Texas lieutenant governor enlists anti-LGBT groups to campaign for ‘bathroom bill’

AUSTIN—Two groups asked by Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to lead a statewide campaign for his divisive "bathroom bill" are longtime opponents of LGBT rights that have called transgender people "unnatural" and "unhealthy" peddlers of "destructive behavior."

In March, Patrick launched "Operation One Million Voices," spearheaded by Rick Scarborough's Vision America and Tony Perkins' Family Research Council, to attract Christian support for Senate Bill 6, which would restrict bathroom access based on biological sex.

Supporters of the bill say isn't meant to target transgender Texans. But LGBT advocates say the people Patrick chose to head his campaign—who have called members of the transgender community "confused" and "sinful" people who can be cured through religious intervention— are troubling spokesmen for a bill its proponents say isn't meant to be discriminatory.

"The lieutenant governor does not check with every supporter of legislation he champions regarding their position on other issues," Patrick spokesman Alejandro Garcia said in response to questions about Scarborough's and Perkins' past anti-LGBT statements. "Senate Bill 6 is a public safety and privacy bill."

The bill awaits debate in the Texas House, where it has far less support from that chamber's Republicans. Concerned that the bill could die there, Operation One Million Voices has promised to step up its efforts, headed by groups that reject not only greater rights for transgender people, but also their very existence.

"Governments should not recognize any change in sexual identity from that identified at birth," the Family Research Council says in its policy paper. "Neither lawmakers nor counselors, pastors, teachers, nor medical professionals should participate in or reinforce the transgender movement's lies about sexuality."

"North Carolina was the tip of the spear," Patrick said the day he announced Operation One Million Voices. "We will be next."

Last year, North Carolina became the first state to pass a "bathroom bill," adopting a state law that excluded transgender men and women from restrooms, changing rooms and locker rooms that match their gender identities. That law was repealed and replaced Thursday with one that more closely resembles Texas' bill.

If North Carolina was the tip of the spear for such laws, Family Research Council was the whetstone.

"North Carolina is the result of probably a couple years of well over 100 regional meetings," Randy Wilson, the council's national field director for church ministries, said in an interview. "We are working this across the country."

Now, they're focused on Texas.

Scarborough and Perkins have long been considered two of the most influential conservative leaders in the nation. Scarborough, once a Southern Baptist preacher and tea party activist, founded Vision America in 1994 to mobilize pastors for conservative causes. Perkins, a former Louisiana state representative, is the fourth president of the Family Research Council, which is based in Washington.

Both groups have led the charge against LGBT rights, including same-sex marriage and the military's former "don't ask, don't tell policy" against gays. In recent years, they've turned their sights to the transgender community, railing against what both men have called the nation's move away from Judeo-Christian values and toward "sexual anarchy."

Lou Weaver, coordinator for transgender programs at Equality Texas, said Patrick's to solicit the groups' help was telling. "Patrick brought in people that regularly use religion as a weapon against transgender people," he said.

Patrick has long been the loudest proponent of the bathroom bill in Texas. The measure, which would require people to use bathrooms in public schools and government buildings that match the "biological sex" on their birth certificate, was in the works months before he announced that Republican Lois Kolkhorst would shepherd it through the Senate.

On March 6, Patrick announced he was bringing in the political and religious might of Scarborough's and Perkins' groups, with support from the Texas Pastors Council, Hispanic Action Network, Texas Values and other conservative organizations.

Since then, 11 "regional pastor awakening summits" have been scheduled, with three more planned. They want to reach hundreds of Christian leaders, who they hope will tell at least one million of their parishioners about the bathroom bill.