Hate, bigotry bad for business
AUSTIN — Like a monster in a horror film, the bathroom bill is back. And it’s time to kill it once and for all.
Last week Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick repeated a promise he made at the beginning of the legislative session to hold must-pass legislation hostage in the Texas Senate. He won’t relent until his hateful bill that denies transgender Texans access to public restrooms reaches the governor’s desk.
He said he’d do everything possible to force Gov. Greg Abbott to call special session after special session until he gets his way.
Now is the time to contact your governor, state senator and state representative and tell them there are plenty of laws to protect us against criminal behavior in public restrooms. We don’t need legislation that singles out one group for humiliation and discrimination.
For months now, the Texas Association of Business and dozens of major corporations have lobbied hard to stop Patrick’s bathroom bill, which was introduced by state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham.
Similar legislation cost North Carolina nearly $3.8 billion in lost business, according a detailed analysis by the Associated Press.
PayPal canceled plans for a new facility that would have brought an estimated $2.7 billion to the state’s economy. Dozens of convention planners and musicians canceled events, including a Ringo Starr concert that deprived a town’s amphitheater of about $33,000 in revenue. The AP analysis only looked at actual losses from canceled projects.
Beyond the economics, though, most business people know hate and bigotry are simply bad for business. They understand that Patrick and Kolkhorst’s claims that the law is needed to protect our women folk is as misguided as when lawmakers used the same excuse to justify segregation.
Supporters of Texas’ bathroom bill say the law is necessary to protect women
in public restrooms because cities like Dallas, San Antonio and Austin have guaranteed transgender people the right to use the restroom of their choice. When Houston voted on such a law, opponents ran ads suggesting that predators would use these equal rights protections to stalk victims.
Yet tens of millions of people live in the 19 states and 200 cities and counties that have protected transgender rights for years. There is not one documented case of a sexual predator using transgender rights to commit a crime.
Most legal experts agree that current criminal statutes are more than sufficient to prosecute someone who stalks another person in a public restrooms. Protecting transgender rights does not diminish the rights of others.
Access to a public restroom is critical for transgender people to live as their true selves. They frequently spend years living as the opposite sex before they undergo surgery.
If they are banned from using the bathroom of their choice during this transition period, they are forced to use the restroom that does not match their appearance. That subjects them to public humiliation and potential violence.
Transgender people consider Patrick and Kolkhorst’s bill an attempt to force them to conform to societal expectations and dress as their birth gender. It’s an indirect way to deny them their rights to liberty and justice.
So why is Patrick rejecting the business community’s pleas for restraint? Why is he ready to waste millions in taxpayer money for a special session to address a bill most Texas lawmakers want nothing to do with?
The answer can be found in a blog post written by Patrick’s close ally and longtime supporter Steven Hotze, president of the Houston-based Conservative Republicans of Texas.
“There are Texas Legislators who call evil good and good evil ... who would allow perverted men and boys, who sexually fantasize that they are women, to enter women’s and girls’ bathrooms, showers and locker rooms,” Hotze wrote a day before Patrick’s news conference.
Hotze urged Christian conservatives to pray.
“In the name of Jesus, I prophesy and declare: May all the individuals serving in the state Legislature, and their staff, who support, promote and practice sodomy and other perverted, sexually deviant lifestyles ... receive just retribution from God for their evil actions,” he wrote. “May they be consumed, collapse, rot and be blown away as dust from their current positions because of their wicked works, thoughts and deeds.”
Hotze shared this blog post widely, and presumably with lawmakers. This is a pet issue for Hotze, who told a Christian conservative conference last year that LGBT people are “termites” that “get into the wood of the house, and they eat away at the very moral fabric of the foundation of our country.”
Patrick himself often says he is a Christian first, a conservative second and a Republican third. Business leaders from across the state have repeatedly urged Patrick to let up on the culture war bills that bring Texas condemnation, but he reminds them that they are not his voting base.
One must assume his loyaltyis to thought leaders like Hotze, who has convinced Patrick he’s on a mission from God to stop Texas society from accepting trans gender people’ s rights.
Business leaders who care about the separation of church and state, people who care about Texas’ economic health and citizens who care about human rights must make their voices heard now. Texas business leaders need help. If you’re not sure who represents you, go to www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us.
There is a huge economic and business aspect to this issue. Mill en ni a ls won’ t take jobs in places that discriminate, and corporations don’t want to relocate to places where their employees won’ t feel comfortable.
More importantly, though, it’s a human rights issue. It’s one we should all care about because once group’s rights are taken away, it’s easier to take away the next group’s.