LGBTQ+ Political Caucus backs Sheila Jackson Lee for Houston … – Houston Chronicle

“How far we’ve come together,” Jackson Lee told the crowd.

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Her 136-52 victory came as caucus members and many Jackson Lee supporters expressed concerns about the conservative support coalescing around fellow frontrunner state Sen. John Whitmire, another longtime backer of the caucus.

Addressing the caucus, Whitmire touted his effort to repeal Texas’ anti-sodomy law when he was re-writing the penal code in 1993, a decade before the Supreme Court struck down the law in Lawrence v. Texas. That case centered on a man Houston police arrested for having gay sex. Whitmire said the caucus gave him a Harvey Milk Award for his effort, though it was ultimately unsuccessful.

“I know you, and more importantly you know me,” Whitmire said. “I work in the toughest political environment in the US, the most anti-LGBTQ+ body in the state. I’ve never wavered one time, you have shaped and molded me.”

The caucus’ endorsement screeners, though, were skeptical of Whitmire’s policies, including his call to bring Department of Public Safety troopers to help complement Houston police. Sabrina Lee, a screener, said she asked Whitmire about Houston Independent School District’s recent policy to transition some school libraries into discipline centers.

“He said libraries are going digital anyways,” Lee said, garnering murmurs among the crowd.

The rhetoric grew more hostile when members took the microphone. Some Jackson Lee supporters derided Whitmire as “Pawn John,” for what they described as his cozy relationships with the state’s GOP leadership. They argued he campaigns on sticking up to Republican leaders but has nothing to show for it — their bills become law regardless.

Whitmire’s supporters, meanwhile, lambasted Jackson Lee’s “present” vote on the 1997 Defense of Marriage Act, arguing she should have had the courage that 65 other Democrats at the time had to vote no. Another supporter also claimed she has openly embraced a pastor who opposed Houston’s Equal Rights Ordinance, an effort to protect gay and transgender residents from discrimination, which voters rejected in 2015.

Nearly three dozen municipal candidates – about half the entire field running so far – turned out to ask the caucus for its support.

The caucus’s slate also included incumbents Abbie Kamin, District C: Carolyn Evans-Shabazz, District D; Tiffany Thomas, District F; and at-large members Letitia Plummer and Sallie Alcorn; along with Mario Castillo, District H; Joaquin Martinez, District I; Ivan Sanchez, District J; Wolfthal, At-Large 1; Donnell Cooper, At-Large 3; and Chris Hollins, City Controller.

This is a developing story and will be updated.