Hoping to quell national outrage from religious groups, Houston Mayor Annise Parker on Wednesday said the city would no longer subpoena local pastors who had opposed a city ordinance barring businesses from discriminating against transgender people.

“I don’t want to have a national debate about freedom of religion when my whole purpose was to defend a strong and wonderful and appropriate city ordinance” said Ms. Parker, a Democrat and the city’s first openly gay mayor.

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