Texas Wants Some Of That North Carolina Hate On Their Books, Too

The Texas Legislature is not in session right now but behind the scenes the Texas GOP, lead by Governor Greg Abbott and Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, are already gearing up to join North Carolina in the Bathroom Bill Sweepstakes.

It all began when Patrick posted a petition on his website to “keep men out of women’s restrooms” and began blasting businesses like Target, Starbucks, Barnes & Noble and others, whose bathroom policies allow transgender people to use bathrooms match their gender identity. Patrick is asking Texans to join him in boycotting these businesses.

And then Dan Patrick goes off the rail:

“This is not about equal rights, I am totally in favor of equal rights. I am not prejudice against anyone.”

Unless you’re a trans woman who needs to pee and then he wants you arrested. But, hey, it’s not the same old discrimination so it doesn’t matter; and it also doesn’t matter that for decades trans females have been using the women’s bathrooms in every city and state in this country without incident.

Still, let’s allow Dan Patrick to hang himself …

“But I don’t want a man for any reason going into a woman’s bathroom or a woman’s locker room. Common sense; common decency says that men should stay out of ladies rooms.”

The man has no clue as to what it means to be transgender; a trans female is not a “man in a dress;” a trans female is a woman who was assigned the male gender at birth, but has transitioned, or is transitioning, to being their true gender, which is female. These are not men, in dresses or not; these are women, plain and simple.

That doesn’t matter to Dan Patrick; he wants a statewide law to prevent any city fin Texas from enacting laws that allow people to use the bathroom that suits their gender identity; he’s going Full North Carolina.

And he’s taking to calling himself a hero, after he lead the campaign last fall to stop Houston’s “Equal Rights Ordinance” [HERO], which would have extended a wide range of protections LGBTQ Houstonians, including bathroom privileges, by playing on the fear, and the lie, that the law would allow men into women’s restrooms.

And so, naturally, this is his next step, passing some kind of hate-filled law against trans women, but Dan Patrick doesn’t know what he’s talking about; he doesn’t know what it means to be transgender; he cannot even accurately explain himself, except to reiterate hate and lies.

Appearing on All In With Chris Hayes last week, Dan Patrick, left, continually dodged questions about transgender rights and failed, or refused, to answer even the most basic questions. When Hayes wondered about “basic clarity on the terminology,” he asked Patrick if he knew what the terms transgender meant, but Patrick refused to answer, or probably couldn’t, and instead went into a long rambling explanation of how he “got in the middle on this.”

Um, you stepped in it knowing full well what you were doing sir. But thankfully Chris Hayes wasn’t letting the question go; again he asked:

“When you’re transgender, what does that mean to you, Lt. Governor?”

Dan Patrick began explaining Title IX — which states that “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance" — and he refuted the DOJ’s argument that Title IX’s protections against sex-based discrimination apply to transgender Americans.

Yes, according to an elected official — and yes, I know it’s Texas … but still — Dan Patrick believes sex discrimination does not apply to people being discriminated against because of their gender. Let that sink in … and when Hayes refused to give up on his first question — “What does transgender mean?” — Dan Patrick finally said:

“I can’t give you the definition for every transgender person.”

Wow; so he thinks the definition of transgender varies from one trans person to another? Or maybe he’s too busy focusing on fear and hate — “men in dresses” — because it worked so well for him the last time.

But it’s not going to be as easy, Mr. Patrick; not this time. This time you are not going to be able to spew hate; this time you’re going to have to explain why you choose to discriminate; this time you are going to be called out on your choice of language and asked to explain yourself. You may have called yourself a hero over HERO, but the battle rages on and you can’t hide behind the fear anymore.

Still, Dan Patrick was not to be dissuaded.  After his battle of wits with Hayes, I guess he thought he’s take his argument to the Mother Ship Of Hate-Filled Rhetoric Disguised As News, and appeared on Fox News with Megyn Kelly. He may have thought he’s have it easy, but Kelly wasn’t playing …

Throughout her interview, with Patrick, Kelly, like Chris Hayes, didn’t allow Dan Patrick to spew his misinformation; she tried to steer him back towards answering her questions rather than just spouting off talking points based on lies and dangerous myths about alleged transgender bathroom predators.

When Patrick once again tooted his own horn about the defeat of HERO — and again played the “no men in the women’s bathroom” card — Megyn Kelly asked if the law would have allowed “men in ladies’ rooms” or if it would have allowed “trans women in ladies’ rooms.”

Patrick, as most bigots tend to find themselves when confronted with common senses, was stumped; he tried to tell Kelly that she was missing the point; she told him she wasn’t missing anything.

And when Dan Patrick then suggested that granting transgender people equal rights would lead to predatory ‘men in women’s bathrooms’, Kelly interjected, “Do you have a big problem with that? Is this a problem? With men intentionally donning women’s clothing so they can sneak into–”

But he cut her off and refused to answer, and then tried to continue with his Hate Speak, but, again, Megyn Kelly wasn’t having it and finally cut him off, midsentence.

This is their argument people, plain and simple. The Christians, the conservatives, the Republicans, are using fear and lies and children, children, to legislate hate. There is not one single instance where a trans person has done anything in a bathroom other than use the facilities, wash their hands, check themselves in the mirror, and then get on with their day.

And if those on the so-called ‘right’ have a problem with men in the ladies rooms, then get them to start protecting women from sexual predators, not trans women. Get them to understand what it means to be trans; a penis doesn’t make you a man, and a vagina doesn’t make you a female.

But being a conservative, being a Republican, does seem to make you an ill-informed anti-trans bigot who uses fear and lies to legislate. And yet, again, trans men and women have been using the bathroom that aligns with their gender identity without issue forever, so ask yourselves, why it’s a problem now.

Is it because trans women are causing problems? Is it because a man put on a dress, and entered a women’s bathroom and assaulted a woman? And, if that’s the case, why are these Republicans acting on that? Or, is it because the right has been fighting the LGBT community at every turn and since they’ve lost on so many fronts in the last few years that they’ve now turned their attention to our trans brothers and sisters?

More and more Americans are coming down on the side of trans rights as it relates to public bathrooms, which means, and yes it does mean this, more and more Texans are falling in line, too, that people like Governor Greg Abbott and Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, will be on the outside wondering why everyone else is walking past you.

And it’s because they just want to pee.