One might have thought that in a time when Felicity Huffman can win an Academy Award for playing a transgender woman (and Hilary Swank can win one for portraying a trans man), Eddie Izzard can sell out stadiums while wearing makeup and heels and a trans woman can be on The Real World that it would be acceptable, if not downright expected, for cities not to discriminate against transgender individuals.

And yet the executive orders Mayor Annise Parker signed on March 25 have led to some backlash among local religious officials. The orders, which added gender identification to race, creed, color, sex, national origin, age and disability as protected classes that city officials may not discriminate against, and allowed transgender individuals use the restroom of the sex with which they identify, were enforceable from the date of signing.

Steve Riggle, senior pastor of Grace Community Church told Christian Post that “Forcing women in particular using city facilities to be subjected to cross-dressing men invading their privacy is beyond the pale and offensive to every standard of decency.” Riggle, like many of the figures speaking out, is a member of the conservative Houston Area Pastor Council, the same group that launched vehement attacks against Parker during her mayoral campaign based on her sexuality.

But as the Houston Chronicle notes, as far as bathrooms are concerned, the order affects only city officials, not members of the public using city facilities. An ordinance, not an executive order, would be required to implement the policy outside of municipal government workplaces.

Transgender Foundation of America director Cristan Williams responded the the criticism, noting that "Of course it remains unlawful for men to go into the women’s restroom. This order stops the institutionalized practice of forcing transgender females, like myself, into restrooms where males are in a state of undress ... Pretending that the City has made it legal for men to hang out in the women’s restroom is preposterous, disingenuous and, well, nutty.”

According to the Transgender Center, the language of the mayor's restroom facilities order was prompted by a staff member of City Councilwoman Jolanda Jones, a transgender woman who had previously been forced to use the men's restroom. As Jones told Transgender Center, "This all started out so simply: trying to require dignity and respect for one of my staffers who was targeted for who she is."