Washington, DC-Today, the Texas Senate voted to pass SB 3, a bill that bars transgender children from using the correct restrooms, as well as prohibiting schools from protecting transgender students’ participation in sports and prohibiting local governments from protecting their residents from discrimination. In response, National Center for Transgender Equality Executive Director Mara Keisling offers the following statement:
“Once again, the Senate launched another groundless attack on transgender children. When hundreds of Texans—including educators, law enforcement officers, women’s rights activists, business leaders, and more—came to Austin last Friday to testify on SB 3, the overwhelming majority spoke out in opposition to discrimination, outnumbering the supporters of the bill 13 to 1. That should have sent a message to Senators: Texans don’t want their government to write discrimination into law. They don’t want their legislators to be chasing phantom problems, especially not when the purported solution could send shockwaves through Texas’ economy and harm transgender and non-transgender Texans alike. Now, Texas is counting on the representatives in the House to be the grown-ups and put the brakes on this agenda of bigotry and discrimination before it goes any further.”
