News & Commentary

This op-ed originally appeared in the The San Antonio Express-News.

This post originally appeared on the ACLU National website

Senate Bill 4 ignores our values, imperils our communities and sullies our reputation as a free and welcoming state.

Earlier this week, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced in a press release his office’s support for a lawsuit that would allow states to deny drivers’ licenses to immigrants who hold federal work permits. In other words, if he can’t do anything about immigrants having the right to a job, at least he can try to stop them from traveling to it.

The Texas House bill that would remove criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana has made it to the all-important House Calendars Committee, the last step before it is debated before the full Texas House of Representatives.

This post originally appeared on the ACLU National website

In the backrooms of the Texas Capitol last week, members of the House of Representatives further chipped away Texans’ access to reproductive health care by voting to defund Planned Parenthood. Denying healthcare to thousands of Texans who depend on these services is bad enough, but the outrage shouldn’t end there. Worse still, the deal was struck in a seeming attempt to divide those who care about justice. Lawmakers tried to trade one wrong for another: defund Planned Parenthood or make it impossible for transgender Texans to participate in everyday life by barring them from the public restroom that corresponds to their gender identity.

More from ACLU of Texas’ Humans of the Border. An interview with a Mexican journalist who asked that her name not be used.

SB6 gets all the media attention, but it’s only the tip of the spear in Texas lawmakers’ sustained campaign to roll back LGBT equality.SB6 is a terrible bill. A spiteful, unnecessary, unenforceable piece of legislation the sole intent of which is to force transgender Texans to disappear from public spaces and public life. A similar bill cost North Carolina NCAA Tournament venues and $3.76 billion in lost business, and Texas should not expect to fare any better. The problem SB6 is meant to solve simply does not exist, but the solution it proposes would harm transgender Texans, Texas’s economy and Texas’s reputation as a warm and welcoming state.