I’m not a liberal. I’m part of a growing group I’d call "embarrassed conservatives" — a large faction growing by the day who admired and voted for Ronald Reagan and wonders what in the world happened to sane, reasonable conservatism in the wake of the election of Donald Trump and what has drifted down further to the statehouse.

I give you Texas Senate Bill 3, otherwise known as the "Bathroom Bill," that the Senate passed 21-10 after much debate and rancor on Tuesday. It is a bill that targets the small group of transgender people under the overhyped and exaggerated excuse of public safety.

The bill states that people will be required to use bathrooms and changing rooms at public and charter schools, and buildings overseen by local governments, based on the sex listed on their birth certificate or state-issued ID card. It would strike down parts of city laws that protect transgenders from using a public restroom based on gender identity.

In other words, that bearded fella who changed sex to a man 25 years ago may have to line up with the women. And that transgendered woman? Well, it’s going to be tricky, but she might have to navigate the urinal.

This bill is commandeered by — who else? — Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and other Republicans. They aren’t the late great Reagan Republicans, but an alt-right group that lives in perpetual fear that the boogeyman is coming after its citizens as they cling to one worst-case scenario after another.

Remember when Obama’s election was supposed to be the end of home ownership of guns and all the run it caused on buying ammo and handguns? Adults acting like tin-foil-hat fools. How did that work out? Do you still have them?

Now we have Senate Republicans, who usually preach limited government, throwing down the Big Government hammer in the face of all kinds of rational arguments that span the gamut from business leaders to school districts, from chambers of commerce to police chiefs.

But none of those groups live in the circles of exaggerated fear and answer to donors in the constant treadmill of staying in office. So to pander to a minority, backers of Senate Bill 3 would have the public believe the state’s young daughters are under siege by a group of deviants dressed as women ready to assault a lonely young girl in a public restroom.

Transgenders obviously have emotional issues they have confronted to want to change their sex, but I can promise you, none of them involve the idea that it would make it easier to assault young girls in restrooms.

Many of the state’s top police chiefs went to Austin last week to voice their opposition. They rightly called the bill "a solution in search of a problem." If this became law, enforcing it would take resources away from actual public safety.

"A bad law and bad political theater," Houston police chief Art Acevedo said.

Major Reuben Ramirez of the Dallas police department said research data back to 2014 found no reports of men assaulting women in public restrooms.

Nineteen states and 200 cities and counties have protected transgender rights, and there’s not a documented case of a sexual predator using transgender rights to commit a crime. Fact is, a young boy is at much greater risk from an adult male pedophile than a girl from a transgender woman in a public facility. It’s not even close.

The other cringe-worthy part of the bill is it has no teeth, but all the risk. It was amended to exempt privately leased government buildings like stadium and convention centers.

Violators could not be arrested if the bill became law. Mainly all it would do would allow the state’s attorney general to sue a school district or a city that allows transgenders to use restrooms of gender identity.

I thought Republicans were the standard bearers of local control and limited government, so why the heavy handed legislation? Whatever happened to local school districts or city councils voting on their own transgender policies?

All of this could end up costing Texas dearly. North Carolina, which had a similar law, saw a staggering $3.7 billion hit in lost business, according to the Associated Press. Those were real dollars from lost conventions and national events that avoided the state.

The Texas Association of Business estimates $8.5 billion in lost dollars. Some estimates are lower, but still near $4 billion by losing outside companies and organizations to Texas that see a law like this as discriminatory and unnecessary. They are making a symbolic protest.

Yet, Lois Kohlhorst, R-Brenham, sponsor of the bill, said, "Daughters over dollars," which would be easy to buy if daughters were, you know, at any kind of risk.

Patrick, seeing himself as leading the cavalry to the rescue, called it "must-pass" legislation. But it has to pass the House before it becomes law.

To summarize: This bill is hard to enforce, with little to no penalties, over an imaginary issue that would cost the state billions.

It should tell you how things are when we’re looking at the Texas House as a voice of reason and respect, but the fact is there are less reactionary and more prudent voices in that chamber.

At least as an embarrassed conservative, I hope so.

Jon Mark Beilue is an AGN Media columnist. He can be reached at jon.beilue@amarillo.com or 806-345-3318. Twitter: @jonmarkbeilue.