HOUSTON likes to call itself the city of the future.

This is, after all, the nation’s fourth largest metropolis and one of its most diverse. We have a lesbian mayor, twice re-elected. Oil is in a temporary slump, yes, but skyscrapers and luxury condos are still rising all over town. World-class architects are gussying up our parks and museums.

But our super-sophisticated self-conception is now endangered, thanks to months of strife that have led to Proposition 1’s appearance on the Nov. 3 ballot, a measure also known as the “bathroom ordinance.”

Back in a simpler time, in 2013, that rule was called the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, or HERO. It is designed to protect the populace from discrimination in housing, employment and just about everything else, on just about any basis: race, age, pregnancy, religion, ethnicity, military status, disability, sexual orientation and gender identity.

Most big American cities already have such laws. They offer protections while saving victims the time and expense of filing federal lawsuits.