SAN ANTONIO, Texas — A group of Texas Republicans and religious conservatives are pushing efforts to recall San Antonio city council members who voted in favor of a recently expanded non-discrimination ordinance that includes protections based on seual orientation and gender identity.
Weston Martinez, president of the Bexar County Conservative Coalition and Texas Freedom PAC, says council members “made the mistake by voting for this ordinance” and the public made the mistake of allowing them into office.
“We’re correcting the matter,” he says.
Last week, Martinez and about dozen people demonstrated for several hours in front of the office of city council member Diego Bernal, the principal author of the ordinance.
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The conservative coalition’s recall push, targeting the mayor and those council members who supported the ordinance, already claim that their grassroots effort to collect the 6,000 signatures needed to trigger a recall election process for council members and 75,000 for the mayor has garnered half that amount.
Mayor Julian Castro said that he’s not worried about a recall campaign, adding that the ordinance was long overdue in the nation’s seventh largest city, where there are stronger ideals of traditionalism and conservatism than other major Texas cities that already have similar gay rights protections.
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The recall effort’s organizers said they don’t have a total count on signatures, but plan to get more than required since the city clerk would have to validate them.
