Tag Archives: bathroom bill

State news

Straus vs. Patrick: main event at special session

This might be nothing more than a sideshow, but it’s beginning to affect the agenda that awaits Texas legislators who are preparing to gather in Austin for a special session.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Joe Straus — both Republicans — are the state’s two leading legislators. Patrick runs the Senate; Straus is the Man of the House.

They are at serious odds over one of the items that Gov. Greg Abbott has placed on the Legislature’s list of items to consider. It’s that damn “Bathroom Bill.”

Patrick insists that the Legislature enact a law that orders people to use public restrooms in accordance with the gender listed on their birth certificate. Straus opposes the bill and has made no secret that he dislikes the bill.

Now we hear that Straus has said something about how the Bathroom Bill is going to cause a spike in suicide among transgender Texans. As the Houston Chronicle reported:

“Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick was rocked back on his heels and clearly on defense early in the week after Texas House Speaker Joe Straus opened a new line of attack on Patrick’s push to restrict restroom access based on gender. In short, Straus said he is concerned that the legislation will cause some vulnerable transgender Texans to take their own lives; it is a population that already has a high suicide rate.

“In an interview with the New Yorker, Straus said he rejected overtures from Patrick to resolve the issue because Straus was ‘disgusted by all this’ and ‘I don’t want the suicide of a single Texan on my hands.'”

Here’s the Chronicle story.

Now this ridiculous bill has become a life-and-death matter? Is that right?

To be blunt, I am disappointed that Gov. Abbott added this bill to the Legislature laundry list of legislative priorities for the special session. I dislike the idea of the state mandating public restroom use in this manner.

I believe it does discriminate against transgender individuals. Moreover, I cannot yet understand just how the state intends to enforce this rule were it ever to become law. Are we going to plant bathroom monitors? Will the state install cameras in restrooms, for crying out loud?

Meanwhile, Lt. Gov. Patrick and Speaker Straus are fighting between themselves over this idiotic notion.

I’m pulling for Straus.

State news

So much for gubernatorial wisdom

Thanks a heap, Gov. Greg Abbott.

You’ve called the Texas Legislature back into special session beginning July 18. And, by golly, you just had to add that idiotic “Bathroom Bill” to the call you’ve assigned to legislators.

Property tax reform? No problem with that. Sunset legislation? Sure thing. The Bathroom Bill? You’ve got to be kidding me.

Sure, you said you have some concern about protecting public school students who want to use restrooms. But please, governor, what is the threat? You want the state to require people to use bathrooms commensurate with the gender listed on their birth certificate.

https://www.texastribune.org/2017/06/06/abbott-special-session-announcement/

My question persists. How is the state going to enforce that law? I suppose we can check the gender of students using restrooms, right? What are we going to do, make ’em show their, um, private parts?

I was among those hoping you’d limit the special session to issues that mattered a great deal to Texans. The Bathroom Bill — pushed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — does not qualify.

You have let me down, Gov. Abbott.

State news

Special sessions seems likely; bring it … with caution

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott well might be ready to call the Legislature back into session to finish some work.

He talked today about property tax reform and then his office announced he would have a press conference on Tuesday to make an announcement.

I totally get the need to hammer out important issues. Property taxes is high on everyone’s list. The governor, though, should resist the pressure being applied by the lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, who wants the Legislature to enact that stupid “Bathroom Bill” that didn’t make it out of the regular session.

It’s heartening to me that Abbott didn’t mention the Bathroom Bill in discussing potential topics to be dealt with in a special session. That’s fine with me.

The bill would require people using public restrooms in Texas to use those that align with the gender declared on their birth certificate. It’s clearly discriminatory against transgender individuals. What’s more, how in the name of intrusiveness does the state plan to enforce such a law?

My trick knee is telling me that Abbott might be a bit miffed that Patrick sought to pressure him on which issues to put on the Legislature’s special session agenda.

https://www.texastribune.org/2017/06/05/abbott-property-taxes-special-session/

According to the Texas Tribune: “Our goal is to solve your challenges, to solve your problems,” Abbott said at a Bell County GOP dinner. “I think there is one challenge, one problem, that many Texans face that went unsolved. It’s complex, but it needs to be addressed, and that is the incredible rise in property taxes in this state.”

Property tax reform is reason enough to call legislators back to Austin. That’s it.

