Fairness Works Houston, a new organization formed to pass a proposed non-discrimination charter amendment in Houston, will hold a public meeting this Saturday, Feb. 25, to seek public input. As previously reported by Houstini, the proposed charter amendment, which is still being drafted, will remove discriminatory language added to the city charter in 1985 and 2001 and make it a crime to deny employment, housing or public accommodation to a person because of their “age, race, color, creed, religion, national origin, ancestry, disability, marital status, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or physical characteristic.”
The meeting, scheduled for 1 pm at the GLBT Cultural Center (401 Branard) in rooms 112/113, looks to identify community resources that can be used both topass the amendment and to gather the 20,000 signatures that will be needed to place the amendment on the November ballot. Scheduled speakers include Noel Freeman, president of the Houston GLBT Political Caucus and Jenifer Rene Poole who chairs the Caucus’ committee on the proposed amendment.
Today, the Texas Court of Appeals for the Fifth District, located in Dallas, ruled that a same-sex couple that had married in Massachusetts could not legally seek a divorce, following their move to Texas. The case, entitled In re the Marriage of J.B. and H.B., was appealed by the state following a victory in the lower court in which the judge had granted the two men a divorce and declared Texas’ mini-Defense of Marriage Act (mini-DOMA) as violating the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The state argued that since Texas did not recognize the men’s marriage as valid, they were not eligible for the remedy of divorce. Specifically, Texas claimed that the courts did not have jurisdiction, or the right and power, to even hear the case and thus it should be dismissed.
