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Texas: Religious Right Takes Bathroom Fight Back to Schools after Defeat at Capitol
Religious Right Takes Bathroom Fight Back to Schools after Defeat at Capitol
After failing to pass a “bathroom bill” at the Legislature, religious-right conservatives target LGBT-inclusive policies at schools.
by Michael Barajas
@michaelsbarajas
Published
Thu, Sep 14, 2017
at 2:31 pm CST
....
Lawmakers this year proposed no fewer than two dozen bills aimed at restricting the rights of LGBT Texans. In June, Governor Greg Abbott signed into law a measure that critics say allows private, religious-based adoption agencies to turn away LGBT parents. A so-called bathroom bill to police public restroom access for transgender Texans became a defining issue in the Legislature, but with overwhelming opposition from schools, police officials and big business leaders, the more moderate House refused to pass it. As House Speaker Joe Straus told the New Yorker’s Lawrence Wright, “I don’t want the suicide of a single Texan on my hand.”
Despite, or perhaps because of, that defeat, Parker and other activists are still hunting for bathroom battles. It makes sense they’d look for them in schools. After conservative Christian groups such as Texas Values killed LGBT protections in Houston with the rallying cry “No Men in Women’s Restrooms” in 2015, they zeroed in on schools with trans-inclusive policies. When Fort Worth ISD issues guidelines for faculty on navigating gender issues, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick demanded that the superintendent resign and called the conflict a “modern day come-and-take-it moment.”
....
Michael Barajas is a staff writer covering civil rights for the Observer. You can reach him on Twitter or at barajas@texasobserver.org.
After failing to pass a “bathroom bill” at the Legislature, religious-right conservatives target LGBT-inclusive policies at schools.
by Michael Barajas
@michaelsbarajas
Published
Thu, Sep 14, 2017
at 2:31 pm CST
....
Lawmakers this year proposed no fewer than two dozen bills aimed at restricting the rights of LGBT Texans. In June, Governor Greg Abbott signed into law a measure that critics say allows private, religious-based adoption agencies to turn away LGBT parents. A so-called bathroom bill to police public restroom access for transgender Texans became a defining issue in the Legislature, but with overwhelming opposition from schools, police officials and big business leaders, the more moderate House refused to pass it. As House Speaker Joe Straus told the New Yorker’s Lawrence Wright, “I don’t want the suicide of a single Texan on my hand.”
Despite, or perhaps because of, that defeat, Parker and other activists are still hunting for bathroom battles. It makes sense they’d look for them in schools. After conservative Christian groups such as Texas Values killed LGBT protections in Houston with the rallying cry “No Men in Women’s Restrooms” in 2015, they zeroed in on schools with trans-inclusive policies. When Fort Worth ISD issues guidelines for faculty on navigating gender issues, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick demanded that the superintendent resign and called the conflict a “modern day come-and-take-it moment.”
....
Michael Barajas is a staff writer covering civil rights for the Observer. You can reach him on Twitter or at barajas@texasobserver.org.
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