Unnecessary damage

Bathroom bill will only flush state’s reputation

Arkansas is set to undergo the same sort of disastrous scrutiny that has cost North Carolina dearly. Despite urging from Gov. Asa Hutchinson to avoid the issue, two state senators are pushing an as-yet-undefined “bathroom bill” aimed at transgender people.

Scrutiny like that, which has cost North Carolina both business and sporting events, could be temporary or permanent in Arkansas.

It depends on whether proposed Arkansas legislation gets anywhere with the Legislature.

Even its brief consideration will give the state a black eye. Passage of such a law, if it happens, could be both embarrassing and harmful.

So far, what the lawmakers have offered is a shell bill, just one sentence that they intend to flesh out by amendment later on.

The sponsors of Senate Bill 346 are Sens. Greg Standridge, R-Russellville, and Gary Stubblefield, R-Branch. The shell bill simply says it “concerns gender identity and bathroom privileges.”

Presumably, it will eventually attempt to do what North Carolina’s highly publicized legislation did by requiring transgender people to use whichever public restroom correlates with the gender on their birth certificates.

The North Carolina law further prohibits local governments from passing nondiscrimination protections for gay, bisexual and transgender people.

You may remember that a number of large companies as well as professional sports organizations are highly critical of the law.

Some companies actually stopped planned expansions in the state, costing North Carolina hundreds of jobs. And major sports organizations, at both the professional and college levels, have threatened boycotts of the state.

Such entities have raised similar threats against the state of Texas and Tennessee, which are also considering bathroom bill this year.

Arkansas may not have as much to lose as those states from the sports boycott. This state isn’t likely to host the Super Bowl or NCAA championship games. Nevertheless, Arkansas is in no position to be driving away people who might visit the state’s tourist attractions or bring new jobs here.

An Arkansas leader in the tourism industry laid into his legislator, who happens to be one of the lawmakers whose name is on the proposed bathroom bill.

“I am not sure which of your constituents you are representing,” wrote Mike Mills, founder of Buffalo Outdoor Center in Ponca, regarding Standridge’s introduction of Senate Bill 346.

Mills was writing his own senator as a local businessman, but Mills also serves on the state Parks, Recreation and Travel Commission and could as easily have spoken from a statewide perspective.

“The brunt of the effect will be on the tourism industry, the number one job provider and tax producer in Newton County,” wrote Mills.

“I grew up with a saying that ‘if it aint broke don’t fix it.’ Sir, with all due respect, the bathrooms of Arkansas don’t need fixing! This will affect every family-owned tourism business in your district, which is considerable. It will also include every restaurant and motel in Russellville!”

Multiply that impact statewide and its easy to understand Mills’ plea to his legislator to withdraw “this unnecessary, unwanted and harmful bill ASAP.”

His is hardly the only voice raised against the legislation. Others in the industry have spoken out, as has Gov. Hutchinson.

“I have consistently said that there is no need for a North Carolina type bathroom bill in Arkansas,” he said. “It is unclear as to the specifics of the proposed legislation but if it is similar to North Carolina’s, I view the bill as unnecessary and potentially harmful.”

It’s the same message Mills sent his senator. For his part, Standridge maintains that what the senators are working on will be more narrowly crafted than North Carolina’s bill, which people there are right now trying to get repealed.

Mills, in his writing, pegged the problem. Any attempt to discriminate will turn people away from Arkansas, not just its bathrooms.

As Mills put it, “It won’t matter what language is in the bill. It will be the fact that there is one. Just ask anyone in North Carolina.”

He’s got that right. Arkansas does not need a discriminatory bathroom bill. Period.