Texas social conservatives either learned nothing from North Carolina's discriminatory bathroom bill debacle, or they just don't care to learn anything ever. The Lone Star State's Republican Lt. governor, Dan Patrick, is prioritizing a bill that, like North Carolina's HB2, would prohibit transgender individuals from using the bathroom consistent with their gender. Wade Goodwin reports:
The proposal threatens to split the Texas Republican Party, which controls all three branches of government in Austin. Proponents include the lieutenant governor and the Senate he leads, while the Texas House of Representatives is more sympathetic to the state's business community. The politically powerful chamber of commerce and the Texas Association of Business both strongly oppose any bathroom bill.
The Texas business community apparently hasn't forgotten that HB2 (which thrilled social conservatives) was a financial fiasco, already costing the Tar Heel State more than $600 million and dooming the political ambitions of the governor who signed it into law: Pat McCrory.
However, many of the Texas GOP's most lucrative donors have indicated they're going to the mat to stop bathroom legislation from passing in Texas. The Texas Association of Business held a press conference last month to announce results of a study, commissioned by the TAB and conducted by researchers at St. Edwards University in Austin, which estimated a Lone Star bathroom bill could cost the state upwards of $8 billion in economic impact and 100,000 jobs.
"The message from the Texas business community is loud and clear," Chris Wallace, president of the TAB, said in front of the Texas Capitol. "Protecting Texas from billions of dollars in losses is simple: Don't pass unnecessary laws that discriminate against Texans and our visitors."
With an economic output of $1.64 trillion in 2015, Texas has the second largest economy of any state in the nation (California’s GDP is the largest at $2.44 trillion in 2015, while North Carolina came in at $506 billion GDP). That means Texas has far more to lose than North Carolina ever did. While replicating such a bill is morally reprehensible and completely unnecessary, pitting the Texas GOP’s social conservatives against its business interests could provide some interesting fireworks in 2017.