Wednesday, June 15, 2016

You Can Run CM Knox, But You Can't Hide From Us

Spent a very interesting day at Houston City Council with several Houston LGBT community leaders and our allies hanging out for our public comment session.

Eleven of us were there to call out Councilmember Mike Knox for his problematic May 2 comments demonizing the Houston trans community while attend a Target protest initiated by the same reprehensible peeps who gleefully peddled transphobia during the HERO fight.

"Equality is the same for you as it is for me. If someone has a greater right to use a bathroom than someone else as an expression of their sexuality, that's a problem,"
Council Member Mike Knox.


No CM Knox, equality is NOT the same for you and me.  HERO was wiped off the city Code of Ordinances by demonizing trans Houstonians, and I'm still pissed off about that. 

And Councilmember Knox, I'm appalled along with trans Houston and our allies about the demonization of the humanity of me and other trans Houstonians.


We also were showing up to call out his chief of staff Trebor Gordon, who tried to block Syed Ali, a longtime Muslim Republican from getting a Harris County GOP precinct chair position, and made some Islamophobic comments while doing so. There have been calls for his firing or resignation, and Gordon is allegedly not serving in that position in Knox's office any more, but we'll see about that.

It was decided to keep this council trip in stealth mode so that the opposition wouldn't have the time or opportunity to organize a counter trip busing people in from the 'burbs to attempt to shut down what we were going to say or defend Knox.

And you knew I wasn't going to miss the fun. It was also done that way so that Councilmember Knox would be in attendance at that meeting and not come up with a convenient excuse to miss it.

Knowing that Houston LGBT community leaders were lying in wait to call his butt out, he left at 2:24 PM and never returned to hear us call him out about running from being held accountable by his constituents for the transphobia and Islamophobia.

CM Knox, just a reminder that yes, we are your constituents since you are in an at-large council seat. You can run like you did today, but you can't hide from the Houston GLBT community calling you our about your comments, and sooner or later you'll have to sit in that nice leather chair around The Horseshoe and hear what we have to say.
 
And yeah, you'll do so because we vote.  2019 will be here before you know it.

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