IBM's Message To Its Employees

Diane Gherson, IBM's Senor Vice President for Human Resources recently posted this message to all IBM employees outline their opposition to the anti-trans legislation that the Texas GOP is trying to pass during the Special Oppression Session.

July 17, 2017

IBM Community,

This week, I’ll be traveling to Austin, Texas with IBM Chief Diversity Officer Lindsay-Rae McIntyre and nearly 20 IBM leaders—the majority of whom are Texans–to voice IBM’s longstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion.

Logo showing IBM’s commitment to diversity and equality.

Why Texas? And why now? On July 18th, the Texas legislature will start a thirty-day special session, where it is likely some will try to advance a discriminatory “bathroom bill” similar to the one that passed in North Carolina last year.

It is our goal to convince Texas elected officials to abandon these efforts.

IBM wrote its first Equal Opportunity policy in 1953—a decade before the Civil Rights Act was enacted. We were one of the first companies to include sexual orientation in that policy over thirty years ago, and have stood up to ensure that LGBT IBMers across the globe can live and work free from discrimination in any form.

A Texas bathroom bill stands squarely against these deep-rooted IBM values.

A bathroom bill like the one in Texas sends a message that it is okay to discriminate against someone just for being who they are. It threatens IBM’s ability to bring the best and brightest to our Texas workforce—a community that is now over 10,000 strong and represents a diversity of perspectives, backgrounds and experiences.

This bathroom bill also undermines IBM’s goal of bringing more people into New Collar job opportunities—a top company priority. Through partnerships with local high schools and community colleges, we’ve been able to support over 100 P-TECH schools that have created 21st century skills education programs. In May, Texas signed on as the latest state to fund its own P-TECH program.

A bathroom bill could target LGBT youth and students attending such schools—and every other public educational institution across Texas. We will strongly oppose legislation that would marginalize any current or future IBMer.

That’s why we are heading to Texas to engage directly with government officials on this bill.

I am proud of IBM’s leadership in the push for diversity and inclusion and thank all of you in the IBM community for living these values each and every day.

I look forward to reporting back on our work in Texas and on our broader efforts to ensure that diversity remains central to IBM’s company values and culture.

Sincerely,
Diane Gherson
Senior Vice President, Human Resources

Thanks IBM for being on the correct side of history.  

Special Oppression Session Anti-Trans Bills Have Senate Hearings Today

It figures that while I'm in San Diego for Comic Con that the Texas GOP Senate transphobes would not only file two anti-trans bills  (SB 3 and SB 91) authored by Lois Kolkhorst, but hold a hearing on them that starts at 9 AM CDT

Texas trans folks will be in the ATX to oppose them when that Senate State Affairs Committee takes place.  .So go get 'em Texas trans folks.  Let our GOP oppressors know that these unjust bills are bad for Texas and bad for us.

Send them the message we are wide awke and cognizant of what they are trying to do.

You can sign up to testify against them starting at the Texas state capitol at 7 AM. We also need people and our allies calling these senators and asking them to oppose SB 3 and SB 91.

Call the members of the Senate State Affairs Committee too while you're at it..

TransGriot Update:  After 10 hours of hearings, it was deja vu all over again.  An 8-1 vote (7 Republicans, 1 DINO)  sent this legislative abomination to the Senate floor.

Thank Sen. Judith Zaffirini for voting NO once again as she did back in March, and let's redouble our efforts to make Eddie Lucio, Jr an ex-senator 

The Texas Special Oppression Session Starts Today

Well peeps, this is the day we've been dreading across the Lone Star State in terms of the start of the Special Oppression Session called by Governor Greg Abbott (R) after being bullied into it by Lt Governor Dan Patrick (R) and the Texas Oppression Freedom Caucus.

The Special Oppression Session is slated to last 30 days, and the initial call on June 9 is to have some must pass sunset legislation pass that reauthorizes several Texas governmental organizations, including the Texas Medical Board that licenses doctors across the Lone Star State.

As to what to expect in this special session, the legislative process is the same except for two key differences.  There's less time than in a 140 day regular session, and if a bill is filled that doesn't fit the governor's call, it is out of bound and can't be considered.

Bills could be filed 30 days before the special session started.

Just as in the regular sessions, bills have to be sent to a House committee, passed out of that committee, go to the Calendars Committee to be scheduled to the floor for a vote, then if it passes the process is repeated in the Senate. for it to be placed on the Senate Intent Calendar for a floor vote.

Once that sunset legislation passes. the governor added an additional 19 items that he wanted to see hit his desk including the anti-trans bills we killed in the regular session, but they can only be heard once the sunset bill passes. .  

