Dayhoff Soundtrack: San Antonio Passes Far-Reaching Antidiscrimination Measure

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

San Antonio Passes Far-Reaching Antidiscrimination Measure

By MANNY FERNANDEZ Published: September 5, 2013

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/06/us/san-antonio-passes-far-reaching-antidiscrimination-measure.html?_r=0

HOUSTON — Nearly 200 cities across the country have enacted ordinances in recent years that prohibit bias by municipal employees or in city contracts over someone’s race, sex, age, religion or sexual orientation. Houston, Austin, Dallas and Fort Worth are a few of the Texas cities that adopted such measures.

But in San Antonio, a nondiscrimination ordinance that includes protections for sexual orientation and gender identity turned into a divisive political battle this summer, the likes of which this liberal-leaning city of 1.4 million has rarely seen in recent decades.

The City Council passed the measure, 8 to 3, on Thursday, capping weeks of heated debate that exposed racial, religious and gay-and-straight divisions and drew the scorn of Republican leaders and candidates around the state who are just starting to position themselves for next spring’s primary elections.

The Texas attorney general, Greg Abbott, who has been running for governor since Gov. Rick Perry announced he was not seeking re-election, weighed in on the issue, expressing his opposition. The state agriculture commissioner, Todd Staples, who is running for lieutenant governor — and who as a state senator sponsored the constitutional amendment that passed in 2005 that defined marriage in Texas as between one man and one woman — also spoke out against it.

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