NEW YORK – GLAAD, the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization, today denounced the Texas Senate for passing Senate Bill 3, a bill that would bar transgender and gender non-conforming Texans from access to restrooms and students from participating in athletics in accordance with their gender identity. SB 3 also prevents political subdivisions from the adoption or enforcement of pro-LGBTQ discrimination protections already in federal or state law. The bill is the first legislative step in Gov. Greg Abbott’s push for a so-called “bathroom bill” as part of his “special discrimination session” this summer, which has already started harming Texas’ economy.

“By approving SB 3, the Texas Senate has displayed outright negligence for the safety and will of their own constituents,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, President and CEO of GLAAD. “This law is designed to make it nearly impossible for transgender and gender non-conforming people to go about their daily lives like other Texans and opens transgender students to discrimination, bullying, and violence. Encouraging discrimination against fellow Texans serves no one, and with Texas’ largest employers opposed to SB 3, it is sure to cause a devastating economic panic.”

“As a proud member of the intersex community, 2% of the global population that does not fit in a binary ‘male’ or ‘female’ box that can be stamped on the door of a bathroom, I am deeply concerned about SB 3 and the 600,000 members of my LGBTQIA+ community that would be put into immediate danger were it to pass into law,” said Alicia Weigel, a Texan and Director of Communications at Deeds Not Words – the gender equality nonprofit established by former Texas Senator Wendy Davis. Weigel testified against SB 3 last Friday. “This bill dredges up past relics of bathroom discrimination, using misconceptions and roundly discredited scare-tactics in order to justify its harmful outcomes.”

[GLAAD VIDEO: What Texas’ Special Session Means For LGBTQ Texans]

Already this year, anti-LGBTQ activists, including Gov. Abbott, have advocated for legislation that openly targets and discriminates against transgender Texas, barring them from public accommodations in accordance with their gender identity. Not only has a so-called “bathroom bill” been opposed by the majority of Texans and big businesses across the country, but it could drain about $3 billion from the state’s economy while also putting the safety of transgender Texans in jeopardy. Even Texas House Speaker Joe Straus, a Republican, voiced his opposition to the anti-trans bills – saying he was “disgusted by all this” and did not “a suicide of a single Texan on [his] hands.”

Since the start of this year’s session, GLAAD has been on the ground fighting the onslaught of anti-LGBTQ legislation in Texas. This spring, GLAAD coordinated with Equality Texas and Texas Freedom Network to hold numerous “Students Against Hate” rallies on college campuses across the state where Texans came together to share their voice and fight back against the anti-LGBTQ bills being perused at the statehouse. Further, GLAAD teamed up with Equality Texas, The Ally Coalition, and more than 160 leading artists, entertainers, and influencers to release an open letter opposing anti-LGBTQ bills, including the so-called “bathroom bill,” that threatened to harm LGBTQ Texas. The letter demonstrated widespread disapproval for dangerous legislation.

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