Businesses push against ‘bathroom bill’
Group points to legislation in N.C. that cost millions
As some Republican leaders consider a statewide anti-transgender bathroom bill, more than 200 small businesses in Texas warn of the potential hit to their livelihoods.
AUSTIN — As some Republican leaders get ready to push a statewide anti-transgender bathroom bill in the upcoming session, more than 200 small businesses across Texas warned Tuesday of the potentially devastating hit to their livelihoods and customers that such legislation could unleash.
“The threats of discriminatory legislation are an attack on small businesses and on our economy,” said Justin Holley, a principal at ABH Hospitality Management in San Antonio. “Legislators are talking about an imagined threat, but people who work in small businesses are real people: business owners, managers, chefs, and housekeepers.”
Organized by the pro-LGBT group Equality Texas, the coaliton has targeted Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who has not yet unveiled a specific bill but said earlier this year that the goal is “keeping men out of ladies’ rooms.” The 2017 legislative session, which begins in January, likely will see a bill that would force transgender people to use bathrooms that match their gender assigned at birth, not their gender identity.
‘Women’s Privacy Act’
During a speech last week at the Dallas Regional Chamber, Patrick argued that sexual predators may use trans-friendly bathroom policies to target potential victims.
He has dubbed it the “Women’s Privacy Act,” though there has never been a reported case in Texas of someone using an nondiscrimination ordinance to go into a women’s restroom and commit an assault.
“Transgender people have obviously been going into the ladies’ room for a long time, and there hasn’t been an issue that I know of,” Patrick said. “But, if laws are passed by cities and counties and school districts allow men to go into a bathroom because of the way they feel, we will not be able to stop sexual predators from taking advantage of that law, like sexual predators take advantage of the internet.”
The lieutenant governor’s office had no comment Tuesday beyond his remarks in Dallas.
The small business coalition, which includes enterprises from 36 cities across Texas, pointed to the nearly $400 million in lost revenue to North Carolina after state lawmakers there approved a law barring cities from expanding LGBT protections locally. The legislation nullified ordinances in Charlotte and elsewhere that allowed transgender people to use public bathrooms matching their gender identities.
“We employ local people, we pay taxes, and we work hard to make a living and make a difference in the lives of our employees and customers,” the coalition’s statement, which also cited the decision by the NCAA and the NBA to relocate championship games from North Carolina in response to that state’s law.
Powerful lobby
The group said San Antonio, the state’s top tourist destination, already has spent $75 million in preparation for the NCAA Final Four in 2018.
The group also has the support of the Texas Association of Business, one of the most powerful lobbies in Austin with more than 4,000 members who approved a resolution this month opposing “legislation that is seen as discriminatory and would impact workforce recruitment and/or cause a negative economic impact on the state.”
The conventional wisdom that all politics is local could be a major factor determining whether a socalled bathroom bill passes, said Sherri Greenberg, a clinical professor at the University of Texas’ Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs. Bipartisan coalitions on local issues — such as education, taxes and school finance — often can doom the prospects of a bill that would pass in a straight party-line vote.
The broad coalition of small and large business interests also may help sway lawmakers who are on the fence, she added.
“With some members who don’t have a natural opinion or affinity, it matters when you see it’s not just a narrow interest group,” Greenberg said. “I’m sure (Patrick) is going to make this a part of his agenda and wants to see it passed now, but if it doesn’t, it certainly would follow a pattern of many bills I saw, which is that you learn from the first attempt and come back again.”