Texas Senate approves bathroom bill

Keep going to see what you need to know about previous versions of the proposed law. less The Texas bathroom bill has been arguably the most controversial bill introduced during Texas' 2017 Legislative Session, drawing reaction from protesters, politicians, business leaders and celebrities. Keep ... more The Texas bathroom bill has been arguably the most controversial bill introduced during Texas' 2017 Legislative Session, drawing reaction from protesters, politicians, business leaders and celebrities. Photo: Sara D. Davis, Stringer Photo: Sara D. Davis, Stringer Image 1 of / 18 Caption Close Texas Senate approves bathroom bill 1 / 18 Back to Gallery

AUSTIN -- The Texas Senate gave preliminary approval Tuesday to ban transgender people from using the bathrooms that best correlate with their gender, advancing debate on the nation's newest frontier for LGBT rights.

The Republican-dominated Senate pushed the bill through almost completely on party lines after senators debated the issue for more than four hours on the Senate floor. Critics called the legislation discriminatory while supporters said it would protect the public by keeping sexual predators out of bathrooms.

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"This is the best privacy bill in the United States," said Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston.

After a final vote Wednesday, which is a formality, the bill will go to the House where it faces bipartisan opposition from lawmakers who are resisting the bathroom politics and are raising concerns about the proposal's economic costs. Many of the state's largest employers, including Amazon and American Airlines, have voiced opposition, and a recent study concluded that the state could lose as many as 185,000 jobs in its first year.

Legislative foes cited the case of a transgender boy who this year won the state's girls wrestling championship because he was barred from competing with boys and stressed the high suicide attempt rate for transgender youth.

"Don't you see the damage that that does to kids, to be humiliated and embarrassed, soiling themselves because they can't use the bathroom of the gender that they identify with," said Sen. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston.

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The laborious Senate debate was the latest skirmish in a national debate over LGBT rights. It has riled the state's business community which fears events like the 2018 NCAA Final Four will be yanked from San Antonio much like events fled North Carolina after lawmakers there passed a similar bill last year.

House Speaker Joe Straus, a Republican from San Antonio, long has voiced his disagreement with Senate Bill 6 but declined through a spokesman to comment after Tuesday's passage of the bill.

"Clearly, I'm not a fan of the bill that they're discussing, but I'm focused 100 percent on the House's priorities," Straus told reporters last week. "They have their agenda; we have ours. We'll worry about our agenda and making progress on some issues that I think are important to every Texan."

A top priority of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, SB 6 was approved 21-10. It would require people to use bathrooms in public schools and government buildings that correspond to the "biological sex" listed on their birth certificates.

Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, who is sponsoring the bill, argued the legislation is about protecting women's safety and privacy in public bathrooms and locker rooms, not discriminating against transgender people.

"Don't think that I don't pray about this, that we're making the right decision," she said during debate on the Senate floor.

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Wearing a floral print dress, Kolkhorst stressed that women need to be protected from men who could use the state's absence of SB 6 to enter into women's private bathrooms and changing rooms.

Kolkhorst told stories of women who have been assaulted and have asked for protection. Other Republicans said they feared bathrooms would become "crime-free zones" where men could wander.

Laws are already on the books that bar people from leering into bathrooms or dressing rooms, restraining a person against their will and exposing themselves in bathrooms.

Opponents brought their own stories to the debate, including how state could lose hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue and jobs if companies take their business or events elsewhere because they see the state as openly discriminating against other people.

The Texas Association of Business said several businesses have already voiced their intent to avoid Texas should SB 6 pass, which would equate to a $407 million loss in direct spending.

The upper chamber batted down 19 amendments pitched by Democrats to weaken or loosen up restrictions on the bill, such as requiring a state study on the financial impact, banning people from investigating an individual's sex and pulling language that requires people to prove their sex at birth. The Senate accepted one amendment by a Republican and two from Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr., a Brownsville Democrat donning a rainbow colored tie and the only Democrat to vote in favor of the bill.

SB6's passage will have a chilling effect on transgender people and "put the most vulnerable people in our community at further risk," said Chuck Smith, chief executive officer of Equality Texas, a

LBGT watchdog group, after the vote.

Smith accused lawmakers in the Senate of "fear mongering" to confuse Texans about the bill, and said voting for SB6 amounts to a "complicit act of violence."

SB 6 also would prohibit local jurisdictions like cities and counties from adopting anti-discrimination ordinances permitting transgender people to use public bathrooms that match their gender identity. It also would not allow government officials to consider private businesses' bathroom policies when awarding public contracts.

Individuals will not face any criminal charges for using an opposite-sex bathroom. Instead, SB 6 would levy between $1,000 to $10,500 in civil penalties on schools or government entities which fail to comply with the measure, depending on the number of violations.

Debate over who should use which bathrooms began in earnest in 2016 with the adoption of a similar law in North Carolina that required transgender people to use the bathroom that correlates with the sex on their birth certificate. The federal government under the direction of the Obama administration then chimed in, sending a letter to school districts across the nation warning that they were to allow transgender students to use the bathroom they are most comfortable with or risk losing federal funds.

A court later halted enforcement of the guidelines and the Trump administration this year repealed guidance letter entirely.

Bobby Cervantes contributed to this report.