Moni's Commentary On The SB 3 Hearing

As you TransGriot readers know I was in San Diego handling some business and taking a mental health break at Comic Con while the Senate State Affairs Committee hearings were happening in Austin on Friday.

With only 48 hours notice, we had even more people show up and comment than we did back in March in front of this same Republican dominated committee.

And I was sitting in my hotel room in the early AM Pacific time watching them online until I had to bounce for my SDCC business and a podcast interview.

By a 12 to 1 margin, the NO's and people standing up to oppose this unjust bill outnumbered the oppressors.  (738 against compared to only 59 people for the unjust bill).   There was also a rally help in which transgender Texans and our allies spoke out against this bill.

After ten hours of testimony on Friday. the transphobic bill authored by Lois 'I'm a transphobe' Kolkhorst was voted out of committee by the same 8-1 deja vu vote.  That reprehensible DINO Sen. Eddie Lucio, Jr  (DINO-Brownsville) once again joined the all white GOP oppressors, while Sen.Judith Zaffirini (D-Laredo), as she did back in March, voted NO.  

SB 91, Lois Kolkhorst's other anti-trans legislative abomination, was left 'pending' in committee.

Meanwhile SB 3 heads to the Senate floor for a possible vote later today.

I wasn't surprised at the Senate State Affairs Committee outcome.  It was always going to be an uphill battle in Potty Dan's overwhelmingly white male Senate legislative playground.   The Senate State Affairs committee is also overwhelmingly white and male like the Texas Senate is.

The GOP Texas Senate leadership is also blitzkrieging all the oppression legislation through, and there's not much the Democratic minority can do besides offer a lot of amendments to bills or filibuster them.

Our best shot for stopping it and saving Texas from North Carolina's fate is the Texas House, which is far more diverse and has more moderate business oriented Republicans instead of the teabaggers that pollute the Texas Senate.

We have already lost according to the testimony from convention groups in Houston, Dallas, Austin, El Paso, and San Antonio $66 million worth of convention business.  

Mayor Sylvester Turner in his letter expressing opposition to SB 3 stated that Houston has already lost a convention worth $11 million dollars, and stands to lose my mom's sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha) convention next year worth $15 million if SB 3 becomes law.

Texas House Speaker  Joe Straus (R-San Antonio) has made it clear he's not in favor of the bill. His city also stands to lose an estimated $40 million in convention business should SB 3 pass.

The House is not playing the Senate's speedball game.   They are only working on the must pass sunset legislation, and taking their sweet time doing so as the clock mercifully and inexorably ticks down to the end of this 30 day Special Oppression Session.

And there isn't a damned thing Gov. Abbott or Potty Dan can do about it.

So stay tuned, we only lost a legislative battle.  The war to stop SB 3 from passing ain't over yet.    

And win this fight we must for our trans kids.