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Sorry, but the a timeline for the real story for this is missing from the NTY article.

1. The City Council voted on the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance in May 2014.

2.After the passage of HERO, opponents of the ordinance began to collect signatures to put a repeal measure on the ballot. On 3 July 2014 HERO opponents delivered more than 50,000 signatures to the city of Houston, but a month later the city announced proponents of the repeal were "2,000 valid signatures short of the 17,269-signature threshold" and that "most of the pages contained mistakes that invalidated the entire page of signatures." Per the City of Houston Charter the City Secretary ruled that the petition was valid. The Mayor was not happy so she had the City Attorney ruled the petition did not have enough signatures. Per the City Charter only the City Secretary can rule on the petition, not anyone else such as the City Attorney.

3. On 7 August 2014, HERO was placed on hold after opponents of the ordinance filed suit against the city with the help of the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal advocacy group focused largely on opposing same-sex marriage and abortion. The following month city attorneys subpoenaed sermons given by local pastors who oppose the law and are tied to the conservative Christian activists who have sued the city.

City attorneys issued subpoenas during the case's discovery phase, seeking, among other communications, "all speeches, presentations, or sermons related to HERO, the Petition, Mayor Annise Parker, homosexuality, or gender identity prepared by, delivered by, revised by, or approved by you or in your possession."http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/houston.asp

4.In April of 2015 local judge reached a decision in the trial over Houston's controversial Equal Rights Ordinance, siding with the city that opponents did not have enough valid signatures to repeal the ordinance. I do not know what the Judge read, the City Charter is very clearly worded on this matter!

5. In July of 2015 the Texas Supreme Court suspended the ordinance and gave City Council the option to either repeal the ordinance or putting the issues on the ballot. So the Mayor tried to pull a fast one with the 'wording' of the ballet.

6. An attorney for a group of Houston pastors announced a legal challenge to the wording of the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance repeal vote on the November ballot.

Houston Attorney Andy Taylor claims Parker and City Council members used used misleading language and double-negative language on the ballot wording.

"Mayor Parker has callously disregarded the Constitution, and turned someone who's opposed to the ordinance, they have to vote yes. Someone who's in favor of the ordinance has to vote no. Why did she do that? Because she's trying to absolutely confuse the voters and mislead them into not knowing the effect of their vote," Taylor said. http://www.click2houston.com/news/watch-live-attorney-discusses-lawsuit-over-houstons-equal-rights-ordinance/34593988

7. Hero finally came up for a vote when down in flames!

So the Mayor denies a valid petition, plays fast and loose with discover against churches because they object to HERO, then plays with the ballet language. This Ordinance has been in and out of courts, both local and state with the Mayor playing dirty with very questionable actions all the way. Today in Houston the news reports that the Mayor said that this is not over! Well almost 2/3's of Houston voters disagree Mayor!