New York-LGBT Blasts Bill In Texas Legislature Aimed At Discriminating Against Transgender Kids In Public Schools

May 25, 2017 - The NY-LGBT Network today sharply criticized a bill in the Texas state legislature that would require transgender students to use the restroom of their birth-certificate.

The measure has passed the state Senate and is under consideration in the House. If fully approved, it would apply to the state's public schools, which educate 5.3 million students, the second-largest number in the U.S. after California. A survey for UCLA determined that some 13,800 teenagers in Texas identify as transgender.

Dr. David Kilmnick, CEO of the New York LGBT Network, said, "Texas Republicans have gone back over 50 years passing modern Jim Crow-era laws that are intended to discriminate and segregate some of our most vulnerable, transgender youth. These laws, which go against American values of liberty and justice for all, did not work in the past and they will not work now."

"It's a sad time in our history when legislatures continue to pass laws that discriminate and incite racial hatred and violence," Dr. Kilmnick continued. "Texas will soon learn what North Carolina found out when they passed HB2, that discrimination is bad for business. North Carolina lost $4 billion because of a similar law, and Texas will face the same fate with a projected tens of billions lost."

The bill in the Texas legislature poses a problem for schools in the state. Currently, each school district determines how to handle students whose birth genders are kept secret. In order to comply with the law, teachers may have to send transgender students to bathrooms of their birth gender or to a single-occupancy bathroom.