“Slate of Hate” passes Texas legislature

by Rob Howard
Associate Editor

In a rush to adjournment on May 29, the Texas legislature was busy Sunday passing two bills that the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) called a “Slate of Hate.”

Senate bill 2078, which focuses on school districts’ “multihazard emergency operations plays, was amended by the Texas House of Representatives to add bathroom restrictions for transgender students in the state’s public schools.

House bill 3859, a bill that would allow child welfare organization including adoption and foster care agencies to discriminate against LGBTQ couples, was approved by the Texas Senate.

Resistance, and tension, was high in the two chambers of the legislature. The Texas Tribune writing about the debate in the House, said, “Throughout the tense floor debate, Republicans insisted the legislation was not meant to target transgender students, while Democrats likened the proposal to Jim Crow-era policies that segregated bathroom use based on race. Under the proposal, a transgender student who ‘does not wish’ to use a facility based on ‘biological sex’ would instead use single-stall restrooms, locker rooms and changing facilities at their school.

“‘White. Colored. I was living through that era ... bathrooms divided us then, and it divides us now,’ Democratic state Rep. Senfronia Thompson of Houston, a black woman, told her colleagues. ‘America has long recognized that separate but equal is not equal at all.’”

The Tribune said that the amendment could override existing trans-inclusive policies that some school districts have adopted, to allow transgender students to use bathrooms that conform to their gender identity, rather than the gender on their birth certificates.

“This shameful amendment is yet another example of Texas lawmakers’ anti-LGBTQ agenda,” said JoDee Winterhof, HRC’s senior vice president for policy and political affairs. “Transgender youth deserve the same dignity and respect as their peers, and this craven attempt to use children as a pawn for cheap political points is disturbing and unconscionable.”

HRC called on the state’s Senate to stop the measure.

HRC also called out the Senate for approving HB3859, that “would allow child welfare organizations -- including adoption and foster care agencies -- to turn away qualified Texans seeking to care for a child in need, including LGBTQ couples, interfaith couples, single parents, married couples in which one prospective parent has previously been divorced, or other parents to whom the agency has a religious objection. It also could harm children in care.”

Marty Rouse, national field director for HRC and a foster and adoptive parent, said, “This ‘Slate of Hate’ that the Texas legislature has made a priority harms LGBTQ Texans. It is unconscionable that a bill would prioritize discrimination over the best interest of kids in the child welfare system, but Texas lawmakers have done just that. As HB 3859 heads to Governor Abbott’s desk, we hope he does not buy into a hateful agenda over the best interest of some of his most vulnerable constituents -- Texas’ children looking for loving, stable homes.”

Chuck Smith, the CEO of Equality Texas, commented on the passage of HB 3859, and the amendment to SB 2078, saying, “"Tonight, the state of Texas voted to advance two bills that discriminate against LGBTQ Texans. SB 2078 allows for continued discrimination against transgender students with regard to restroom facilities and HB 3859 allows faith based child welfare providers to use taxpayer money to refuse to serve LBGTQ people.

“No amount of discrimination is acceptable. There is no middle ground. All discrimination is bad, full stop. Targeting some of the most vulnerable children in our state is abhorrent, shameful, and disgraceful. The Texas lawmakers of the 85th legislative session are on wrong side of history. No matter how upset or scared our LGBTQ friends and families are feeling this evening, Equality Texas wants you to know that we stand with you; and we will fight to protect you."

“Fresh off its passage of the most anti-immigrant legislation in the nation, the Texas legislature this weekend turned its attention to targeting women and children,” said Terri Burke, executive director of the ACLU of Texas. “With the passage of sweeping abortion restrictions and two measures authorizing discrimination against LGBTQ families and kids, our lawmakers seem determined to make discrimination Texas’s chief export.”

“The Texas legislature is cynically advancing an aggressive agenda of discriminatory legislation for political gain,” said Rebecca L. Robertson, legal and policy director for the ACLU of Texas. “The so-called bathroom amendment approved by the House last night is billed as a compromise, but there can be no compromise on discrimination. Transgender children aren’t bargaining chips for lawmakers to trade, and their safety and dignity are non-negotiable.”

The bathroom restrictions, in particular, became a pawn in efforts to avoid a special session of the legislature, with notoriously anti-LGBTQ Lt. Gov. Daniel Patrick threatening to hold up a must-pass bill that would prevent some state agencies from shutting down. Patrick has been a champion of many anti-LGB and transgender bills in the legislature.

Gov. Greg Abbott, who had been silent on whether or not he would sign a bathroom bill, recently said that he would sign such a bill.

Copyright 2017 The Gayly – May 22, 2017 @ 11:45 a.m.