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LGBT Backers Pressing to Get Super Bowl Out of Houston?

CBN

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LGBT activists may try to pressure the NFL to take the 2017 Super Bowl out of Houston. 

Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBT rights organization, has asked NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell for an emergency meeting "to discuss the future of nondiscrimination protections in the city."

John LaRue, a Houston attorney and supporter of the nondiscrimination ordinance that voters rejected this week, told ABC News that "there are rumblings of plans to ask the NFL to move and go elsewhere in support of LGBT people."

However, the NFL is telling The Associated Press that the ordinance's defeat will not affect plans for the 2017 Super Bowl. 

"We will work closely with the Houston Super Bowl Host Committee to make sure all fans feel welcomed at our events," the NFL said. "Our policies emphasize tolerance and inclusiveness and prohibit discrimination based on gender, race, religion, sexual orientation or any other improper standard."

The HRC called Tuesday's vote a "devastating blow to equality."  

"Make no mistake," HRC President Griffin warned, "if we don't double down today we'll face the same thing again and again in cities across the nation."

Houston is also planning to host the NCAA Final Four in 2016.  Ordinance supporters, including the Greater Houston Partnership, warned that if voters defeated the ordinance that it could trigger economic boycotts or endanger major athletic events.

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