Anti-LGBT politicians in Texas are now claiming that an attempt to secure the public records of politicians and their associations with anti-LGBT groups is bullying.
From The New Civil Rights Movement:
Anti-LGBT Texas officials claim they're being bullied by a Washington, D.C.-based organization that's filed records requests in an effort to determine whether they've conspired with national hate groups.
The Campaign for Accountability, a pro-civil rights watchdog group, wants to establish a link between anti-LGBT Texas lawmakers and groups such as the Alliance Defending Freedom, the Family Research Council, the Liberty Counsel and the National Organization for Marriage.
But Texas officials who've received the records requests, including tea party state Rep. Debbie Riddle (photo), apparently don't think the public has a right to know the public's business. Either that, or maybe they just have something to hide. Riddle filed two bills this year that would have made it illegal for transgender people to use public restrooms in accordance with their gender identity.
House lawmaker Debbie Riddle (R-District 150) issued this statement as part of a press release in response:
I am proud of my legislative record and I am proud to work side by side with people and organizations in defense of Texas' heritage and tradition of religious liberty. We cannot be bullied by groups who would shame us for standing up for our faith. This coming legislative session I will continue to stand strong on these issues and will file legislation to keep men out of women's bathrooms in Texas. This is clearly a politically motivated attack because of my staunch opposition to the HERO ordinance in Houston. I represent the values of House District 150; their values are my values.
Debbie, you’re a politician. What you’re doing and who you’re working with is absolutely the public’s business and the public’s right to know. It will assist them in deciding if they want you to remain their representatives or not.
She’s not the only one. Two Houston Council members have also criticized the request, and floated the absurd conspiracy theory that it’s also being pushed by Annise Parker. From The New Civil Rights Movement:
On Tuesday, Houston council members Michael Kubosh and Dave Martin staged a press conference outside City Hall, where they blasted the records requests, which they claimed are being orchestrated by Mayor Annise Parker, according to The Houston Chronicle. (The press conference was conveniently timed four days before the Houston city election runoff.)
"I felt like when we received this open records request for over tens of thousands of emails and 51 names of individuals and organizations that we're going to have to search through, this is a type of bullying," Kubosh said, calling the requests a "lump of coal" from the mayor.
The U.S. Pastor Council also weighed in:
U.S. Pastor Council responds to “harassment” of Rep. Debbie Riddle by D.C. Group
[...]
“It is clear that the false front of ‘accountability’ this organization works behind is a thin veneer for an activist LGBT advocacy group that is now attempting to intimidate a Texas legislator for sponsoring legislation which would protect the privacy, safety and freedom of Texas women in particular,” said Rev. Welch on behalf of all Pastor Councils.
[...]
“We will stand firmly with Rep. Riddle and other legislators who stand for decency, religious freedom and the rights of all people, not cater to a radical, tiny fragment defined by sexual behavior and gender confusion represented by Campaign for Accountability,” he concluded.
I wonder what they would have to say about when NOM, in September last year, sought and accessed the communications between Oregon Attorney-General Ellen Rosenblum and the plaintiffs in Oregon’s marriage equality case:
"From the beginning it was apparent to us that the Attorney General was colluding with the plaintiffs to invalidate the marriage amendment overwhelmingly adopted by the people of Oregon. We filed a public records request forcing the Attorney General to release internal communications and it is clear the degree of collusion is much more extensive than even we imagined.
"The documents we forced the Attorney General’s office to produce indicate that the AG’s office was coordinating with Plaintiffs’ counsel months before the lawsuit was even filed, to get a court order invalidating Oregon’s marriage law.
And the thing is that NOM had every right to access those records, absurd as what the claimed that they indicated was.
So there’s not just hair-trigger sensitivity to accountability. There’s also a lot of hypocrisy in this too. Conservative politicians: if you want to stop making fools of yourselves, grow up and tell us who you’re associating with. If you’ve got nothing to hide, you’ve got nothing to fear.