A Little Good News Out of Texas

The state’s rabidly anti-LGBT governor called a special session of the Texas state legislature expressly to pass an anti-trans bathroom bill. The bill died yesterday:

Texas measures criticized as being discriminatory for limiting transgender people’s access to bathrooms in schools and public buildings died on Tuesday, as the House adjourned and ended its special legislative session. Business leaders and civil rights groups had battled to defeat the bills, saying they advanced bigotry, would tarnish the state’s image and damage its economy. The measures were blocked by moderate House Republicans. Adoption by Texas, the most populous Republican-dominated state, could have fed momentum in other socially conservative states on the issue, a flashpoint in the U.S. culture wars.

North Carolina’s anti-trans bathroom bill—passed in 2016 and kindasortanotreally repealed earlier this year—was on track to cost the state nearly $4 billion dollars in lost business over a dozen years before North Carolina kindasortanotreally came to its senses. If Texas could’ve gotten away with passing this bill, i.e. if the trans community alone would’ve paid a steep and sometimes lethal price, Texas would’ve passed this hateful legislation in a heartbeat. But when they realized this legislation wasn’t going to hurt trans people alone… they balked. But take heart, bigots: Republicans in Texas found other ways to hurt queers.