Measure heads to full state senate after 13 hours of public comment in Austin feature passionate testimony on behalf of transgender people: ‘It is all fear’

It has raised the ire of business leaders, equal rights campaigners, a host of celebrities and sports leagues.

On Tuesday, ordinary Texans had their say on the state’s proposed North Carolina-style “bathroom bill” as more than 400 people demonstrated and lined up to speak at a hearing on Senate Bill 6 at the capitol in Austin.

Testimony by dozens of people opposed to the bill continued late into the night. A mother of a transgender boy said his “mental and physical health are at risk from this bill” and that because he is not allowed to use the male restroom at school, he avoids eating and drinking so he does not need to use the toilet.

Another said that the bill “would impede transgender people like my son from living a normal life and it would place them in danger. That is all it would accomplish.”

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The proposed bill, modeled on a North Carolina law that prompted backlash across the state, would compel people in public buildings such as schools and universities to use a bathroom that aligns with the “biological sex” on their birth certificate. It also bans local authorities from enacting their own bathroom ordinances and imposes civil penalties on schools and state agencies that violate the law.

One woman spoke through tears as her young daughter sat by her side and tried to comfort her.

“Our daughter Rose knew at a very young age she was transgender,” she said. “She’s not safe in the boys’ bathroom … to those that dismissively say ‘just change the birth certificate’, we can’t, we tried.” In Texas, that requires a court order.

The girl then spoke: “One time while I was just minding my own business at the boys’ bathroom, a random boy hopped over the stall just looking at me and it did not feel right,” she said. “If I ever go into a boys’ bathroom again it would just bring up that same memory over and over again.”

Passionate entreaties against the bill failed to sway the Republican-dominated senate committee. After 13 hours of public comment it voted 7-1 in the early hours of Wednesday in favour of advancing the bill to the full senate. If passed by the senate, it will head to the house for consideration.

Dan Patrick, the highly conservative lieutenant governor, has made the bill one of his priorities, and some groups on the religious right are lobbying for it. But dire warnings about the economic impact also resonate among lawmakers in a state that likes to tout its business-friendly climate.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Opponents of the bill protest in the exterior rotunda at the Texas capitol on Tuesday. Photograph: Eric Gay/AP

A similar bill signed into law in North Carolina last March prompted a backlash that saw concerts canceled, companies abandon expansion plans and the National Basketball Association move last month’s All Star Game from Charlotte to New Orleans.

“Those jurisdictions that are considering legislation similar to [North Carolina’s] are on notice that that is an important factor for us,” Adam Silver, the NBA commissioner, said in an address last month.



The state of Friday Night Lights, the Dallas Cowboys and this year’s Super Bowl managed to wade into a war of words with the National Football League after a spokesman for the competition reportedly said it “embraces inclusiveness”.

“The NFL needs to concentrate on playing football and get the heck out of politics,” the state’s Republican governor, Greg Abbott, told the Glenn Beck radio show last month. Abbott has not given a clear public indication of whether he backs the bill, which attempts to head off sports boycotts by offering stadiums the chance to set their own rules.

The Texas Association of Business has strongly criticised the proposed law, while celebrities from Sting to Jennifer Lawrence to Miley Cyrus signed a letter expressing deep concern. “Transgender and gender non-conforming young people are already subjected to bullying and harassment. Can you imagine the message these bills send to children – the message of ‘that child is unwelcome, that child is dangerous?’” the letter says.

Making appeals to emotion but citing no evidence, supporters claim the legislation will enhance safety and privacy. The bill’s author, the Republican state senator Lois Kolkhorst, told the hearing that the plan strikes a balance of “privacy, decency and respect to protect women, children and all people”, the Texas Tribune reported.

In an opinion piece for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Kolkhorst vowed to resist “the wrath of liberal elites” and wrote: “We must put safety and dignity ahead of social engineering disguised as civil rights … If males can instantly declare to be female, then what becomes of female athletics – or women’s rights, for that matter?”

Critics decry the plan as discriminatory and unenforceable and say it attempts to solve a non-existent problem, addresses crimes covered by existing laws and risks further stigmatising an already-vulnerable population who are more likely to suffer assaults than commit them.

Rather than providing reassurance for women and girls, they argue, it invites awkward scenarios, such as forcing transgender men with female birth certificates to use women’s facilities regardless of appearance.

“I stand here before you asking: how I am supposed to tell my child he cannot use the boys’ bathroom which he currently uses with no problems or objections? This would create exclusion which thankfully at the moment doesn’t exist for him,” one mother of a transgender son said in the hearing late on Tuesday. “There is no compassion with this bill. It is all fear.”

With reporting by the Associated Press