Stoking fears

Regarding “Senate panel approves transgender bathroom bill” (Page A4, Thursday), our Texas lawmakers appear inclined to repeat the North Carolina Legislature’s colossal mistake with Senate Bill 6, the so-called bathroom bill. My experience as a Texan who frequently visits North Carolina is that Carolina’s foray into regulating bathrooms was an unmitigated economic and cultural disaster and a career-ending experiment for that conservative state’s governor.

In November 2016, Forbes estimated that Carolina’s bathroom law had cost the state at least $630 million in lost business opportunity. Sporting casualties in 2016 include the NBA AllStar Game, ACC football championship game and seven NCAA national championship games in various sports. All these events were relocated outside of Carolina.

Companies such as Google, PayPal and Deutsche Bank decided to cancel expansion plans, and major entertainers canceled shows in the state. The economic harm was certainly greater than the $630 million of directly quantifiable costs, and the harm to Texas with its greater size will certainly eclipse this figure.

With all these costs, what is the pressing problem being solved? Where is the list of people who have been threatened by a transsexual person? How many Texas police reports cite bathroom violence by a transsexual person? The truth is that this is a manufactured problem by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and colleagues who, void of demonstrable problems, appeal to emotions focusing on fear and righteousness in order to enhance their own conservative credentials purely for personal, political gain. Scott Harlan, The Woodlands