TEXAS: Sweeping Anti-LGBT Bill Misses State House Deadline Despite Plea To Megachurches By Governor

The Texas Tribune reports:

A proposal to gut cities and school districts’ trans-inclusive bathroom policies did not advance in the House ahead of a crucial deadline, nixing the measure’s chances of getting a vote by the full chamber. But that doesn’t mean that the issue itself is dead.

Up against bill-killing deadlines, the House State Affairs Committee on Monday did not act on House Bill 2899, which some were hoping would serve as an alternative to the Senate’s “bathroom bill.” That means the proposal won’t reach the Calendars Committee, which sets the House’s daily agenda.

The proposal, by Republican state Rep. Ron Simmons of Carrollton, would have banned political subdivisions, including school districts, from enacting or enforcing policies to protect a class of persons if those aren’t already protected by federal or state law as applied to bathrooms, showers or changing facilities.

HB 2899 would have nullified parts of nondiscrimination ordinances in several Texas cities that have been in place for decades to protect certain classes of persons, including transgender residents, from discrimination in public accommodations. Those protections are meant to allow them to use public bathrooms that match their gender identities.

Carrollton is now threatening to add similar anti-LGBT measures to another bill as an amendment, a tactic which has previously failed. Meanwhile, the governor did this on Friday:

Texas Governor Greg Abbott contacted ten megachurch pastors about Texas HB 2899. Abbott told the pastors the bill was being held up by the Speaker of the House and asked the pastors to persuade their congregations to oppose it. Robert Morris, pastor at Gateway Church in Southlake called HB 2899 “the bathroom bill” and urged Christian church goers to voice their opposition to their representatives.