FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 21, 2017
The Texas House this evening amended (and then passed on second reading) SB2078, a bill that had been focused on school emergency and safety plans, to include a measure that would open the door to stigmatizing and shaming transgender students seeking access to public restrooms all other students use. The amended SB2078 must be approved on third reading by the House, then accepted by the Senate and signed by the governor.
Texas Freedom Network President Kathy Miller has the following statement:
“Supporters of this amendment suggested they were trying to find a middle ground by avoiding an explicit requirement that public schools discriminate against transgender students while also giving a nod to political pressure groups that have insisted on doing so. But there is no moral middle ground on discrimination. Either you discriminate, or you don’t. This amendment, if it becomes law, would leave transgender students even more vulnerable to being stigmatized and bullied simply because they are different. It would be far better if our lawmakers rejected these cynical and dishonest efforts to turn transgender Texans into pawns for advancing discriminatory public policies.”
Background:
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has worked with some of the most virulently anti-LGBT groups in the country to pass a bathroom discrimination measure in the current legislative session. Two of those groups, the Family Research Council and Conservative Republicans of Texas, are on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s national list of anti-LGBT hate groups. The Conservative Republicans of Texas has urged passage of a bathroom bill by calling transgender people “perverted,” “deviant” and “wicked,” while suggesting that they are a danger to women and children. Last week the head of the organization, Steven Hotze, issued a call for “imprecatory prayers” asking God to destroy lawmakers who oppose passage of a bathroom bill: https://crtxnews.com/way-truth-life-section-gods-warning-justify-wicked-isaiah-520-25/.
