Texas House approves 'watered down' bathroom bill

The Texas House of Representatives has approved an amended version of a bill that would restrict restroom use according to biological sex in public schools and government buildings in the state.

Senate Bill 6, also known as the Texas Privacy Act, passed the Senate in March, but it faced opposition in the House, according to The Stream.

The measure was narrowed down to focus only on schools, and it was attached to SB 2078, which deals with emergency operations of schools such as natural disasters, active shooters and other "dangerous scenarios."

The House voted 91–50 to amend SB 2078 to add a provision that would require students to use facilities that correspond with their biological sex, while students who identify as members of the opposite sex may use single-occupancy facilities.

On Monday, the House gave the measure final approval in a 94–51 vote, sending the bill back to the Senate, The Texas Tribune reported.

Gov. Greg Abbott has been silent on the issue throughout the legislative session, but he finally broke his silence last month.

"I will work with the House and Senate to ensure we find a solution and ultimately get a bill to my desk that I will sign into law," the governor said.

During the debate on the House floor, Republicans insisted that the bill does not intend to target transgender students, but Democrats compared the proposal to Jim Crow-era policies that segregated bathrooms based on race.

"White. Colored. I was living through that era ... bathrooms divided us then, and it divides us now," Democratic state Rep. Senfronia Thompson of Houston told her colleagues. "America has long recognized that separate but equal is not equal at all," she added.

House Speaker Joe Straus (R-San Antonio) has been reluctant to pass the legislation due to concerns of economic fallout after the business community spoke out against SB6. But after the passage of SB 2078 on the second reading, he issued a statement saying he believes that the amended bill would avoid the "severely negative impact" of SB6.

Straus noted that the amended bill will not drastically change the current way schools approach to accommodate students who identify as members of the opposite sex.

LGBT rights groups described the measure as discriminatory and have threatened to pursue legal action. LGBT legal advocacy group Lambda Legal released a statement saying, "you can bet that Lambda Legal will be on the case before the next school bell rings."