HB 46 and HB 50 are the anti-trans bills filed that we'll be focusing our trans community attention on.along with SB 23, so keep lighting those GOP trans oppressors office phones up and urge your Texas state senator or House rep to oppose these unjust bills.

The resistance to this oppression starts on the south steps of the Pink Dome with an 11:00 AM rally calling out the unjust bills that the Texas GOP wishes to pass.

We have 30 days to kill these bills.   Let's get busy doing so

 

TX Anti-Trans Hate Bills 46 and 50 Filed

Trans Texans and our allies now know what unjust bill numbers we have to fight when the Texas GOP Special Oppression Session cranks up July 18.

Rep. Ron Simmons (R-Carrollton) filed  on yesterday two unjust trans oppressive bills aimed at Texas trans children and Texas trans adults, HB 46 and HB 50

HB 46 is aimed at Texas trans adults, and would prohibit all political subdivisions, including municipalities, school districts, state colleges and universities from adopting and enforcing any ordinances or policies that protect transgender people in bathrooms or changing facilities.

HB 50 is aimed at Texas trans kids.  It is similar to the odious HB 46, but focuses on school districts by prohibiting them from adopting and enforcing policies that protect transgender students  in batrooms or changing facilities.

Simmons was the author of the failed HB 2899 that Gov Greg Abbott (R) liked but died in the House State Affairs committee during the regular session.

Hundreds of trans Texans (including this blogger) and our allies showed up in Austin to express our disgust and outrage over this attempt to criminalize the lives of transgender Texans.

Guess Ron and the Texas Republican Party didn't learn their lesson from the recently concluded regular session that the vast majority of Texans oppose their unjust right wing crap.

We'll also be watching SB 23, a bill proposed and filed yesterday by Sen. Bob Hall (R-Edgewood) that would prohibit cities, counties and other political subdivisions from passing non discriminations laws  on a basis not written in state law, and wipe out the already existing non discrimination laws in Austin, Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, Plano and San Antonio.

What is it about you conservafools and your obsession with oppressing people you don't like?

Looks like we'll be busy fighting oppression for the 30 days of this upcoming Special Oppression session, so you know what to do.

Light those phones up in their offices and don't relent until all those unjust bills are dead.

Texas Special Oppression Session To Start July 18

Not satisfied with the fact they didn't get all their legislative oppression done during the recently concluded 85th Texas Legislative session that ended on Memorial Day, Gov. Greg Abbott just called for legislators to come back to Austin starting on July 18 for another 30 days and $800,000 wasted taxpayer dollars.

While he caved to Lt Governor Dan 'Potty Man' Patrick, he also made it clear he wasn't happy about the gamesmanship that was played in order for Patrick to get the special session he craved.

Well Governor Abbott, ,you could have called the special session and limited it only to the sunset legislation if you were that unhappy about the stunts that Patrick and his Texas Conservafool Freedom Caucus buddies played in the House. .

Instead you rewarded their shenanigans and probably ensured they will play those games in the future.

The first bill to be taken up on the call will be the sunset legislation to keep key state regulatory agencies from shuttering their doors, but once that legislation is passed, Gov. Abbott then outlined 19 items that he will allow the legislature to take up, including oppressing Texas transgender people.

In addition to oppressing trans people, some of the other items are school finance reform, creating automatic rollback elections when local property taxes rise by a certain amount, more abortion regulations, voter fraud, school choice for special needs students and property tax reform.

And it means that once again,  me and the rest of the Texas trans community and our liberal progressive allies are going to have to roll to the ATX once again this summer to fight Texas GOP legislative tyranny aimed at our trans kids..

It's a fight that we not only must win, we're determined to win.

Gov. Abbott's Press Conference Today

Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has called for a press conference to take place in Austin at 2:30 PM CDT that will be watched from both sides of the political aisle in Texas and probably have the nation's attention.

It is assumed that at this press conference, Gov Abbott will announce his decision on whether or not to call a special session, and if he does, what issues the special session call will entail.
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Ever since the Memorial Day sine die date of a contentious 85th Texas Legislative session, rumors have been flying even that day under the Pink Dome that we were cruising toward a special session.

Lt. Governor Dan Patrick (R) has been loudly pushing for a special session in large part because he's pissed off his unjust SB 6 that he got Sen Lois Kolkhorst (R-Brenham) to push died in the Texas House.

Abbott is in a no win situation.  Only he under the Texas Constitution has the power to call a special session.  He also decides what bills to bring up during that special session that can last up to a maximum of 30 days.

