Tensions flare as Texas House panel hears a “bathroom bill” for first time in eight years

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Tensions between Texans flared at the Capitol on Friday during public testimony over a legislative proposal limiting transgender peoples’ use of bathrooms in government buildings.

CJ Grisham spoke in favor of the restrictions in Senate Bill 8, one of the items Gov. Greg Abbott asked legislators to pass during this year’s special legislative sessions. After Grishman spoke, several people attending the House State Affairs meeting booed and hurled expletives at him, saying he should be ashamed. Grisham responded with his own expletives before being ushered to the back of the room by a House staff member.

A Department Public Safety officer eventually removed Grisham from the room after a woman in the audience said she felt threatened. In an interview, Grisham said he felt threatened and that he would file a complaint with DPS for being unfairly removed based on his speech.

“I'm just making out how stupid this ‘Oh, I feel threatened,' thing is, just because I exist,” Grisham said. “I mean, it's the same argument they're making in there, that, ‘Am I a threat to you because I exist?’”

Conservative legislators have spent more than a decade proposing various “bathroom bills,” and six such proposals have passed through the Senate over the years. Friday’s hearing, however, is the first time in eight years that a House committee has taken up such a bill. The committee didn’t vote on the bill Friday, but 82 out of the House’s 150 members have signed on to an identical bill.

Supporters of the bill said restrictions are necessary in order to prevent potential discomfort or harm that might come to women in private spaces, and to recognize the “reality” of biological sex.

At one point, Jack Finger, of the San Antonio Family Association, was reprimanded by committee chair Rep. Ken King, R-Canadian for comments he made.

"How on earth did we get to the point where men are allowed to go into women's restrooms and locker rooms and shower with them, and nobody can do anything about it?” Finger said. “I, for one, am tired of that, I won't put up with it. I've seen it at least a couple of times in San Antonio, and I was tempted to help that gentleman to save money on his transgendered operation by physically helping him get there."

King warned Finger not to make threats or inappropriate comments. Finger assured the committee “nothing happened,” and that SB 8 was needed to instill decency back into society.

SB 8 would restrict use of bathrooms at public and charter schools, public universities and government buildings. But SB 8 goes further than previous bathroom bills and would also limit what family violence shelters, prisons and jails that trans people can be placed into.

If a person uses a restroom not matching their sex assigned at birth, the institution would receive a $5,000 first-time penalty under SB 8, rather than the individual who went into the restroom. The bill also allows for complaints to be made to the Attorney General, who can then open investigations. Subsequent violations would carry a $25,000 fine per violation.

Rep. Angelia Orr, R-Itasca, laid out the bill on Friday and said during questioning from fellow lawmakers that determining who would belong in each bathroom would be based on how someone looks. Opponents of the bill claimed it would incite violence and harassment against both cisgender and trans people when using the bathroom.

Some cited a case in Minnesota where a cisgender teenage girl was harassed by a waiter in a Buffalo Wild Wings who believed she was in the wrong restroom. Minnesota does not have a law restricting bathroom use based on sex or gender.

“When will this become inspections to prove that your daughter can enter the girl's locker room?” Simon Shepherd, a trans Texan from Keller said during his testimony. “But that's the thing — the bill and this ideology is not rooted in legitimacy.”

Bill supporters raised concerns that allowing transgender students to use bathrooms in public schools and public areas constitutes sexualization of children.

“When we allow co-ed access to intimate spaces under the guise of gender identity, we expose children to sexualized situations they are not emotionally equipped to handle,” Travis County GOP Chair Jennifer Fleck said during testimony. “A line must be drawn. Protecting children should not be controversial.”

SB 8 also includes provisions seeking to insulate it from legal challenges, including one that would prevent a state court from ruling any part of the bill is unconstitutional or file any injunctions against it. Reps. Rafael Anchía, D-Dallas, and Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, expressed concern over the attempted shielding.

“It does seem like they are closing the door to the court,” Thompson said during the hearing.

Lawmakers have until Sept. 13 to pass any bills during the special session. If passed, the bill would join a slew of other legislation signed off by the Legislature earlier in the year that limit trans Texans from being recognized in state and medical records.

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