“Any man at any time could enter a woman’s bathroom simply by claiming to be a woman that day,” a female voice said. “No one is exempt. Even registered sex offenders could follow women or young girls into the bathroom. And if a business tried to stop them, they’d be fined.” At the end of the commercial, a young girl is seen entering a stall, with an unidentified male following her.

A coalition of Democrat and Republican voters united Tuesday to defeat a Houston transgender ordinance, and the strategy used may have laid the foundation to defeat similar proposals in other cities.

The controversial equal rights ordinance was handily defeated by a margin of 61-38 percent following a media blitz of commercials that warned it would endanger women by allowing male predators to use female restrooms.

Known as Proposition 1 on the ballot, the ordinance would have added sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of classes in which discrimination was prohibited in city employment and city services, city contracts, public accommodations, private employment and housing. The result was the exact opposition of a pre-election American Strategies survey that actually showed Proposition 1 winning, 52-37 percent. That poll was released in early October. A mid-October SurveyUSA poll had it up, 45-36 percent.

Christian conservatives were staunchly opposed to the ordinance, although they needed help to defeat it. That’s because Houston leans Democrat, having voted for President Obama both in 2008 and 2012. The White House publicly supported the measure.

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