During a special session, Texas lawmakers can only consider legislation that fits into the governor's 'call', or the issue that the governor specifies in the special session proclamation that will be read during the upcoming press conference,  

The governor also because of Texas Constitution Article 3, Section 40 faces no limitation of the number of issues that can be designated for consideration in the special session proclamation.

The governor can also call as many special sessions as he wishes. Back in 2003, then Governor Rick Perry (R) called the Lege into special session three consecutive times in order to execute the infamous partisan Delaymandering of Texas congressional districts.

And don't think that 2018 Texas GOP primary politics aren't entering into the political calculus of this. The governor and lieutenant governor are up for re-election next year, and it's been rumored that Patrick is angling to go after Abbott despite previous declarations that he is running for reelection as the lieutenant governor. .

If Abbott calls a special session to attack Texas trans people, he'll not only look like he's Dan Patrick's puppet and not his own man, he'll piss Texas trans people and our allies off if he adds the anti-trans BS to the call. .

Abbott will also piss off Texas taxpayers who have to foot the $800,000 bill for this 30 day exercise in Texas Republican legislative oppression.

If he doesn't call the special session, then Dan Patrick will probably use his decision not to do so as an attack weapon in a potential Republican gubernatorial primary (assuming he runs for governor next year) by claiming that Abbott is not a 'real conservative' and doesn't want to stand up for your 'Texas Values'

FYI Lt Dan, if you think that attacking trans people is good for your political prospects, ask ex Texas state reps Debbie Riddle (R-Tomball) and Gilbert Pena (R-Pasadena), former South Carolina state senator Lee Bright, and former North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory.

Transphobia is increasingly becoming,even in GOP leaning Texas, a losing political strategy, and you keep attacking Texas trans kids at your political peril.

So in a few hours I and a lot of people in the Lone Star State will be watching to see if we'll have to make another trip to Austin to fight Republican legislative tyranny aimed at the Texas trans community for cynical GOP political primary gain.      

IBM Statement Opposing Texas Discriminatory Laws

With the potential of an anti-trans special session increasing, Texas based companies that opposed SB 6 and HB 2899 are starting to speak up, with IBM being the first to release a statement opposing the passage of any discriminatory laws.

“IBM has a longstanding commitment against discrimination in any form and believes that an inclusive and welcoming environment is the best way to attract talented individuals to our company.   

As a major employer in the state, we urge the Texas legislature and Governor Abbott not to pass or enact laws that will allow for the discrimination of any person based on who they are. These laws do not reflect IBM’s values of diversity, acceptance and inclusion that we have upheld for decades, and they have no place in the 21st Century.” 

– Diane Gherson, Senior Vice President, Human Resources, IBM

Thank you IBM.  Any other Texas based company wish to speak out in opposition to a special session specifically for the purpose of passing an unjust law?.

Dan Patrick's Trying To Force A Special Session To Oppress TX Trans People

The 85th Texas Legislative session is mercifully drawing to its sine die day close, but  Lt. Governor Dan 'Potty Polizei' Patrick wants a special session to oppress trans people.

Last time I checked the Texas Constitution, only the governor had the power to call a special session, not you.

On Friday Speaker of the House Joe Straus, who made it clear at the beginning of the session that he nor the House is interested in his pet project SB6 bill to oppress trans people, called a rare press conference to announce that the House would waste no more time on his bathroom obsession.

“The House has compromised enough on this issue,” Speaker Straus said at a press conference, announcing that the watered-down version passed by the House was the most his body was willing to do. “It’s absurd that bathroom bills have taken on greater urgency than fixing our school finance system.”

Yes, it is absurd that Dan Patrick has been pushing this issues even that thousands of Texans, the business community and others have said we don't want North Carolina style HB 2 idiocy with a GOP Texas twang in our state oppressing our trans kids and trans Texans.

We thought we'd sent that message loud and clear with us showing up en masse at the Pink Dome back in March and April in opposition for the SB 6 and HB 2899 hearings, but yet Dan Patrick and his Texas GOP lackeys still want to mess with Texas trans people.

Maybe we need to send it again by calling and contacting the governor's office and urging him to resist following Dan Patrick's delusional lead and not waste our time and tax dollars by calling a special session.

The number to Gov. Greg Abbott's office is 512-463-2000   

Patrick of course, flanked by Senate Republican oppressors, called a one man press conference ian hour later n response to the middle finger one that Straus had just conducted, and basically blamed Straus for the special session should it happen that he doesn't have the authority to call

And yeah, if it does happen, me, my trans fam and our allies will be headed to Austin for it, and once that 30 day special session is over, will begin working to #FlushDanPatrick and #FlushTheTexas GOP on November 6, 2018