The Week in Quotes (March 5 – 11)

Here are some of the week’s most notable quotes.

Chuck Smith, CEO of Equality Texas, on Senate Bill 6, also known as the “bathroom bill.”

This is about discriminating against transgender people to the extent that it would prevent them from actively participating in public life. Consider how difficult it would be for anyone to navigate a full day without having access to public restroom facilities. At the end of the day, SB 6 singles out transgender kids who already face heightened levels of discrimination and bullying for harm.

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The legislative director for state Sen. Bob Hall, R-Edgewood, responding to a group lobbying against Senate Bill 6, also known as the “bathroom bill.”

I can tell you that discrimination is in the eye of the beholder.

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Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, denying that carbon dioxide is a primary contributor to global warming, a view that is at odds with overwhelming scientific evidence.

I think that measuring with precision human activity on the climate is something very challenging to do and there’s tremendous disagreement about the degree of impact, so no, I would not agree that it’s a primary contributor to the global warming that we see.

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Texas House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, on the discriminatory “bathroom bill” advanced by a Senate committee early Wednesday.

Clearly, I’m not a fan of the bill that they are discussing in the Senate committee today, but I’m focused 100 percent on the House’s priorities. They have their agenda, we have ours, and we’ll worry about our agenda and making progress on some issues that I believe are important to every Texan.

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U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, equating the cost of health care with the cost of a new iPhone.

And you know what? Americans have choices, and they’ve gotta make a choice. And so maybe rather than getting that new iPhone that they just love and they want to go spend hundreds of dollars on that, maybe they should invest in their own health care. They’ve gotta make those decisions themselves.

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Texas Observer writer Christopher Hooks, on the so-called “bathroom bill.”

The bill’s ostensible purpose is to protect women from sexual predators. The bill’s real purpose is that it allows people like Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick to hoot and holler. Conservatives want to maintain that delicious and politically potent feeling of insurgency against a rotten culture, even when they hold all the power. Patrick himself has repeatedly betrayed a deep psychological need to exhibit righteousness against persecution, as he did when he compared the battle over SB 6 to the Battle of the Alamo. (Wait, didn’t the guys at the Alamo lose?)

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Rev. David Wynn, speaking at a rally to oppose Senate Bill 6.

We’re going to stop using God as an excuse to hate people. If God hates all the same people you do, then you’ve created God in your image.