State news

Legislature ends contentious session — just as it gets ugly

I am glad at the moment to be living far from Austin, the capital of Texas and the place where state legislators ended their 2017 session with two of them threatening physical harm to each other.

Whatever happened to the late Robert F. Kennedy ‘s notion that politics could be a “noble profession”? It ain’t. Not in Texas. Not these days. I would have hated to have been hit by a stray bullet.

Just think: Gov. Greg Abbott just might call these clowns back into special session to wrap up some unfinished business, some of which might include enactment that idiotic Bathroom Bill that would require people to use public restrooms designated to the gender noted in their bleeping birth certificate.

As for the end of the 2017 regular legislative session, two House members got into each other’s face as a scuffle broke out on the House floor. Some illegal immigrants reportedly raised a ruckus. One lawmaker, Democrat Poncho Nevarez threatened “to get” Republican Matt Rinaldi after Rinaldi called immigrations agents to break up the disturbance that was caused by the illegal immigrants.

By “get,” Rinaldi presumed Nevarez intends serious physical harm, to which he (Rinaldi) responded by threatening to put a “bullet in the head” of his colleague — in self-defense, of course.

https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-republican-sb-4-protesters-capitol-ice/

Good ever-lovin’ grief, fellas. Nevarez should have kept his trap shut and Rinaldi should have refrained from threatening to shoot Nevarez.

Hey, guys, here’s a flash for you: Texas is in relatively good financial shape. Yeah, we have our issues. We have differences of opinion, most certainly differences of philosophy and ideology.

For this kind of tough talk to erupt at the end of a legislative session — which lasted all of 140 days — is ridiculous, outrageous and disgraceful on its face. House rules prohibit demonstrates from the gallery; the demonstrators broke the rules, period! That’s where it started and how it went from bad to stupid.

If Abbott is going bring you folks back to Austin, my hope is that he waits a while before setting a date. Reps. Nevarez and Rinaldi need to cool off, collect themselves, catch their breath — and count their blessings.

political news, State news

No ‘Bathroom Bill’ on special session agenda, OK?

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott pledges that he is going to reveal later this week whether he’ll call the Texas Legislature back into a special session.

I am going to make a single request of the governor: Do not include that idiotic “Bathroom Bill” in the issues to be covered by legislators.
Property taxes? Sure. Sunset legislation? Yes. Bathroom Bill? Hell no!

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick wanted the Legislature to approve a bill that requires people to use public restrooms based on the gender that appears on their birth certificate. The bill discriminates against transgender individuals or those who might be on that journey en route to a change in their gender.

That the Legislature might be called back into session to deal with that issue is a monumental waste of time, let alone Texas taxpayers’ money.

 

https://www.texastribune.org/2017/05/29/abbott-promises-special-session-announcement-later-week/

Let’s not forget, too, the economic blowback that is likely to come Texas’ way if lawmakers approve such a bill. It’s happened in North Carolina, as companies have decided to take their business elsewhere.

Gov. Abbott affirmed that he alone can determine the agenda for legislators to consider. You do that, governor, if that’s what you want to do. “I can tell you this, and that is when it gets to a special session, the time and the topics are solely up to the governor of the state of Texas, and we will be, if we have a special session, convening only on the topics that I choose at the time of my choosing,” Abbott told reporters.

I just hope Gov. Abbott keeps the Bathroom Bill off the table.

State news

‘Bathroom Bill’ appears headed for trash heap

I cannot pretend to understand fully the issue of transgenderism.

However, I know a hurtful and unnecessary piece of legislation when I see it. The Texas “Bathroom Bill” that aims to tell folks which bathroom to use is one of them.

The Associated Press is reporting that the state’s Bathroom Bill is all but a goner. Still, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick vows to bring it up in a special session.

Except for one little thing.

Only the governor, Greg Abbott, can call legislators back into a special session and Gov. Abbott doesn’t appear inclined to do so.
The legislation would require people to use public restrooms that coincide with the gender noted on their birth certificate. And yet, there are those who contend that they “identify” more with the opposite gender; many of those them are having what’s called “surgical reassignment” to transform them from one gender to the other.

I’ll repeat that I do not pretend to understand confusing gender identity, having never gone such confusion myself.

