Texas looks set to follow North Carolina with push for 'bathroom bill'
Source: The Guardian
The passage of a “bathroom bill” last March sparked a maelstrom with severe political, economic and cultural consequences for North Carolina that continued through the end of 2016. Yet Texas is poised to propose a similar law in 2017.
In November, one of the state’s most senior politicians published his top 10 priorities for the next legislative session. A “Women’s Privacy Act” was at number six, right after banning immigration “sanctuary cities” and insisting on photo ID at the ballot box.
The act, said lieutenant governor Dan Patrick, is necessary so that “women and girls” can have “privacy and safety in their restrooms, showers and locker rooms”.
When filed, the bill is likely to turn national attention to Texas in the wake of North Carolina legislators’ failure to repeal their bill during a special session on 21 December. Patrick issued a statement the following day congratulating them.
Read more: http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/texas-looks-set-to-follow-north-carolina-with-push-for-bathroom-bill/ar-BBxMhf2
In light of Bernie's admonition that Democrats need to focus on working class issues, rather than appeals to diversity, how does this controversy fit into the narrative of what went wrong in the 2016 elections:
http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/307014-sanders-dems-must-move-beyond-identity-politics
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Sunday that the Democratic Party must move beyond “identity politics” in order to connect with a larger share of the voting public.
"It is not good enough for somebody to say, 'I'm a woman, vote for me.' That is not good enough," Sanders told a crowd at the Berklee Performance Center in Boston, according to WBUR. "What we need is a woman who has the guts to stand up to Wall Street, to the insurance companies, to the drug companies, to the fossil fuel industries.”
Sanders, who come in second place to Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination this year, has repeatedly voiced his concerns with the party’s lack of support in middle America.
"The working class of this country is being decimated — that's why Donald Trump won," the senator said. "And what we need now are candidates who stand with those working people, who understand that real median family income has gone down."
The Vermont independent, who was named chair of outreach among the Democratic Senate leadership this month, has said the party must shift its focus to winning back blue-collar workers and the economically disaffected.
= new reply since forum marked as read
I thought us Dems were the ones too focused on "bathroom bills."
Repubs passed the bills. Corporate entities boycotted the state. And once again, Repubs are passing BS laws that don't work....except to inflame their base against the people who didn't actually do the deed.
