No Means No

Ballot wording matters.

This is something that is not always appreciated, though experienced political types are well aware of it. How items are presented to voters on a ballot matters as much as their vent being on the ballot. Once it was determined that Houston's Equal Rights Ordinance would be on the ballot this November conflict turned to how it would be presented.

Opponents of the HERO ordinance were concerned that their allies would be confused by the original language. Here it is:

"Shall the City of Houston repeal the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, Ord. No. 2014-530, which prohibits discrimination in city employment and city services, city contracts, public accommodations, private employment, and housing based on an individual's sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, familial status, marital status, military status, religion, disability, sexual orientation, genetic information, gender identity, or pregnancy?"

Opposition to the measure requires a yes vote to repeal the ordinance. Here is the newly approved language:

"Proposition 1: [Relating to the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance.] Are you in favor of the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, Ord. No. 2014-530, which prohibits discrimination in city employment and city services, city contracts, public accommodations, private employment, and housing based on an individual's sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, familial status, marital status, military status, religion, disability, sexual orientation, genetic information, gender identity, or pregnancy?"

Opposition to the ordinance is indicated by a no vote. Ballot language - along with order and any number of things - can make subtle differences in voting behavior, but in a close election that may be all that's necessary

For background:

- HERO foes back in court, asking for new ballot language.
- KPRC: Ballot wording for Houston gay rights ordinance rejected.
- KPRC: City Council approves Houston Equal Rights Ordinance ballot language.
- Houston Press: ANTI-HERO COALITION SAYS REPEAL MEASURE IS TOO CONFUSING.
- Houston Press: TEXAS SUPREME COURT ORDERS CITY TO CHANGE HERO BALLOT LANGUAGE.

Bathroom references in anti- HERO campaign tap into deep seated differences between liberals and conservaties

A Houston Chronicle commentator makes the following - correct - observation about the use of bathroom references in the campaign against the ordinance which would protect people in Houston from discrimination in employment and housing among other things based on a host of items including sexual orientation (being gay or trans gendered).

- Click here for the article.

A personal question today: How do you feel about public restrooms?

Do you see them as useful facilities whose benefits far outweigh the occasional untidiness?

Or, are you so disgusted by public restrooms that you avoid them at all costs, entering only in the case of an emergency, and then, only with pinched nose and value-sized pump of anti-bacterial lotion?

Your answer may reveal something about your politics, according to Jonathan Haidt, a moral psychologist at New York University's Stern School of Business. The more grossed out you are by public restrooms, the more conservative you are likely to be - and vice versa.

This is why bathrooms are the perfect tool for social conservatives trying to defeat Houston's equal rights ordinance.

The author touches on recent research that suggests that a person's ideological outlook may be genetic - or if not - based on deep seated emotional responses to the outside world.

- From Newsweek:

Conservatives and liberals really are wired differently. Scientists can accurately predict whether a subject is left-wing tree-hugger or a right-wing gun-toter based on how their brains respond to certain images, a new study in Current Biology has found.

P. Read Montague, a scientist at Virginia Tech, said his experiment was inspired by data that shows political affiliation, like height, can be inherited. "I the same sense that height is highly genetically specified, it's also true that it's not predetermined by genetics; nutrition, sleep, starvation, dramatic physical injury, and so on can serve to change one's ultimate height. However, tall people have tall children, and this is a kind of starting point [for the experiement]," he said.

Montague and his colleagues asked subjects to look at positive, negative, and disgusting images and examined functional magnetic resonance images (fMRI) of their brains. His team found that conservatives' and liberals' brains behave differently when confronted with disgusting imagery. "Disgusting images, and the mutilated body of an animal especially, generated neural responses that were highly predictive of political orientation. That was true even though the neural predictors didn't necessarily agree with participants' conscious rating of those disturbing pictures," the authors of the study said.

The test proved surprisingly accurate. "A single disgusting image was sufficient to predict each subject's political orientation," Montague said. "I haven't seen such clean predictive results in any other functional imaging experiments in our lab or others."

But wait! There's more:

- Liberal or conservative? Brain responses to disgusting images help reveal political leanings.
- Disgust Sensitivity, Political Conservatism, and Voting.
- Liberal or conservative? Reactions to disgust are a dead giveaway.

Catching up on the HERO ordinance

Here are a  few links for 2306 students who are thinking about  writing about the controversy over the "Houston Equal Rights Ordinance" aka HERO. I posted the following in a previous post, but am re-posting for convenience.

- Texas Monthly: Houston’s Equal Rights Ordinance, Explained.
- City of Houston: Equal Rights Ordinance.
- Chron: Texas Supreme Court says city must repeal HERO or put it on ballot.

Here a few more, with emphasis on the emerging campaign for and against it. So far it seems that access to women's bathroom is a dominant theme for opponents of the measure.

- Houston Press: SO, THE ANTI-HERO "BATHROOM BILL" ADS HAVE FINALLY STARTED...
- Campaign for Houston.
- Houston Chronicle: HERO ballot fight presents challenge to GLBT Caucus.
- Houston Chronicle: In first radio ad, HERO opponents press bathroom issue with women voter

I'll add more on a regular basis - and I;ll try to get a timeline together soon so we can see how this issue has morphed recently.

What's going on in Houston?

It's not in ACC's jurisdiction, but the proximity of the nation's fourth largest city gives us an opportunity to compare a big city with some of the smaller ones in the surrounding area. They'll be holding elections this November (keep in mind that there is an election every November) and here are a few related items that'll catch us up with what's at stake.

We'll add detail once class starts.

- Wikipedia: Houston Mayoral Election, 2015.
- Ballotpedia: Houston, Texas municipal elections, 2015.
- 88.7/KHOU: Poll 2015 Houston Mayoral Race.
- Chron: Houston’s 2015 mayoral election: Voter turnout and its impact.
- Chron: Mayor pulls back on charter amendments.
- HPM: Houston City Charter Amendments Likely Pushed To Side By HERO Referendum.
- Houston Matters: Potential Changes To Houston City Charter Would Be Most Consequential In Decades.
- Chron: Busy ballot may await Houstonians in 2015.
- Chron: City Council to discuss term limits, other charter changes.
- Texas Monthly: Houston’s Equal Rights Ordinance, Explained.
- City of Houston: Equal Rights Ordinance.
- Chron: Texas Supreme Court says city must repeal HERO or put it on ballot.
- OffTheKuff: Election 2015.