In 2014, neither U.S. federal law nor Texas statewide law specifically covered
sexual orientation or
gender identity in employment and housing discrimination and services. On May 28, 2014, the
Houston City Council voted 11–6 to enact the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO) which was authored by Houston's then-Mayor,
Annise Parker. The measure banned discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, religion, disability, pregnancy, genetic information, family, marital, and military status. The ordinance applied to businesses that serve the public, private employers, housing, city employment and city contracting. Religious institutions would be exempt. Violators could be fined up to $5,000. HERO took effect on June 27, 2014 and enforcement for it was suspended 6 days later on July 3, 2014. Opposition to HERO arose because the ordinance protected "transgender residents' ability to use the restroom consistent with their gender expression, regardless of their biological sex." HERO became known to some as the "Bathroom Law." Shortly after the ordinance passed, opponents of HERO drafted a petition and began gathering signatures to add a ballot measure to the November 2014 ballot to repeal the ordinance. City law required 17,296 valid signatures from registered Houston voters for a successful veto referendum petition, which would require the city council to either rescind the targeted ordinance themselves or put it before voters. This requirement was calculated by taking 10 percent of the greatest number of votes cast for mayor in any of the three preceding years. Moreover, signatures had to be submitted before the ordinance was scheduled to take effect or within 30 days of the publication of the approved ordinance, whichever came first. Opponents of HERO presented about 50,000 signatures to the Houston city secretary's office on July 3, 2014. HERO opponents filed a lawsuit The lawsuit went to trial on January 19, 2015. Feldman announced on December 19, 2014, his plans to resign from his position as Houston City Attorney shortly before the trial began. He said that the primary reason for his resignation was a desire to return to private practice. He also noted, however, that his decision to resign was related to the lawsuit as well, saying, "Being on the outside, I'm going to be a lot freer to tell the story and to explain it to people and to debunk the myth." As reported by the
Houston Chronicle, Feldman noted, too, that if he testified in the trial as the city attorney, it would prohibit other attorneys from the city's legal department from serving as counsel for the city. On February 13, 2015, a jury issued a verdict saying that while the petitions did not contain instances of fraud, they did contain forgeries and instances of failure to follow proper procedure. District Judge Robert Schaffer then initiated a recounting process to determine whether or not opponents of HERO had gathered enough valid signatures to satisfy the threshold of 17,296. Following the verdict in February, both sides claimed victory. A definitive answer, however, did not emerge until Judge Schaffer's ruling on April 17, 2015, when he determined that the opponents of the ordinance had not gathered enough valid signatures. In May 2015, opponents of the ordinance asked the Texas Supreme Court for a
writ of mandamus against the city of Houston. On July 24, 2015, the court granted this petition and ruled that the Houston City Council should have honored the city secretary's initial signature count and must either repeal the ordinance or include it on the November 2015 ballot, writing in a per curiam opinion, "We agree ... that the city secretary certified their petition and thereby invoked the city council's ministerial duty to reconsider and repeal the ordinance or submit it to popular vote. The legislative power reserved to the people of Houston is not being honored." The original ballot language crafted by the City of Houston was also challenged in court. After the Texas Supreme Court threw out the original wording, the city revised the ballot language. The following question was placed on the 2015 general election ballot in Houston as Proposition 1: On November 3, 2015, Houston voters voted by a 61%–39% margin to reject Proposition 1. This vote overturned the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO). ==Support and opposition==