Breaking - Judge hands Houston a huge victory & the religious right a huge kick in the butt

Mike Huckabee and a lot of other folks have a bunch of egg on their faces tonight.

Excellent news out of Houston which means that a trans-inclusive equality ordinance wins and the religious right suffers a huge embarrassment.

From The Houston Chronicle:

Opponents of Houston's non-discrimination ordinance failed to gather enough valid signatures to force a repeal referendum, a state district judge ruled Friday, validating city officials' decision to toss out the petition foes submitted last summer.

After separate rulings from both a jury and state District Judge Robert Schaffer, attorneys for both sides entered dueling counts of the valid signatures, adding and subtracting voters as Schaffer responded to motions. By early this week, the counts were closer together than ever before, fewer than 1,000 signatures apart.

Ultimately, Schaffer on Friday ruled the final count of valid signatures was 16,684, leaving opponents short of the threshold required in the city charter of 17,249 signatures, or 10 percent of the ballots cast in the last mayoral election.

Last year,  the Houston City Council passed a transgender inclusive equality rights ordinance (HERO). Opponents of the ordinance rallied in August and claimed to have gathered more than enough signatures to force a referendum. However, according to city, the signatures contained many errors and taking this into account, a lot of them were disqualified, thereby meaning that HERO opponents had failed in their attempt.  In addition, there were accusations that they were engaging in underhanded tactics to gain signatures. 

Faced with this defeat, the HERO opponents sued the city of Houston, claiming that they did in fact get enough signatures.

'Why is the Family Research Council 'reediting' their public prayers to God?' & other Friday midday news briefs

WHOA: FRC 'reediting' all those heinous fasting-for-marriage prayers I've been showing you!! - I've never heard of such a thing. Taking the time to lodge public prayers to God to stop marriage equality and then "re-editing" them? What's the point? Obviously these prayers were not for God's consumption or the Family Research Council wouldn't care if they appeared too extreme or homophobic. 

Anti-Gay Activists Vow To Repeal Marriage Equality Laws Across The Country If They Win At SCOTUS - Well duh. They are going to try this even if they lose (and I hope they do lose). An interesting about this piece is that it shows the hypocrisy of the anti-marriage equality crowd. They will work to repeal marriage equality laws even if people in certain states voted FOR these laws. So much for "let the people vote" or "let the states decide."  

Ten Novel, Absurd, And Irrelevant Arguments Made In Supreme Court Briefs Against Marriage Equality - More false data, more junk science, more idiocy. The anti-marriage equality crowd is getting desperate.  

Anti-gay leader Mat Staver spins outrageous lie about gays costing government billions - Reiterating this morning's post because the media should pay as much attention to anti-gay lies as they do when anti-gay groups spin memes of "anti-Christian" persecution.

  C-Fam 'Mission' in Africa: Spreading Anti-Family Planning, Anti-Gay Gospel - And speaking of persecution . . .

Anti-gay leader Mat Staver spins outrageous lie about gays costing government billions

Mat Staver

One thing which is sad about this so-called cultural war is how anti-gay group leaders can say some of the most outrageous things about the lgbt community without them or anyone else batting an eye.

These folks, who are supposed to stand for morals and values, freely spin lies so outrageous that one can only wonder what values do they actually believe. Case in point is Mat Staver of the Liberty Counsel claiming that homosexuality costs government billions of dollars:

“Same-sex marriage leads to the devaluation of both a mother and a father, who each provide a unique contribution to the family,” Staver said. “Studies estimate that over the course of 26 years, our government spent more than $225 billion that could be directly attributed to the breakdown of the family culture and its resulting social consequences.”

Of course Staver won't reveal just what these studies he alluded to are or where he found them because no one is going to bother to ask him about it. Just like no one bothered to confront him about the lie he told to a Congressional committee last year regarding his support of Russia's anti-gay laws.