Academic group threatens to pull Houston conference over Texas bathroom bill

An academic group is threatening to pull an upcoming conference from Houston next year, citing concerns with a bill before the Texas legislature that would require transgender people to use bathrooms corresponding to their assigned sex at birth.

The American College Personnel Association, a trade group based in the nation’s capital, expects more than 3,100 people to travel to Houston over three days in March 2018 for the conference. Executive Director Cindi Love cited concern for transgender college students' and attendees’ safety as a reason for potentially relocating the conference.

“We cannot bring transgender-identified members to a city and risk (discrimination) if they leave the facility where we’ve contracted,” Love said Wednesday morning. The group backed out of a conference in North Carolina scheduled for last summer after that state passed a similar law.

Love said the group’s withdrawal from Houston would mean $5.129 million in lost revenue for the city and state, calculating that figure from airfare, ground transportation, hotels, food, entertainment and other conference arrangements.

Alongside concerns of discrimination, opponents to so-called bathroom bills cite these types of business interests when they criticize the proposed legislation. Big businesses and high-profile sports events withdrew from North Carolina after it passed House Bill 2, a similar law.

Texas’s main business lobby has said anti-LGBT proposals including the bathroom bill could cost the state’s economy $8.5 billion annually and risk 185,000 jobs. Most of those projected costs, they said, were from potential losses in the tourism and travel industries.

Should the bill pass, the group would consider the city's climate, financial impact and member opinions before making a final decision, Love said. After the North Carolina bill passed, the association relocated the conference two months before it was set to begin.