REPORT CRITICIZES LEGISLATORS OVER ‘BATHROOM BILL’

  

Texas legislators are being criticized in a new Texas House report for—in their words “unnecessarily diverted attention from topics like education and taxes to concentrate on the failed ‘bathroom bill.’”

Findings from the report, from the House Select Committee on Economic Competitiveness, were based on public hearings and testimony from witnesses in business, law enforcement, education and local communities.

The bathroom bill introduced by local state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst would have barred transgender people from using public bathrooms of their choice.

Some business leaders said the bill could cost Texas billions in boycotts and lost jobs.

The panel’s chairman, GOP Rep. Byron Cook of Corsicana, said the bathroom bill was “ineffectual” and “dangerous” to the Texas economy.

Kolkhorst’s office, however, said the “bathroom bill” was among the statewide propositions on the Republican ballot in last Tuesday’s primaries, and was passed overwhelmingly.

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11 Comments

  1. The proposition was loosely worded as basically a question “do you think women and children should be protected in bathrooms”. Well of course everyone wants that! This was political propoganda used by politicans who would rather waste time and money than deal with issues such as property tax and school vouchers. If you’d like to keep women and children safe, let’s start with testing the hundreds of rape kits and get those actual criminals off the street.

  2. OK, as a very conservative person, I did not find a lot of need for the bathroom bill, so I can’t say I was strongly opposed or strongly for it. However, that issue had died away and now we get the House Select Committee on Economic Competitiveness wasting even more time, energy, and money on a silly report like this. What’s next an investigation of Ross Perot’s involvement in the No Pass No Play rule!! Lets be real in live in the present. To waste time and taxpayer dollars on this report is ridiculous.

  3. I’m a conservative Republican, and even I know the Bathroom Bill was a useless scare tactic. I emailed Sen. Kolkhorst and politely explained my opposition to this ridiculous bill, and received no reply. I will never vote for her again.

    A true conservative has no interest in interfering in the lives of others. Enough with the social issues. RUN OUR STATE PROPERLY.

    1. A true conservative understands that the privacy issue began when President Obama’s administration sent a binding order to all public schools which required administrators to allow any boy to declare themselves a female and be allowed into the girls shower,restroom etc. it is a State responsibility to push back! I will always admire and vote for Senator Kolkhorst because she has guts. School funding issues and property taxes can be addressed along with the bathroom gender issue; saying it’s either/or is a joke. There are thousands of bills done in every legislative session… with MANY big important issues. My daughter’s safety IS important. I’m glad the Kolkhorst referendum for prop 6 passed by 90% in Washington County.

  4. Senator Kohlkorst, your bathroom bill did not pass! The scare tactic you phony politicians used in its place on the propositional ballot passed. Just another way of politicians manipulating words on a ballot to help their past failures.

    1. I support the privacy act, known as the bathroom bill. Truthfully if you research more, the bill last year had over 80 House sponsors which was more than the 76 needed to pass it, but outgoing Chairman Cook and outgoing Speaker Straus refused to allow a vote …so it isn’t accurate to say the bill failed, it had a majority in both the House and Senate….which is to say it garnered the votes to pass but a vote was not allowed.

      Neither Cook nor Straus sought re-election this year, and judging by the 90% by which the legislative proposition passed in last week’s statewide primary, they were wise to retire. Whether we all agree, the election last week showed that almost all 1.5 million republican primary voters agreed with Kolkhorst.

      I have daughters and I want it clearly defined in law that a teenage boy cannot declare he is identified as a female and allowed into the girls showers, locker rooms or restrooms in a high school or public facilities. This issue is only going to continue…unfortunately.

      1. Why can’t we leave the bathroom and locker rooms out of the bill and simply say as a state that gender is a biological fact due to chromosomes? People are free to represent themselves however they see fit but until a persons DNA can be replaced it’s a fact that your gender is due to your genes.

      2. I agree J.D. I want my daughter’s to be able have privacy and only share the bathrooms and locker rooms with biological females. It’s ridiculous that we have to even fight this issue in the first place.

  5. The “bathroom bill” was not among the state propositions. To quote the proposition Mrs. Kolkhorst’s office is referencing, “Texas should protect the privacy and safety of women and children in spaces such as bathrooms, locker rooms, and showers in all Texas schools and government buildings.” All people are already protected by privacy laws in restrooms. Having the state determine who can use what restroom is an entirely different matter. Mrs. Kolkhorst’s office is clearly construing a proposition to fit her agenda and it is wrong for them to do so.

    1. You are so right BA, saying that the proposition was a mandate by the people of Texas is ridiculous. The way the proposition was written who wouldn’t vote yes. I mean who doesnt want to protect women and children. If a proposition was on the ballot that said something like TEXAS SHOULD PROTECT PUPPIES AND KITTENS FROM BEING CLUBBED TO DEATH WITH A BASEBALL BAT, and then claiming that was a mandate by the people of Texas to ban all baseball equipment. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Lois needs to have her head examined, if she honestly thinks we need legislation like the ‘bathroom bill” she proposed. Do work in Austin that helps people, not waste time of this type of garbage.

  6. Looks like statewide and in Washington County, Republicans voted 90%+ in agreement with the Privacy Act “bathroom bill” on the recent primary ballot.

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