While everyone’s attention today has been focused on the Texas House Democrats who left the state to break quorum and keep Republicans from forcing through a radically and racially gerrymandered new map defining the state’s congressional districts, the Senate Committee on State Affairs advanced Senate Bill 7, legislation seeking to bar transgender Texans from using public gendered spaces — such as public restrooms, restrooms and locker rooms in public schools, family violence shelters and correctional facilities — aligned with their gender identity.
Marti Bier, chief program officer for Texas Freedom Network, issued a statement saying, “Once again, our state’s lawmakers are focused on attacking Texans instead of serving us. At a time when our communities are still reeling from the loss and devastation of the floods, right-wing legislators are choosing to divide and distract us by policing where transgender Texans pee.
“Senate Bill 7 is about power and control, not safety,” they said.
Bier continued, “Lawmakers are stoking fear and creating a dangerous environment where all people, regardless of gender identity, will be subject to violence and harassment in public spaces if they do not conform to someone’s binary, personal view of what a ‘man’ or ‘woman’ should look like. Texans deserve legislators who will work for us, and we deserve the safety and dignity to use public restrooms, access resources at shelters, and change in locker rooms that align with who we know ourselves to be.
“Cruel policies like Senate Bill 7 are state-sanctioned violence against our communities,” Bier concluded, pledging that Texas Freedom Network “will never stop fighting for the Texas we deserve — a Texas where all of us are embraced, safe and free to thrive.”
After passing the committee SB 7 moves to the full Texas Senate for debate and a vote. Normally, if it passed in the Senate, the legislation would be sent to the Texas House committee for a hearing; however, House Democrats move to break quorum has left business there at a standstill.