Here, courteously sent to me by reader and regular commenter Mainstream, is a copy of Dave Wilson’s petition for a charter amendment to “prohibit men (who perceive or express themselves as women) from using the women’s restroom. The petition itself is in addition to a scare-mongering letter from Wilson, sent from his current “residence” on 34th Street, and an offensive and misleading drawing. The latter was included in an earlier petition effort from last October for the same thing. Either I completely forgot about that one or I never heard of it in the first place. Hopefully that’s a harbinger for this one. In any event, the petition itself reads as follows:
Except as required by State or Federal law, the City of Houston shall only define “Gender Identity” as an individual’s innate identification, as either male or female, which is assigned at birth. Perceived gender Identification is not allowed in defining “Gender identity”. Furthermore, the City of Houston shall require entities doing business with the city to adopt the same definition of “Gender identity”.
If any portion of this proposed Charter amendment is declared unlawful, then such portion shall be removed and the remainder of the Charter amendment will remain in effect. Any ordinance or executive order in conflict with this section of the Charter is hereby repealed and declared invalid.
You know I’m not an attorney, but I have a hard time seeing how this drivel could survive a legal challenge, if it were somehow to be adopted. It’s so vaguely worded yet specifically targeted I don’t know how it could possibly be enforced. Any attorneys out there that want to weigh in on this, by all means please do. Note that this is also not a petition to repeal the ordinance, for which there is a 30 day window, or to recall Mayor Parker or any member of Council. I’m not sure what to make of that. If you receive this or any other petition for one or more of these purposes, from Dave Wilson or any other group, please let me know, either via comment or an email to kuff – at – offthekuff – dot – com. If you get a different petition than this one, I will be eternally grateful if you can scan it and send it in email to me. Thanks very much.