Thousands of social and religious conservatives gathered in Houston on Sunday and lambasted Mayor Annise Parker for allegedly crossing her political limits by issuing subpoenas to five local pastors.

It may be noted here that the subpoenas were issued to pastors who openly spoke out against the Houston's Equal Right Ordinance (HERO), which bans discrimination of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender residents.

However, growing fury among the local as well as national religious conservatives forced the mayor to withdraw the subpoenas last week.

Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, said, "The subpoenas are a symptom of a big problem. The problem is intimidation."

While the rally called just to allow voters to decide whether the controversial ordinance should be enforced or not; it turned into a galvanizing political convention less than two days before the polls.

Members of the local Republican Party believe that the HERO ordinance could help them garner more votes from conservatives, who are angry with Parker and her Democratic allies over the HERO ordinance. In an advert, the local Republican Party framed the election as an opportunity for voters to show that disagree with Parker and her Democratic Party.