Houston's mayor issues all encompassing executive orders including ethnicity, race, sexuality, and gender identity

According to the Houston Chronicle, Houston's first LGBT mayor, Annise Parker, has issueed 2 executive orders including all city employees from discrimination, slurs, or harassment including race, ethnicity, disability, sexuality, and gender identity.  This order essentially extends the order issued by former Houston mayor and Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Bill White, which included all homosexual and bisexual city employees after Dallas.  This first order now includes transgenders city employees and the second one prohibits in form of harassment or intimidation based on the aforementioned category of groups.

However, all within Houston municipal government is showing much enthusiasm associated with the orders like City Attorney Arturo Michel, who said the city orders only extend to city employees only. This leaves individual citizens vulnerable existing ordinances which pretty much excludes transgenders.  Also the socially conservative community activist, Dave Wilson, who campaigned against Parker in last year's mayor's race because of the fact that she is openly gay, said he fears the executive orders may be “only the beginning” of city efforts to strengthen gay rights under Parker's leadership. 

Oh hell, oh well!  I mean Houston is now one of the 4th largest city in the nation, so if they are going to hold the title then it's best they act as if they are a major city.  The fact those naysayers are whining shows that the South still has a long way to go before as a whole it's a more progressive region although this is the 4th largest municipality in the U.S.