Texas small business owners speak out against transgender bathroom bill

David Heard, CEO of Tech Bloc San Antonio, speaks against the bathroom bill at the state capitol, Monday, July 17, 2017. David Heard, CEO of Tech Bloc San Antonio, speaks against the bathroom bill at the state capitol, Monday, July 17, 2017. Photo: JERRY LARA /San Antonio Express-News Photo: JERRY LARA /San Antonio Express-News Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Texas small business owners speak out against transgender bathroom bill 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

Texas’ small businesses could bear the brunt of economic losses if Texas lawmakers pass a so-called transgender bathroom bill, a group of small business owners said Monday.

Business leaders in Texas and around the U.S. have grown increasingly vocal in their opposition to state lawmakers’ efforts to regulate transgender bathroom use. Nearly two dozen executives in San Antonio and Dallas have blasted bathroom bill proposals as distractions and damaging to the state’s ability to attract businesses and talent. Major tech CEOs, including Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Tim Cook of Apple, have implored lawmakers not to seek the legislation. And IBM has said it could reassess its commitment to Texas should a bathroom bill pass.

Now, small businesses are publicly speaking out. A group of five small business owners said Monday their companies could pull back on planned investments, lose potential projects and fail to attract customers and workers if state lawmakers’ efforts to bar transgender men and women from bathrooms that match their gender identity.

“We’re great for talking points about being the heart and soul of Texas but when we stand up to say that our businesses are in jeopardy, those same folks don’t seem to listen,” Amber Briggle, owner of Soma Massage Therapy in Denton, said on a conference call Monday organized by Texas Competes, a business coalition that opposed bathroom legislation.

Briggle said she planned to hire two new employees to service potential convention clients who travel to the city’s new convention center. But it’s unclear whether convention groups will book enough events at the center to justify the new hires if a bathroom bill passes, Briggle said.

And Briggle isn’t the only person in her family affected by the ban. Her husband, a University of North Texas professor, attempted to convene a philosophy conference but was thwarted after California banned state employees from using taxpayer dollars to travel to Texas, preventing potential California convention-goers from attending, Briggle said. The couple’s 9-year-old son is also transgender, Briggle said.

California enacted its travel ban after Texas lawmakers passed a bill allowing adoption groups with religious affiliations deny adoptions over “sincerely held religious beliefs,” which opponents say will lead to discrimination against LGBT couples who want to adopt.

State lawmakers who back bathroom bill have downplayed the business community’s concerns, saying such a bill is necessary to protect women. John Wittman, spokesman for Gov. Greg Abbott, said businesses see Texas as attractive because of the state’s low taxes, right-to-work laws, litigation reform and regulatory climate. People who come to Texas “want to do business and raise their families in a state that has safe communities, and this law helps achieve that,” Wittman said.

“The truth is that businesses look at what is best for their bottom line, and Texas is that place,” Wittman said in a statement.

After hearing hours of testimony from citizens and business groups, the state Senate State Affairs Committee voted Sunday to move Senate Bill 3 — which would bar local governments and school districts from enacting policies that allow transgender men and women from using bathrooms, showers and changing facilities tied to their gender identity — to the full Senate for a vote.

“We must put our daughters before dollars on this issue,” state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, a Brenham Republican and the bill’s author, said in a statement.

Opponents’ predictions of economic fallout stemming from a bathroom law “are not based in fact,” Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said in a statement. Patrick pointed to the city’s vote on the HERO ordinance in 2015, when Houston voters rejected a proposal to add gender identity and sexual orientation to the city’s nondiscrimination ordinance.

“Houston hosted the most successful Super Bowl of all time this year and I am not aware of one business that did not come to Houston or one dollar the Texas economy lost as a result of the Houston vote,” Patrick said in a statement, adding that North Carolina had “a record year in hotel occupancy and the tourism sector is booming” after passing similar legislation last year.

Texas tourism leaders have cautioned bathroom bill supporters against looking to North Carolina’s recent performance as a reliable marker of the effects of that state’s bathroom legislation, which was repealed and replaced earlier this year. Convention groups plan years in advance, Visit San Antonio CEO Casandra Matej told lawmakers Friday, so the effects of any canceled events won’t be seen for years.

North Carolina lost dozens of events and projects in the aftermath of the bill’s passage.

The bathroom bill debate has already cost the state $66 million in convention business, Phillip Jones, CEO of Visit Dallas, told state senators during a committee hearing Friday. The state could lose more than $1 billion in additional convention business should Texas lawmakers pass the bill, Jones said.

San Antonio hotels have lost 43,623 booked hotel room-nights from convention groups that canceled because of the bathroom bill debate, said Justin Holley, owner ABH Hospitality Management, said on the conference call Monday. The management group owns four hotels in San Antonio.

San Antonio has already lost three conventions valued at $3.1 million because of the debate, Matej told the state Senate State Affairs Committee during a hearing on the bill Friday. Another 15 convention groups have threatened to cancel their events should a bathroom bill become law, taking with them $41 million in local spending, Matej said.

Further event cancellations stemming from a potential bathroom law would harm hotel employees who depend on local convention business, Holley said.

“We’re all about welcoming people,” Holley said of the hospitality industry. “This sends the message that, as a state, we pick and choose who we welcome.”

Austin stands to lose up to 30 convention groups worth $133 million if the bathroom bill passes, Visit Austin CEO Tom Noonan told lawmakers Friday. Meetings worth $10 million have already been canceled because of the bathroom bill debate, Noonan said.

On Thursday, the Association of American Law Schools became the latest group to pull its event from Austin over the bathroom bill and Senate Bill 4, the sanctuary cities bill passed by the Legislature earlier this session. The association relocated the four-day 2018 conference to Chicago and won’t consider Texas for future meetings because of the two bills, Paul Marcus, the association’s president, told Austin Mayor Steve Adler in a letter Thursday.

Austin’s event planning industry — including caterers and audio technicians — could take a serious hit if groups follow through on their threats to leave the city, Cindy Lo, owner of Red Velvet Events in Austin, said Monday.

“When we see tourists vote with their feet, it’s these small businesses and individuals who will suffer first,” Lo said.

Concerns over the bathroom bill extend outside of the tourism and hospitality industry. Mary Ann Guido, CEO of San Antonio-based construction firm Guido & Companies Inc., said businesses looking to relocate could pass over San Antonio, taking with them construction contracts worth millions of dollars.

“Why would they think of coming into Texas when there’s not an inclusive attitude?” Guido said.

And the state’s tech industry would have a hard time recruiting young, talented workers who expect an LGBT-friendly atmosphere, said Jason Bodor, owner of Denton-based technology services firm GSATi.

“Attracting the best talent isn’t optional,” Bodor said. “It’s crucial to keep our competitive edge and our business’ success.”

jfechter@express-news.net