A threat to business
The proposed bathroom bill harms Texas’ reputation as a great place to do a deal.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has been in perpetual thrall to the most extreme elements of an increasingly extreme Republican Party since he first won election to the state Senate more than a decade ago. He’s built a career out of catering to causes and crusades of a narrow (albeit voting) few instead of tending to the needs and concerns of everyday Texans. And now, unfortunately, Gov. Greg Abbott is riding tandem with Patrick, ignoring the state’s real needs in this ill-conceived special legislative session and kowtowing to a vociferous minority that supports a cruel and ridiculous crusade to humiliate transgender Texans.
Abbott, who, like every one of his predecessors, touts a businessfriendly Texas, has his hands clapped to his ears when business interests try to tell him that Patrick’s bathroom bill not only discriminates against the transgendered but also risks causing serious damage to the state’s economy. A sensible governor — and lieutenant governor — would look to the recent cautionary experience of North Carolina, where extremist Republicans pushed through a bathroom bill similar to Patrick’s pet legislation and immediately wreaked havoc on the state’s economy.
The Greater Houston Partnership is the most recent group of sensible Texans trying to reason with a recalcitrant governor. Executives at several Fortune 500 companies, top executives at big oil companies and other major firms and organizations that call Houston home reminded the governor in a letter with three pages of signatures that Texas has worked for decades “to establish its reputation as a great place to do business.” Underscoring their commitment to diversity and inclusion, the Houston business leaders noted that “any bill that harms our ability to attract top talent to Houston will inhibit our growth and continued success — and ultimately the success of our great state.”
Those signing the letter included Jeff Shellebarger, president of Chevron North America E&P; Manolo Sanchez, chairman of BBVA Compass; Patrick Oxford, chairman of Bracewell LLP; Tony Chase, chairman and CEO of Chase-Source; Linda DuCharme, president of ExxonMobil Global Services Co.; Fred Zeidman, treasurer and CFO of the Texas Heart Institute, and Gina Luna, CEO of Luna Strategies. Knee-jerk liberals they’re not. A number of the 55 signees are prominent Republicans. These men and women recognize that legislation designed solely to embarrass and humiliate a small group of Texans is an egregious affront to every Texan.
The plea from the Greater Houston Partnership comes in the wake of a $1 million broadcast ad campaign sponsored by the Texas Association of Business that’s designed to grow opposition to Patrick’s bill in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The TAB also made public a poll showing that only 26 percent of Republican primary voters support the bill, sponsored by state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham.
Business-minded Texans, fairminded Texans, sensible Texans of every political stripe look to House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, to quash this absurdity. A moderate Republican with pragmatic inclinations, he’s had to deal with House extremists since he first took up the speaker’s gavel in 2009. There’s a good chance he’ll find a way to flush Patrick’s ignominious legislation.
Still, bathroom bill opponents, whether they’re titans of business or everyday Houstonians, should take nothing for granted. In Patrick, they face a wily and implacable foe; in Abbott, they face a seemingly frightened one. (Of what, we’re not sure, unless it’s a Patrick gubernatorial bid.) Opponents should take their cue from those who have resisted the demise of Obamacare and, so far, have prevailed. Even in Texas, fierce and determined opposition to absurdity just might made a difference.