given that the pro-HERO Houston Unites campaign is no longer active, the question becomes, who’s going to respond to these attacks? And how? 

 

Image: Screenshot via Campaign for Houston/YouTube

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News

Fox News Host Suggests Trump ‘Force’ Court to Throw Him in Jail – by Quoting Him

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April 19, 2024

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The Fox News host who targeted a juror serving on Donald Trump’s criminal New York trial is now suggesting the ex-president should violate his gag order and “force” the court to throw him in jail, by quoting the Fox News host.

Jesse Watters came under fire earlier this week for profiling juror number two, sharing possibly identifying information published by a myriad of reporters but then using that information to pass judgment on her ability to serve.

“I’m not so sure about juror number two,” Watters concluded on Fox News.

Jurors, at the judge’s direction, were to remain anonymous, for their protection and the protection of the trial.

The judge excused her, after she said she felt she was not able to be impartial because friends and family were calling her asking if she had been chosen to serve on the Trump trial, after the media blitz.

New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan admonished the press for reporting the information, but some news outlets appeared to ignore his warning.

Watters on Wednesday “did a segment with a jury consultant, revealing details about people who had been seated on the jury and questioning whether some were ‘stealth liberals’ who would be out to convict Trump,” the Associated Press reported.

READ MORE: Gaetz: ‘Corrupt’ Republicans Could ‘Take a Bribe’ and Throw House to Dems, Blocking Trump Run

Trump later posted Watters’ quote on his Truth Social platform, leading some, including New York prosecutors, to ask the judge to cite him for allegedly breaking his gag order.

Judge Merchan ordered Trump to not mention witnesses, jurors, prosecutors, court staff, or the family members of prosecutors and court staff, CNN has reported.

New York prosecutors told Juge Merchan Trump has violated the gag order at least ten times.

“Prosecutor Christopher Conroy described the ‘most disturbing’ example as a social media message Trump posted on Wednesday evening quoting a Fox News host as saying, ‘They are catching undercover Liberal Activists lying to the Judge in order to get on the Trump Jury,'” Politico reports.

That host was Jesse Watters.

RELATED: ‘Afraid and Intimidated’: Trump Trial Juror Targeted by Fox News Dismissed

Friday afternoon, Watters appeared to egg Trump on, urging the ex-president to violate the gag order.

“I would make them put me in jail,” Watters said on Fox News. “I would have a tweet about something perhaps I said on ‘The Five’ or ‘Jesse Watters Primetime,’ and I would force them to throw me in jail.”

Watch Watters’ remark below or at this link.

 

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News

Gaetz: ‘Corrupt’ Republicans Could ‘Take a Bribe’ and Throw House to Dems, Blocking Trump Run

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9 hours ago

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April 19, 2024

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U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) says some of his fellow House Republicans would “take a bribe” to throw the razor-thin GOP majority to the Democrats if a far-right faction calls up a motion to oust Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, allowing Democrats to hand the gavel to the Minority Leader, Hakeem Jeffries. he warned if that happens, Democrats would immediately declare Trump ineligible to be President, pack the U.S. Supreme Court, and pass numerous laws like the American Rescue Plan.

“I do believe in a one seat majority there could be one or two or three of my colleagues who would take a bribe in one form or another in order to deprive the Republicans of a majority at all,” Gaetz said Friday on his podcast (video below.)

He added, “the risk that one or two of my corrupt Republican colleagues might take a bribe, take a walk, feign an ailment and flip this thing to the Democrats is a risk that is too high for me at this time.”

Gaetz’s fellow far-right Florida Republican member of Congress, Anna Paulina Luna, told listeners, “I heard that when, if and when the motion vacate is introduced, that there will be immediate resignations of a couple of more moderate members of Congress. And in the event that that happens, that ultimately means it does go to a Democrat speaker.”

RELATED: Jeffries Vows Democrats Will Ensure Ukraine Aid Passes as Johnson Defectors Grow

U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) last month filed a “motion to vacate,” which she can use at any time to force a vote to oust the GOP Speaker, Mike Johnson. U.S. Rep. Tim Massie (R-KY) and just today, U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) has signed on as co-sponsors.

Congressman Gaetz told listeners if Democrats do take the House through a force vote to remove Johnson, Democrats would “be declaring Donald Trump an insurrectionist and setting up a barrier to him being able to become the president United States.”

“That’ll be their leadoff hitter, and then the chaser to that shot will be a massive spending package that looks a lot more like the American Rescue Plan. They will blow past every concept of every cap ever imagined. You’ll be looking at Universal Basic Income, you could be looking at packing the Supreme Court.”

Watch a short clip of Gaetz’s remarks below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Stop Bringing Up Nazis and Hitler’: Marjorie Taylor Greene Smacked Down by Democrats

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Jeffries Vows Democrats Will Ensure Ukraine Aid Passes as Johnson Defectors Grow

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12 hours ago

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April 19, 2024

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Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries vowed Friday the majority of Democrats will support Republicans’ Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, and Gaza foreign aid legislation as Republican Speaker Mike Johnson lost support of another member of his conference to a faction determined to oust him.

“Democrats will provide a majority of our majority as it relates to funding Israel, humanitarian assistance, Ukraine, and our allies in the Indo Pacific,” Minority Leader Jeffries said. “It remains to be seen what Republicans will do in terms of meeting the national security needs of the American people, but it was important for House Democrats to ensure that the national security bills are going to be considered.”

Despite Republicans having a one-vote majority, more Democrats on Friday voted to move the critical and long-awaited foreign aid bills forward than did Republicans.

READ MORE: ‘Stop Bringing Up Nazis and Hitler’: Marjorie Taylor Greene Smacked Down by Democrats

The 316-94 vote included 165 Democrats and 151 Republicans voting yes, and 55 Republicans and 39 Democrats voting no.

Axios’ Juliegrace Brufke posted the list of Republicans voting against their party’s legislation.

Calling it a “rare” moment in modern congressional history to have to rely on opposition party votes to pass legislation, BBC News reports Speaker Johnson’s “hold on power is tenuous, and the legislators who oppose him – and his bid to provide aid to Ukraine – occupy some key positions within the House’s power structure.”

Amid the procedural vote to move the foreign aid funding bills forward, U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar, a far-right Republican of Arizona, announced he is joining Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), and Congressman Tim Massie (R-KY) in formally announcing their will vote to oust Speaker Johnson.

Gosar, like Greene, is reportedly a Christian nationalist. In 2022 CNN reported his “lengthy ties to White nationalists, [a] pro-Nazi blogger and far-right fringe received little pushback for years.”

RELATED: ‘Repercussions’: Democrats and Republicans Stand Against ‘Pro-Putin’ House GOP Faction

“We’ve been very honest in our assessment of the situation from the beginning,” Jeffries on Friday also declared. “At the appropriate time as House Democrats, we will have a conversation about how to deal with any hypothetical motion to vacate.”

“Moscow Marjorie Taylor Greene, Massie, and Gosar are quite a group. But central to our conversation is to make sure that the national security legislation in totality is passed by the House of Representatives.”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

 

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