Hundreds of people stood on line on Friday, July 21, to testify before a Senate committee hearing a bathroom bill to discriminate against transgender people.
The bill requires people to use the bathroom that corresponds to their birth certificate in public schools and government buildings. The bill would invalidate nondiscrimination ordinances in Dallas and Fort Worth.
Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, who proposed the bill, said the legislation is intended to protect the public from sexual predators without giving evidence of sexual predators dressing as the opposite sex in order to have sex with them in bathrooms. That’s probably because it’s never happened.
Sen. Jose Rodriguez, D-El Paso, predicted that the law, if passed, will end up being decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. He cited Title IX that protects against discrimination based on sex in public schools.
The bill has faced overwhelming opposition by the business community as a potential financial disaster for Texas. Speaker of the House Joe Straus, however, opposes the bill as morally bankrupt. He said he doesn’t want the suicide of a transgender person on his conscience.
The bill passed out of the Senate committee by a vote of 8-1 and will be voted on by the full Senate this week. That will give the House three weeks to kill it or let it die.