Backlash Down In Texas

Once again the Republican controlled government is trying to give special rights to a small group of individuals and the legislators are facing a strong backlash from businesses.

Top firms decry religious exemption bills proposed in Texas
AP
By Clarice Silber
March 27, 2019

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Some of the world’s biggest companies are back to oppose a range of new Texas legislation they say is discriminatory, two years after Apple, Facebook and other Fortune 500 companies banded together with gay rights activists in defeating the state’s “bathroom bill” targeting transgender people.

The corporate giants, which also include Google, Amazon, and IBM, joined Texas businesses and more than a dozen local chambers of commerce in a letter to lawmakers Wednesday urging the Republican-controlled Legislature to focus on other legislation.

“We will continue to oppose any unnecessary, discriminatory, and divisive measures that would damage Texas’ reputation and create problems for our employees and their families,” the letter said. “These include policies that explicitly or implicitly allow for exclusion of LGBTQ people, or anyone else, as well as the preemption of municipal nondiscrimination laws, in whole or in part.”

The corporations realize that to get the best employees they cannot discriminate and cannot allow employees to say they will not work with certain other employees.

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It is discrimination when you allow a law to target one group of people and not other people.

Editorial: It’s not religious freedom if only some views are protected
The Statesman
By American-Statesman Editorial Board
March 29, 2019

The ability to worship as we choose is one of America’s most cherished rights.

So is the ability to love who we choose, and express ourselves as we choose.

We see no reason to put these values on a collision course. But some Texas lawmakers are trying to do so with “religious freedom” bills that, in practice, would give legal cover for discrimination against members of the LGBTQ community.

Texans of all faiths should be troubled by a Senate committee’s vote this week advancing Senate Bill 17, which would protect state-licensed professionals from sanctions if they cited religious beliefs when doing something that might otherwise land them in hot water with their licensing boards.

Also against the bill…

Many religious leaders have spoken against SB 17, arguing a person’s faith should not be license to infringe on the beliefs or rights of others. Or as the Rev. Krystal Leedy of University Presbyterian Church told our editorial board back in January: “We have the religious freedom to swing our arms wildly if we want to, but that ends right when we hit somebody in the nose.”
[…]
Again, lawmakers should pay attention to their constituents’ views: the Public Religion Research Institute polling found two-thirds of Texans, including majorities in all faith groups, support nondiscrimination ordinances that protect gay, lesbian or transgender people.

Why do Republicans hate us so much?

Why do those gays, lesbians, bi, and even trans who vote Republican look the other way and ignore the hate against us?