UC Davis

On November 3, 2015, the majority (61%) of Houston voters voted to strike down Proposition 1: Houston’s Equal Rights Ordinance. Houston’s Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO) sought to expand anti-discrimination protections based on 15 demographic classifications including both sexual orientation and gender identity (Morris, 2014). The original passage of HERO in May 2014 by Houston’s City Council sparked not only a legal battle but also an 18-month-long media battle in which both supporters and opponents worked to sway voters to their side of the issue. This paper examines the political discourse surrounding the failed passage of HERO in three key arenas: media coverage of the event, campaign materials from both sides of the issue and politicians’ comments on the issue. In order to examine the discourse around the bill, I analyzed newspaper articles about the issues (N=358), campaign ads (N=29) and tweets from prominent local and state politicians (N= 776). Using the hybrid model of moral panics framework (Klocke and Muschert, 2010), this paper argues that the political discourse around HERO served as the catalyst for America’s newest moral panic: transgender bathroom access.