Anti-gay right owes Mayor Annise Parker, city of Houston an apology

Dear Mike Huckabee, Todd Starnes, Phil Robertson, Tony Perkins, Family Research Council, Fox News, and assorted conservative & religious right figures,

By now you have all heard the decision coming down in Houston regarding HERO, the trans-inclusive non-discrimination ordinance. The judge has decided that those seeking a referendum against the ordinance did not gain enough signatures to force the issue.

And that being said, you all owe the city of Houston and particularly Mayor Annise Parker a public apology.

Granted, I am not naive. I know one is not forthcoming. The purpose of this letter is not to appeal to either your morality or integrity. It is merely to show how you all are lacking in both. It was bad enough that you helped to weave false stories of male predators attacking women in changing rooms, restrooms, and locker rooms because of this ordinance. You all have told this lie so many times, the lgbt community is almost (and unfortunately) becoming desensitized to it.

But the very limit of vile actions on your part was when you exploited a routine action by city lawyers and spun it into a tale of anti-Christian persecution rivaling that of the Massacre of the Hugenots and the Marian Persecutions. You then parlayed this into a national hysteria which culminated into 'I Stand Sunday,' widely attended, highly watched event in which all of you took your turn in the spotlight, making speeches about standing up for morality in the face of a so-called radical gay agenda determined to either persecute Christians or stamp out any difference of opinion.

It was a lie. A vulgar, vindictive, homophobic lie which in the long run did nothing to change the original outcome which led to all of the drama. Those seeking to overturn HERO did not gain enough signatures to force a referendum. And that should have been the end of the story.

But it wasn't because you all saw a chance to exploit, raise your profiles, and manipulate gullible individuals whose egos outweighed their common sense.  You got what you wanted, so now when that this situation is, for now, over with, you have the temerity to calmly stroll away figuratively with your hands in your pockets and whistling a tune in a show of fake innocence.

You pretend that you didn't instigate strife and division or that your efforts didn't provide more justification to a growing feeling in this country that the problem with Christianity is not persecution from any group, especially gays, but the feeling by some Christians that they get to pick and choose the way of life for the rest of us. That they get to decide how our culture will be and any lie, distortion, or method (no matter how unscrupulous) to get them to where they want to be is acceptable.

In the long run, you haven't harmed the lgbt community. You have harmed yourselves. You have given Christians a reason to be afraid in contradiction to a tenet of the religion which tells those who practice it not to be afraid of the acts of Man. You have reduced Christianity to pandering political argument willing to take power by any means necessary.

And the sad part of it all is that I have feeling that you don't care what you have done. You'll find another situation to repeat your nasty formula. And you will continue to do so until people with common sense and intelligence call you out,

Photo courtesy of Equality Matters