Seriously, what is it with conservatives and their obsession with where transgender people use the restroom? First North Carolina, then Mississippi, and now the idiocy has sprung up in a place one might expect: Texas.
GOP Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick took to Twitter on Wednesday to announce a boycott of business that allow transgender individuals to use the restroom that matches their gender identity:
I will not spend a single dollar with a business that allows men to use women's bathrooms: https://t.co/plg7fRcTG9 #tcot
— Dan Patrick (@DanPatrick) April 27, 2016
The reaction to this tweet was, well, less than supportive. Despite this, Patrick said during an interview with a local news station that:
“This is not about equal rights. I’m totally in favor of equal rights. I’m not prejudiced against anyone, but I don’t want any man for any reason going into a woman’s bathroom or a woman’s locker room, and I don’t think that 90 percent plus of your audience disagrees.”
Ask North Carolina how well that has been going to them, Dan. Oh wait, they’ve lost thousands of jobs and around a billion dollars in revenue. And by the way, when you say “I’m not prejudiced against anyone, but,” then you’re about to say something prejudiced.
The GOP is in a state of crisis. The candidate that least want to represent them in the 2016 Presidential election is way ahead in the polls. Many Republicans in both the House and the Senate are considered vulnerable come November. So why not find a common cause, a hot button issue, to unite the party and get voters to the polls? How about transgender people using the restroom?
Except this time, it’s not working. If the GOP was counting on big business to help them out, they were sorely mistaken. Even some moderate Republicans think that the obsession over “bathroom bills” is a divisive issue that will ultimately harm them at the polls.
As for Texas, over 20 anti-LGBT bills were introduced in the Texas Legislature in 2015, but none passed. This was due largely to opposition from businesses.
Feature image via Getty/Bob Levey
