GOP Leader Slams Texas Mayor’s Anti-Transgender Bill, Setting Up Council Showdown Tonight

Republican Party Treasurer: ‘Government Doesn’t Need to Dictate Who Pees Where’

David White (photo), a city councilman in Rockwall, Texas, who also happens to serve as treasurer and precinct chair for the local Republican Party, ripped GOP Mayor Jim Pruitt’s proposed anti-transgender “bathroom” ordinance in an email to The New Civil Rights Movement on Monday morning. 

The ordinance, set to be debated Monday night, would require people to use restrooms according to their “biological sex,” as shown on their birth certificates. Trans people who haven’t had their birth certificates corrected and who use restrooms according to their gender identity would face fines of up to $500. Businesses could also be fined for allowing trans people to use restrooms according to their gender identity. 

White, a member of the GOP Executive Committee for Rockwall County, east of Dallas, said he opposes Pruitt’s ordinance. 

“I believe in limited government and this is private property issue for stores. If someone doesn’t like the policy of a store, then don’t go to that store,” White wrote. “Government doesn’t need to dictate who pees where. I also think enforcement would be next to impossible without requiring people to carry a special card or their birth certificate. But then again I’d also oppose police stopping people to verify possession of such identification. Laws already exist to prosecute for ‘peeping toms’ and assault and the other aggressions people are claiming not having this ordinance will lead to.”

Pruitt’s ordinance is a direct response to Target’s announcement that it will allow trans employees and customers to use restrooms according to their gender identity in its stores. Rockwall would be the second U.S. city to pass such a law in response to Target’s announcement, joining Oxford, Alabama, where trans people can be jailed for up to six months for using the “wrong” restroom.

Over the weekend, a city council member in Lufkin, Texas, announced he also plans to introduce an anti-trans “bathroom law.” 

Trans Pride Initiative, a Dallas-based nonprofit, plans a rally outside Rockwall City Hall prior to tonight’s council meeting, which begins at 6 p.m. Central time. 

“Anyone — transgender or not — whose gender expression or presentation doesn’t align closely enough with various stereotypes of what a man or woman should look like will be subjected to the scrutiny of public gender defenders rushing to save innocent women and children from the hoards of men such legislation implies are just waiting for opportunities to parade in public as women and invade women’s spaces,” Trans Pride Initiative said in a release. “This myth persists despite the fact that over 200 domestic violence and sexual assault organizations across the US recently signed a consensus statement opposing laws like Mayor Pruitt has proposed, undermining the claims that ‘these proposals are necessary for public safety and to prevent sexual violence against women and children.'”

While White is opposed to the bill, others, like these, support it:

 And this Republican women’s group is calling the bill an “ERO,” equal rights ordinance:

 

Image via City of Rockwall