In the Spotlight
Latest Headlines
Equality Texas Urges City of San Antonio to Support Community Expectations for Non-Discrimination Ordinance
Posted on April 21, 2015 at 2:01 pm

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Robert Salcido, 210-857-6928, robert.salcido@equalitytexas.org

San Antonio, TX – Equality Texas is calling on the Mayor and councilmembers of San Antonio to embrace their shared responsibilities as leaders to protect all people, including LGBT people, from discrimination. Being treated fairly and equally, and protected from discrimination is especially important to the success for our communities.

Equality Texas worked collaboratively with City Hall officials, constituency-based groups, faith-based communities, and business interests to successfully pass a strong framework for the non-discrimination ordinance in San Antonio. After its adoption, we continued to work steadfastly alongside City leaders as well as HRC San Antonio, ACLU-Texas, LGBT Chamber of Commerce, LULAC Texas, MALDEF, ACCOG, Texas Freedom Network and MOVE San Antonio to protect this ordinance. Coming together with these partners we successfully hosted town hall discussions, workforce development trainings and increased community awareness by focusing on understanding the City’s non-discrimination policies.

Together, we can continue to help eliminate roadblocks to enforcement of the City’s non-discrimination ordinance through the following recommendations:

1. Guarantee the necessary budget resources to support the establishment of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion.

2. Offer internal learning opportunities for City officials, council aides and city employees to reinforce understanding of the non-discrimination ordinance.

3. Integrate strategies that lead to the enforcement of the non-discrimination ordinance with the community citywide.

We believe that our work for fairness and inclusion is far from over in San Antonio. The fight to end discrimination at the local level has been a transformative engine for improving the quality of life for all of us. We’re eager and ready to sit down with the Mayor’s office and councilmembers to outline the next chapter of community collaborations to build a more accepting city.

###

Equality Texas works to secure full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Texans through political action, education, community organizing, and collaboration.