Billionaire Bob McNair, owner of the
NFL team Houston Texans, has asked the campaign working to repeal
Houston's LGBT protections to refund his donation.
McNair, 78, earlier this month gave
$10,000 to the Campaign for Houston, which is working to repeal the
Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO). HERO prohibits discrimination
in housing, employment and public accommodations based on several
characteristics including race, religion, sexual orientation and
gender identity.
(Related: Michael
Sam, Jason Collins support Houston's LGBT protections.)
The campaign to repeal HERO has largely
revolved around demonizing the LGBT community, in particular
transgender women. In
one ad, the campaign falsely claims that HERO allows “any man
at any time” to enter a women's bathroom “simply by claiming to
be a woman that day.” The ad suggests that the law puts young
girls and women at risk: “Even registered sex offenders could
follow women or young girls into the bathroom.”
On its website, the Campaign for
Houston falsely claims that “other cities and states with these
laws have seen sexual predators use them to violate and hurt women
and children.”
In
a statement released Friday, McNair said that he “instructed
the Campaign to return [his] contribution” because it had “made
numerous unauthorized statements about [his] opposition to HERO.”
McNair said that his support for repeal
was based on his belief that “a thoughtful rewrite would provide a
better ordinance that would provide strong non-discrimination
protections for all Houstonians, which I would support, and would be
less divisive of our city.”
“I do not believe in or tolerate
personal or professional discrimination of any kind. I also believe
that we Houstonians should have an ordinance that unites our
community and provides a bold statement of non-discrimination. I
encourage all Houstonians to vote on November 3,” he added.
In an
open letter released earlier this week, former NFL player Chris
Kluwe, a strong LGBT ally, blasted McNair's $10,000 donation, saying
that the NFL owner just doesn't care about “basic human dignity.”