Mayor Annise Parker
Readers of the Huffington Post discovered Monday what Houstonians have known for a long time: Annise Parker’s a pretty cool lady. Parker was profiled by SiriusXM radio host Michelangelo Signorile, who also interviewed her for his show. The profile reveals that Parker (shockingly!) believes that the state of Texas should allow for full marriage equality and (even more shockingly!) some people are going to hate anything she does because she’s a lesbian.
“While it’s been a tough time to be an incumbent at any level of government, there’s definitely a hard-core group here that is just mortally offended that there is a lesbian mayor, and one of my opponents ran specifically because of that issue and raised it at every opportunity,” she said.
That would be Dave Wilson, who landed 12 percent of the vote in the last mayoral election. You can read the full story and listen to the audio of the interview at HuffingtonPost.com
Speaking of people who hate Annise Parker: Last week Houstini reported that the Houston Area Pastor Council attacked Parker for her stand on marriage equality, accusing her of violating her oath to “defend the Constitution” (as we pointed out, the Houston mayoral oath of office doesn’t include anything about defending the Constitution). The Houston Chronicle reports that Pastor Steve Riggle of Grace Community Church has picked up that line, telling Parker, “Respectfully, if you cannot uphold the Texas Constitution, then you should do the honorable thing and step down.”
As I pointed out last week, there’s a difference between failing to uphold a law (also known as breaking a law) and advocating for the law to be changed. The Texas Constitution has been changed 474 times since it was written in 1876. Everyday Texans across the state see things they don’t like about how the government works and say they think the law should be changed, whether it’s questioning our tax structure or feeling wearing white after Labor Day should be outlawed.
By Riggle’s standard, any elected official who doesn’t think the Constitution, as it now stands, is perfect should “do the honorable thing and step down.” While it might be tempting to imagine a state in which every politician resigned simultaneously (which the institution of the Riggle standard would undoubted precipitate), the reality of such an event, and the ensuing anarchy it would create, would undoubtedly be counter to the pastor’s wishes for a well run world.
