Opponents of Houston's new non-discrimination ordinance Thursday turned in well more than the minimum number of signatures needed to trigger a November vote on whether to repeal the measure.

Staff in the City Secretary's office will have 30 days to verify that the names - 50,000 of them, opponents said - cross the minimum threshold of 17,269 signatures from registered Houston voters that foes needed to gather in the month following the measure's passage in an 11-6 vote of the City Council.

Most of the divisiveness around the ordinance stems from the protections it extends to gay and transgender residents, groups not already protected under federal laws barring discrimination on the basis of sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, religion, disability, pregnancy and genetic information, as well as family, marital or military status.

A pledge to fight

Mayor Annise Parker pledged to fight the effort to overturn the ordinance should it make the November ballot, a task she acknowledged city rules make fairly easy.

"This was not a narrowly-focused, special-interest ordinance," said Parker, the first openly lesbian mayor of a major American city. "This is something that the business and civic community of Houston was firmly behind, and we fully expect if there is a campaign that it will be a spirited campaign, but we'll have the same outcome in November as we had around the council table.

"Houston does not discriminate, Houston will not discriminate and Houston will not be fooled by misinformation, hyperbole - I would use the word 'lies' but I'm going to back off from that - and people who are just simply unwilling to read the ordinance for themselves."

All eyes on Houston

Dueling Thursday news conferences by the foes of the ordinance - a small group of conservative political and faith leaders - and supporters - a crowd of citizens, pastors and nonprofit leaders wearing red - highlighted the emotions that have marked the debate for months.

Each side observed the other's media announcement, with some opponents' interruptions prompting Parker to warn that they risked being escorted out.

The proposal spurred numerous marathon meetings of City Council, at which supporters shared tearful experiences of discrimination and stressed that the eyes of the world were watching; opponents, some of them irate, invoked the gaze of God and vengeful voters.

"It has been shown and demonstrated that the people of the city do not want this ordinance," said the Rev. Max Miller, of the Baptist Ministers Association of Houston and Vicinity, claiming a poll opponents conducted showed 82 percent of voters opposed. "We simply say: Allow the people to vote on this ordinance."

The bathroom beef

The ordinance applies to businesses that serve the public, private employers, housing, city employment and city contracting. Religious institutions are exempt. Violators can be fined up to $5,000.

Again Thursday, Miller referenced opponents' central bugaboo regarding the ordinance, the perceived threat of male sexual predators dressed in drag entering women's restrooms, saying, "We're standing up to protect our women and our children." Foes have dubbed the measure the "Sexual Predator Protection Act."

The ordinance protects transgender residents' ability to use the restroom consistent with their gender expression, regardless of their biological sex, but puts the onus on the individual to prove he or she was a victim of discrimination.

Parker, clearly exasperated, decried opponents' "mystifying" and "strange obsession" with where transgender men and women use the bathroom.

"It is illegal today to go into a place of public accommodation for the intent of committing a crime. It was illegal before, it's going to be illegal after," Parker said.

'The world is changing'

Opponent Dave Welch of the Houston Area Pastor Council said his side is confident leading into the possible fall referendum campaign.

"With a very difficult process in place required to gather these signatures - you have to be a registered voter to gather, every sheet has to be notarized - we still gathered over 50,000 in 30 days," Welch said. "That's pretty impressive, and it shows the nature of what the citizens believe about this ordinance. That speaks well, we believe, to this fall."

Parker also expressed confidence that the measure would withstand a test at the ballot box, though she acknowledged business leaders have expressed concern about whether Houston's image could take a hit if outsiders perceive the city as fighting over whether to allow discrimination.

"I have every expectation that this petition drive will be defeated, if they have sufficient signatures, in November, then we will have shown that Houston does not support discrimination," Parker said. "I have every expectation that this is an ordinance that will live in Houston for many years to come and make Houston a better place in which to live."

Houston voters twice have rejected protections or benefits for gays at the ballot box, in 1985 and in 2001, though Parker said, "The world is changing on this issue."