AUSTIN -- Republican leaders pledging to pass anti-transgender bathroom legislation in Texas is not sitting well with some small business owners, who say the decision would severely hurt the economy and represent dangerous government overreach.

On Tuesday, 200 small businesses across the state came out against Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick's recent promise to pass the "Women's Privacy Act," a bill that mimics North Carolina's House Bill 2. That state's bill, which banned transgender people from using the bathroom of their choice and repealed local ordinances against LGBT discrimination, has resulted in a loss of more than $395 million in total revenue.

The small businesses who signed the pledge -- including 40 in Dallas -- joined the more than 1,100 larger enterprises that have already promised to make the Lone Star State more welcoming for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. The Dallas Morning News, as well as American Airlines, Texas Instruments, Dell and Southwest, are among those committed to make Texas more LGBT-friendly.

"We believe Dan Patrick is using this false name to try to pass legislation to discriminate against LGBT Texans," Chuck Smith, CEO of LGBT-rights group Equality Texas, said at an event Tuesday in San Antonio unveiling the small business pledge.

He added, "Texans are smart enough to see through this façade and urge the lieutenant governor to consider the needs of small businesses and the people they employ, instead of pursuing this and other discriminatory legislation."

San Antonio will host the 2018 NCAA Final Four, which could net the local economy tens of millions in business investment. Local business leaders at Tuesday's conference urged state lawmakers to keep this in mind and remember how the NCAA and Atlantic Coast Conference pulled 15 championship events from North Carolina after that state passed its transgender bathroom bill.

"In San Antonio we have already committed millions of tax dollars to upgrades for the 2018 NCAA Final Four," said Jody Bailey Newman, who owns several San Antonio bars and restaurants. "I'm a conservative business owner; anyone who supports discriminatory legislation is anti-business."

Texas has been at the forefront of the culture war over transgender rights, with Attorney General Ken Paxton opposing federal guidelines aimed at protecting the rights of transgender Americans. The state has sued the Obama administration for its public school bathroom policy, as well as new federal health care rules that ban discrimination by doctors, hospitals and insurers against transgender persons.

Patrick unveiled his legislative proposal at a preview of the 2017 legislative session sponsored last week by the Dallas Regional Chamber.

"It's not about the transgender issue, it's not about discrimination, it's about protecting women," Patrick said. If the state doesn't pass his bill, he said "we will have women abused, attacked and assaulted -- not by transgender people, by sexual predators."

"As a businessman, I don't want the liability."