Texas Republicans Unveil Anti-Transgender Bathroom Bill

Last year, North Carolina Republican Governor Pat McCrory, who is no longer the governor after November’s election, signed into legislation HB2 – also known as the controversial bathroom bill. That led to many protests from LGBT advocacy groups, human rights groups and even businesses who didn’t want to be associated with the discrimination.

Although North Carolina had a major backlash, Republican lawmakers in Texas filed a bill on Thursday that is very similar to HB2 – with the intent to keep transgender individuals from using the public restroom that corresponds to their gender identity.

The bill, called the Privacy Protection Act, would mandate that people use the bathroom in schools and government buildings that correspond to their “biological sex” and would bar local governments from enacting ordinances allowing transgender people to use the bathroom of their choice. The legislation would allow schools to accommodate transgender students with a single-occupancy bathroom or other arrangement and also establish fines for schools or agencies that do not comply.

Republican Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick unveiled the legislation at a press conference and argued that the bill is needed to prevent “predators.” He also suggested that the state legislation is only necessary due to local ordinances addressing transgender bathroom use.

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“Transgender people have obviously been going into the ladies’ room for a long time, and there hasn’t been an issue that I know of,” Patrick said at the press conference. “But if laws are passed by cities and counties and school districts that allow men to go into a bathroom because of the way they feel, we will not be able to stop sexual predators from taking advantage of that law, like sexual predators take advantage of the internet.”

State Sen. Lois Kolkhorst filed the bill on Thursday despite opposition from business groups like the Texas Association of Business. The NBA pulled the 2017 All-Star game from Charlotte, North Carolina because of the bill’s implementation. Passage of the Privacy Protection Act could affect Texas the same way.

Texas led a group of states in filing a lawsuit against an Obama administration policy requiring public schools to allow transgender students to used the bathroom that corresponds to their gender identity. A federal judge in Texas has barred enforcement of that Education Department policy.