Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick insists that SB 6 — the so-called “bathroom bill” — isn’t about discriminating against transgender Texans. It is, of course. Patrick’s own actions, and the actions of religious-right extremists he has brought in to help pass this discrimination bill, make that clear.
Check out this excerpt from a Dallas Morning News story last week:
“Supporters say the measure, which would restrict bathroom access based on biological sex, isn’t meant to target transgender Texans. But LGBT advocates say the leaders Patrick chose to head his campaign — who have called members of the transgender community ‘confused’ and ‘sinful’ people who can be cured through religious intervention — are troubling spokesmen for a bill its proponents insist isn’t meant to be discriminatory.”
The Morning News story goes on to expose Patrick’s alliance with anti-LGBT groups inside and outside the state, including the Family Research Council (FRC). The Southern Poverty Laws Center (SPLC) classifies the FRC as a vicious hate group. Here’s what the SPLC has to say about the FRC’s leader, Tony Perkins.
And then there’s this particularly vile screed from Houston attorney Jared Woodfill and Steve Hotze, the head of Conservative Republicans of Texas, an organization the SPLC also has exposed as a hate group. (More on SPLC’s classification of Conservative Republicans of Texas as a hate group here.)
Woodfill and Hotze used their screed to attack House Speaker Joe Straus for his opposition to SB 6. They go on to call transgender people “perverted” and offer this justification for supporting SB 6 (emphasis in the original):
“Lt. Gov. Patrick wants to protect women’s privacy and children against the homosexual political movement’s pro-homosexual, ‘transgender’ agenda. Their agenda would use the power of law to force you, churches, businesses, schools and government institutions to accept, affirm and celebrate those who promote and participate in aberrant, deviant and perverted sexual behavior. They are a special interest group that wants to receive minority status based upon their chosen deviant sexual lifestyle. A moral wrong can never be the basis for a civil right.“
This is the truth: SB 6 and the other 24 anti-LGBT bills filed in the current legislative session are about hate and discrimination. That includes the 17 bills that would allow government, private individuals and businesses to use their personal religious beliefs as a cover for discriminating against LGBT Texans.
Shame on Dan Patrick for allying himself with the forces of hate in America.
