This Houston lawyer who took down HERO now represents an alleged cisgender bathroom predator

Houston’s Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO) was defeated last week thanks, in large part, to a transphobic ad campaign that equated transgender people looking to safely access public restrooms with boogeyman-like “bathroom predators.” Now, one of the lawyers who played a large role in HERO’s defeat is defending a cisgender man who is said to have preyed on women in a bathroom.

Anti-HERO “ringleader” Jared Woodfill is representing a local businessman who took photos of seven women changing their clothes in the master bathroom of his private home 10 years ago, The Houston Press reports. After learning of the photos’ existence earlier this year, one of the photographed women sued the man, tech-company owner BJ Farmer, for invasion of privacy, negligence for not deleting the pictures, and defamation.

Woodfill claims that this woman had “full knowledge” that she was being photographed by Farmer and two other men, all three of whom were allegedly intoxicated at the time. But The Advocate notes that Farmer admitted in a deposition that he “did not know” whether the woman knew her picture was being taken or not.

HERO was introduced in April 2014. It protected residents of Houston residents from discrimination on the basis of gender identity, sexual orientation, race, sex, physical ability, and other categories of self-identification. Woodfill filed the initial lawsuit against Houston Mayor Annise Parker that eventually got HERO put up for a vote last week, according to The Advocate.