The Texas Bathroom Bill

both sides now agree about the compromise struck over the law this week: It was not a full repeal.

Lawmakers in North Carolina on Thursday scrapped the costly and controversial bathroom measure and replaced it with a law that, among other things, banned local governments from passing their own measures to protect LGBT people. While Gov. Roy Cooper (D) acknowledged the compromise was “not a perfect deal or my preferred solution,” he defended it as a positive step forward and signed it into law despite opposition from LGBT groups.

His Republican predecessor, though, said that the LGBT groups “lost the battle” and agreed with them that the measure did not eradicate the law known as House Bill 2, or H.B. 2. While that law was largely known for its provisions governing which bathrooms transgender people could use, it also included language reversing local ordinances that expanded protections for LGBT people.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/04/01/ex-north-carolina-governor-who-signed-bathroom-bill-lgbt-advocates-agree-the-state-didnt-really-repeal-it/?utm_term=.32291ab08a89

My golf buddies are still boycotting North Carolina.

This is like watching the US turn into a banana republic. Very sad. It's gone from being the place I wanted to move for about 30 years to a place I can't visit.

That's too bad.

From PDiddie's blog:

Texas House breathes life into bathroom bill
I am as mad as a hornet about Houston's latest assault on homeless people, but that rant is still being formalized, so here's a little fresh outrage at the Lege and the bathroom bill.


Oh, but they do. They really do.

(Texas) House lawmakers will debate a so-called "bathroom bill" next week that supporters hope will be less worrisome to business interests concerned the measure could hurt the Texas economy.

The decision to debate the House bill, and to set aside a more severe version passed last month in the Senate, marks the latest split the two chambers have endured during a particularly divided legislative session. The House bill will probably get the backing of the Dallas Cowboys, their lobbyist said, but the state's largest business group is withholding its support at this time.

"It's a bill that's trying to strike a balance between all the interested parties," Rep. Ron Simmons, the bill's sponsor, told The Dallas Morning News on Thursday. "It's our belief that discrimination issues related to privacy should be handled at the state level."

House Bill 2899 will be debated in the State Affairs Committee (next) Wednesday. The amended bill would ban cities, school districts and any other "political subdivisions" from passing local laws that protect certain people from discrimination in an intimate space. This would render local nondiscrimination ordinances that protect the rights of transgender people to use bathrooms that match their gender identity unenforceable.

Guess what this bill is modeled on.

While the language isn't an exact match, Simmons' bill looks quite a bit like the revised bathroom law recently passed in North Carolina. Both ban local governments from regulating use and access of restrooms, changing rooms and locker rooms.

Unlike the North Carolina law, Simmons' measure would not affect colleges campuses. It also would not restrict bathroom use based on biological sex, which the Senate Bill does. The House bill is co-sponsored by Republican Reps. Dustin Burrows of Lubbock, Cole Hefner of Mount Pleasant, Jodie Laubenberg of Parker, Valoree Swanson of Spring and Terry Wilson of Marble Falls.

I'm going to expect that Speaker Straus is going to hold fast his coalition of sane business and corporate types inside and outside the Dome, and is just accommodating the rural and exurban back-benchers aligned with their extremist counterparts in the Senate by giving this bill a committee hearing. And nothing more than that.

Too much to expect?

http://www.12newsnow.com/news/politics/gov-abbott-expresses-support-for-bathroom-legislation/432640152
AUSTIN - Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said in a statement Tuesday that he intends to sign a bill into law to regulate bathrooms. The statement comes the day before the House Committee on State Affairs is set to discuss a less-restrictive version of a bathroom bill.

The committee is set to hear testimony on HB 2899, a bill that focuses on anti-discrimination ordinances, written by state Rep. Ron Simmons (R-Carrollton). Simmons said school districts, cities and counties can't pass ordinances or policies that protect a class of people from discrimination when it comes to multiple occupancy bathrooms, showers and changing facilities.

Simmons says his intent is to prevent having a "patchwork" of rules across the state on issues that impact everyone.

"House Bill 2899 says 'Wait a second, let's take a time out here,'" Simmons said. "And if there's an issue that needs to be handled related to discrimination - which is what the charge is in this - then we need to handle that at the state level."

Simmons acknowledges his bill is similar to Senate Bill 6, in that it calls on the attorney general to identify issues with bathrooms and work to find a resolution. But his bill doesn't say anything about "birth certificate sex" or how bathrooms are regulated.

Still, HB2899 is being met with some opposition. A group of female business leaders from Keep Texas Open for Business and Texas Welcomes All gathered at the capitol Tuesday to denounce claims that both SB 6 and HB 2899 keep women safe. The also added that the bills discriminate against the LGBT community.

Gov. Abbott broke his silence on the issue. In reference to HB2899, Abbott released a statement to KVUE News saying:

"I applaud the House and Senate for tackling an issue that is of growing concern to parents and communities across Texas who are now looking to the Legislature for solutions. Rep. Simmons is offering a thoughtful proposal to make sure our children maintain privacy in our school bathrooms and locker rooms. As the debate on this issue continues, I will work with the House and Senate to ensure we find a solution and ultimately get a bill to my desk that I will sign into law."

© 2017 KVUE-TV

The House last weekend approved a scaled-back measure applying only to public schools, which educate roughly 5.3 million students, more than any other state except California. It bars transgender students from choosing the bathroom they use, but allows schools to direct them to separate, single occupancy facilities.

The Senate rejected the House version as too watered down. But Republican House Speaker Joe Straus, who has long opposed the bathroom bill as potentially bad for Texas' economy, said his chamber would go no further. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a former radio talk show host who oversees the Senate and loves picking conservative fights, responded by imploring Abbott to call a special session.

Adding to the tensions was a Saturday letter from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook and a dozen other tech industry giants. They urged abandoning the bathroom bill. The NFL and NBA have hinted that approving it could cost Texas future top sporting events - even though Houston successfully hosted the Super Bowl in February. Leading businesses and lobbyists have also rejected the would-be law, and top Hollywood and music stars have hinted at state boycotts should it pass.

While the bathroom bill cast the longest shadow over the session's final hours, it may be more mundane legislation on state agencies that ultimately looms largest. Routine procedural proposals to extend the life of five Texas agencies - including medical oversight - previously stalled in the Texas House, after some of the chamber's most conservative members killed every item on a legislative calendar that was supposed to be non-controversial.

Patrick has deliberately not moved Senate versions since then, and says it could mean Texas might not be able to fully license physicians and other medical personnel after September, when previous laws expire. He says Abbott will have to call a special session to resolve that issue - thus letting him add the bathroom bill and other top conservative priorities, like deep property tax cuts, to the agenda.

"We'll pass it in the special," Patrick said Sunday of the oversight legislation. So far, though, Abbott has given no indication he'll comply.

The Texas special session ended without approving Dan Patrick's Bathroom Bill.