The legislation being discussed, though, seems discriminatory on its face. What’s more, the Texas House of Representatives — led by Speaker Joe Straus — has been fighting to derail this Dan Patrick-led initiative from the get-go.

Indeed, business interests have threatened to boycott the state if it enacts such a bill, which has been the kind of punishment inflicted on North Carolina, which approved a similar bill.

As the AP reported: “Many states have balked at such bills after North Carolina was thrust into political and economic upheaval over its law, which was partially repealed in March.”

As they say, “money talks.”

https://apnews.com/b5e455ab9a15422cbd1f3eda069e4cf4

The Legislature is set to adjourn in a couple of days. There likely won’t be a Bathroom Bill sent to Gov. Abbott’s desk before lawmakers sign off for the session. As for Patrick’s pledge to get a special session called, he’d better check with the governor — who I hope keeps a cool head and decides that the Bathroom Bill is fraught with too much economic peril for Texas to endure.

The very idea of the Texas Legislature being hauled back to convene a special session for something as ridiculous as this is mind-blowing on its face.

State news

Bathroom Bill heads for possible derailment in House

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has established his legislative priority for the  Legislature. He wants lawmakers to enact a law that forces people to rely on the gender listed on their birth certificate if they need to use a public restroom.

Senate Bill 6 is known as the Bathroom Bill. It sailed through the state Senate. It’s now headed for a possible uncertain future in the state House, where Speaker Joe Straus is decidedly less enthusiastic about the Bathroom Bill than Dan Patrick.

I have struggled with this one. I’ve been quiet on it so far. I believe that SB 6 is a needless piece of legislation. It’s also narrow-minded, bigoted and it ignores the reality — as difficult as it is for some of us to understand — that some individuals actually do identify with a gender that is not listed on their birth certificate.

Patrick is angry at Straus because he doesn’t share his commitment to this piece of legislation.

SB 6 might not get an up-or-down vote on the floor of the House. Does that kill the legislation? Not necessarily. Gov. Greg Abbott can call a special legislative session to ensure that the bill gets a vote. I would hope the governor would leave SB 6 in the dust bin if it never gets that vote.

The Bathroom Bill strikes me as a sort of solution in search of a problem. Is this issue the kind of thing that should occupy so much of our legislators’ time, energy and commitment? No.

Is there a serious threat to individuals being sexually assaulted in public restrooms by a transgender individual? No. Yet the lieutenant governor keeps harping on the need to protect Texans against sexual predators pretending to be women just so they can use women’s restrooms.

Let’s get real, ladies and gentlemen of the Texas Legislature.

Individuals can — and do — identify with opposite genders. How many of them are there? I have no clue. It’s likely a tiny fraction of the 27 million residents of this great state.

Let’s concentrate on bigger issues. The Bathroom Bill isn’t one of them.

Sports news, State news

NFL vows to fight Texas’s ‘bathroom bill’

Texas legislators might have picked a fight they are destined to lose.

They are considering a so-called “bathroom bill” that targets transgender individuals, requiring them to use restrooms according to their “biological sex.”

Opponents of Senate Bill 6 call it discriminatory against transgender people, those who could be in the process of changing their sexual identity.

Here’s where it gets tricky, particularly in a football-crazy state such as Texas: The National Football League might not return the Super Bowl to Texas if the Legislature goes through with enacting Senate Bill 6.

Was this year’s Super Bowl the last one in Texas?

Houston just played host to Super Bowl LI, doing a marvelous job of staging the event seen by tens of millions of TV viewers around the world. It might be the last time a Texas city enjoys the glory that fell across Houston.

It’s a complicated issue. According to the Texas Tribune: “The legislation does exempt stadiums, convention centers and entertainment venues that are owned or leased by a governmental entity from having to follow the state’s bathroom policies. That would include NRG Stadium in Houston, where the Super Bowl was held.”

There’s more to it. As the Tribune reported: “But Senate Bill 6 would apply to most college stadiums, which would be required to prohibit transgender Texans form using the bathroom that matches their gender identity. Under the bill, if a private association, business or sports league leased out a publicly owned venue for an event, the state or local governments that oversee that venue would have no say in the bathroom policies there for that event.”

There well might be little stomach for the National Football League to go through this kind of hassle in the future, which would deprive the state of considerable revenue generated by such a mega-event.

What’s more, it involves football, too!