Lambda Legal Condemns Texas Senate Passage of Discriminatory Anti-LGBT Bill SB6

(Austin, TX, March 15, 2017) – The Texas State Senate today approved SB6, a discriminatory anti-LGBT bill similar to North Carolina’s HB2 that singles out LGBT Texans for discriminatory treatment, blocks Texas municipalities from enacting local nondiscrimination protections for LGBT individuals, and voids those local protections now on the books. Jennifer C. Pizer, Senior Counsel and Director of Law and Policy for Lambda Legal, issued the following statement:

“SB6 is a non-solution to a non-problem that hurts students and promises to blow up the Texas economy. You would think that the Texas Legislature would take note of what happened in North Carolina, of what happened in Indiana and Arizona, of the intense blowback that has happened repeatedly when misguided state legislators have set out to write discrimination into law. Texas state representatives should review North Carolina’s recent history before compounding the Senate’s error.

“SB6 is wrong, it is unconstitutional, and it’s bad for business. Most importantly, SB6 cruelly targets already vulnerable transgender students for harassment and exclusion and creates problems where none existed. We urge the Texas House of Representatives to reject this hurtful, mean-spirited bill.

“Dozens of businesses, business associations, tourism boards, entertainers, sports leagues – including the NBA and the NFL, law enforcement leaders, and others are calling on Texas legislators not to pass SB6, noting its inevitably devastating impacts on the Texas economy. They have paid attention, they have seen what HB2 did in North Carolina. And they know passing this discriminatory and harmful bill would cause the same damage in Texas.”