We sent out the following statement today following last night’s end of the Texas legislative special session.
TFN President: The Assault on Civil Liberties in Texas Will Continue until Voters Clean House
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 16, 2017
Texas Freedom Network President Kathy Miller has the following statement on the end of the special session of the Texas Legislature:
“The failure of a ridiculous bathroom bill shows that business, faith leaders and everyday Texans can come together to stop politicians obsessed with singling out and discriminating against vulnerable people simply because of who they are. But we shouldn’t fool ourselves. The reality is our state’s elected leaders for the past eight months have treated the civil liberties of LGBT people, women and immigrants as negotiable at best and irrelevant at worst. We now have even more unnecessary anti-abortion laws that limit the ability of women to make their own decisions about whether and when to have children. The governor has signed a law allowing adoption and foster care agencies to discriminate against LGBT people. And a ‘show your papers’-style law threatens the civil liberties of immigrants and virtually anyone who simply looks ‘foreign.’
Now the governor says the special session has left Texas far better than before. That clearly fails the Pinocchio test. The truth is that this special session has left Texans even more divided.
Enough is enough. The reckless and deeply cynical assault on Texans’ dignity and civil liberties must end. But it won’t end until the voters clean house. The clear lesson from the past eight months is that little will change if next year we send back to Austin the same lawmakers who are obsessed with dividing Texans rather than uniting us to solve the real problems we face together.”
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The Texas Freedom Network is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization of religious and community leaders who support religious freedom, individual liberties and public education.
