With the presidential election sucking up all the news, it’s easy to miss outrageous behavior lower down

By Rob Howard
Associate Editor

In the last few months, the news has pretty much been focused on the presidential nomination race in both parties. We pretty much know the stands of the contenders on LGBT rights, and same-sex marriage. We may not be as aware of where they stand on transgender rights.

It’s important to look below the presidential campaigns, to congressional elections, state elections, and even to the party apparatus in each state. It’s easy to ignore Texas, since it is entirely controlled by the GOP, and the Texas brand of the party is pretty far right in most cases.

So it is alarming that the outrageous, anti-LGBT, anti-transgender rights bigot who led the campaign against the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO) is now running for Chairman of the Texas Republican Party with a slogan of “Take Back Our Party.”

The candidate is Jared Woodfill. He was a candidate for the Chairman’s position last year, but lost it. This year, in a campaign taking place in ultra-conservative churches and at meetings across the state, Woodfill is bringing his own special brand of ultra-right-wing beliefs, to Republicans across the Lone Star state.

According to The Texas Tribune, even though he draws small crowds, Jared Woodfill isn’t worried. The Tribune reports, “The crowd gathered in the church on a stormy Tuesday night was small — only about 30 people. But Jared Woodfill, the man who called them there, wasn’t worried.

“’You’ve got to start by finding a core group of people in every city, across the state of Texas, and you build from that — this is just the first round,’ he said. ‘We’ll be coming back for a second round. And they’ll bring two, three, four — or 10 — friends.’”

His problem is clear (at least to him). He doesn’t like his fellow Republicans, particularly in the state legislature. The Tribune continued, “’Folks, we’ve got a problem on our hands,’ said the Houston attorney, who aspires to seize the reins of the state Republican party in May. With clear majorities in the state House and Senate, and with Republicans in every statewide office, he said, ‘there’s absolutely no excuse why we can’t pass American law in American courts, no excuse why we can’t get rid of sanctuary cities in every Texas town, no excuse why we can’t get rid of in-state tuition for illegal immigrants and no excuse for not getting every single piece of good pro-life legislation passed.’”

Towleroad.com also reported on Woodfill’s effort to take back the party: “Buoyed by the successful campaign to repeal Houston’s Equal Rights Ordinance, anti-gay extremists in Texas have set their sights on taking over a state Republican Party that’s already dominated by the GOP’s right wing.

“Anti-LGBT Houston attorney Jared Woodfill, who served as spokesman for the disgusting anti-HERO campaign, formally announced his bid for state GOP chair last week, at a dinner hosted by the Conservative Republicans of Texas, the group led by rabidly anti-gay activist Dr. Steve Hotze.

“Hotze, who heavily bankrolled the anti-HERO campaign, claimed at the dinner that he received many death threats from ‘foul’ supporters of the ordinance, according to The Quorum Report.

The Quorum Report pointed out Hotze’s ‘credentials,’ quoting him about what he sees as the next part of the ‘gay agenda,’ “’Pedophilia is the next point. They’re going to come down and change that law,’ Hotze said, adding that gay rights activists ‘want to pervert this society.’ Even in a very conservative room, that comment drew what could charitably be described as tepid applause.”

To round out the interesting company that Woodfill and Hotze keep, another speaker at the same dinner was Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, “who accepted the ‘Warrior of Biblical Values Award’ from Hotze’s group. Patrick, a tea partier, spent $70,000 in campaign funds for a fear-mongering anti-HERO ad, in which he disgracefully promulgated the debunked transgender bathroom myth.”

Hotze, Patrick and Woodfill slammed Texas House Speaker Joe Straus and his leadership team, saying he was responsible for the failure of “a blatantly unconstitutional anti-gay marriage bill last year.” The Quorum report noted that the Texas Senate, headed by Patrick, also failed to pass the measure.

The main thrust of Woodfill’s campaign against HERO was the slogan “no men in women’s restrooms.” It is interesting to note that Woodfill, a lawyer, “is representing a man in court who has admitted to taking photos of women changing clothes without their knowledge—in a bathroom,” according to the HoustonPress website.

Woodfill is also the attorney defending the two men charged with making the videos that said Planned Parenthood was selling body parts from aborted fetuses.

With associates, and clients, like this, Woodfill should have no chance of becoming Chairman of the Texas Republican Party. But, as always with Texas politics, we shall see.

The Gayly – February 2, 2016 @ 7:15 p.m.