Texas GOP Lawmaker Introduces Bill To Eliminate LGBT Non-Discrimination Protections Statewide

A Texas Tea Party Republican State Senator has just introduced a bill that copycats Arkansas legislation that is about to become law. 

Freshman State Senator Don Huffines ran on a platform of “limited government, in cutting spending so we can decrease taxes,” while touting his belief in the “traditional family” and creationism. Sometimes, those goals are at odds, so Huffines has opted to walk away from his “limited government” beliefs in order to attack the LGBT community.

The fifty-something year-old successful real estate developer has introduced a bill that copycats highly-controversial legislation that is about to become law in Arkansas.

Claiming though not offering proof that it will improve commerce and attract business into the state, Huffines’ bill simply removes the right of local Texas towns and cities to create any non-discrimination protections that do not already exist in Texas state law.

The bill, SB 343, is actually more sweeping than that – it removes the right of towns and cities to create any law “more stringent than a state statute.”

Huffines’ spokesperson categorized the legislation as merely a bill that “aims to curtail local laws that hinder free enterprise and businesses or hamper liberty, counter to the free market, limited government policies enacted by the state.”

The New York Times reports that Huffines’ limited government beliefs go just so far.

“Local control is not a blank check,” Huffines says. “I think there’s really no end to” local laws that he claims have been hindering the supposed “Texas miracle” of economic growth.

Texas Observer’s John Wright reports that after Huffines was elected, he “slammed the Boy Scouts’ decision to lift its ban on gay youth.”

“I think it was a big mistake what the BSA did,” Huffines said. “They can’t be trusted not to open the door for more infiltration from the gay agenda. Eventually we’ll have gay Scouts and gay Scoutmasters and gay troops. They’ll keep coming until their mission is fulfilled.”

Wright notes that if Huffines’ bill becomes law, it would reverse LGBT protections for 7.5 million Texans, including those in Austin, Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, Houston, Plano and San Antonio.

Dallas Morning News‘ Rudy Bush labels Huffines “an unserious lawmaker,” and notes that “city councils that have voted to protect gay citizens from employment discrimination would see their laws trumped by a so-called small government Republican with a religious bent against the way they live their lives.”

 

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Hat tip: Texas Observer