Houston rejects equal rights ordinance//Maddie Hanratty//8th period

Houston has recently rejected the "Houston Equal Rights Ordinance" after Governor Greg Abbott said something along the lines of, "vote Texas values, not Hillary Clinton values". The Ordinance was supposed to benefit transgender men and women by protecting their rights when using men's or women's bathrooms, locker rooms, etc.. However, many people are worried about "troubled men" (I guess "perverted" or "rapist" would be too harsh of terms or something) using the ordinance to prey on women, saying they're transgender when really they just want to inappropriately invade women's privacy.
In my opinion, the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance is a great way to make transgender people feel more accepted by giving them the representation and safety they so desperately need. So many LGBT+ youth and adults commit suicide every year because of the isolation and negativity they face daily, and this is a step towards the public seeing them as members of society instead of outsiders. On the other hand, I can also see the case of someone using the ordinance purely for evil personal gain; using it as a way to invade a private setting and take advantage of the people in that setting as well as the ordinance itself. One thing in the article that bothered me was Abbott's quote about "Texas values". I thought that was extremely rude because it basically is saying that Texans are morally against trans men and women. This is definitely not going  to make transgender people feel any more respected, if their own governor says his state doesn't think being transgender is "right". Also, it assumes that all of Texas share the same closed off, primitive opinions.
This entire equal rights movement is reminiscent of the women's rights as well as civil rights movements. I know this will go down in the history books as a huge part of American history- just as the reforms listed earlier were. Many conventions, laws, abolitionist papers, etc. were publicized/published before slaves became free. Even after gaining freedom, during the Reconstruction period post Civil War, blacks were still tortured and treated with malice. Even today, racism is still going on, only more discreetly. Like past movements, Equal Rights will take some time to be accepted, but until that time we must keep pushing all three movements forward and continue the progress.

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