Big Business Crushes Anti-Trans Campaign in Texas
Corporate America, usually associated with the right-wing, leapt to the defense of LGBT people again.
JAY MICHAELSON
08.17.17 5:10 PM ET
Amid a thundercloud of dark news this week, the Texas legislature provided a ray of light: the defeat of all five anti-transgender bills proposed in a special session convened by Governor Greg Abbott.
Most encouraging for LGBT advocates and allies, moderate Republicans, encouraged by backers in the business community, provided the margin of victory, suggesting that President Trump’s cynical efforts to divide transgender people from lesbians and gays will ultimately fail.
The special session was the pet project of Texas’s hard-right lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick. The state senate had passed his bill, S.B. 6, which was directly modeled on North Carolina’s infamous H.B. 2, and which would not only affect transgender protections but would also prohibit any city from protecting LGBT people more generally.
However, the state House’s bill was far less expansive, and the House leadership had refused to join a conference to resolve the differences. As a result, Patrick demanded that Governor Abbott convene a special session to pass a law. Abbott did so, but added a dozen other items to the agenda, making passage of an anti-LGBT law more difficult. Notably, all of this debate took place amongst Republicans, with Patrick more or less representing the Christian Right and the House leadership representing the pro-business wing of the party.
The failure of the special session, which adjourned Wednesday, is a stunning defeat for the Christian Right in the state of Texas. And it came largely at the hands of big business.
more
http://www.thedailybeast.com/big-business-crushes-anti-trans-campaign-in-texas
= new reply since forum marked as read
