Texas Competes Needs Our Support!
The Forrest Four-Cast: January 6, 2016
While there are plenty of very important issues that the 85th session of the Texas Legislature needs to address, creating a Lone Star version of North Carolina’s dreadful bathroom bill certainly isn’t one of them. Yet, the filing of the so-called Privacy Protection Act (SB 6) on Thursday, January 5 means that our state leaders have put this non-issue front-and-center for the next few months.
TAB (the Texas Association of Businesses) is one of the groups opposing this misguided bill. According to a study commissioned by this group and conducted by researchers at St. Edwards University in Austin, this legislation could cost the state more than $8 billion in economic impact, as well as 100,000 jobs. SXSW was honored to be included in a TAB-organized press conference on December 6 at the State Capitol building that denounced any bathroom bill type legislation.
Also fighting SB 6 is a group called Texas Competes, which brands itself as “a partnership of business leaders committed to a Texas that is economically vibrant and welcoming of all people, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people.” Texas Competes is led by the brilliant Jessica Shortall, who had one of the most inspiring TED Talks from the last 12 months, as well as an incredible post-election essay on Medium that generated an astounding 4000 likes and 600 comments.
Sign your name to this Pledge page on the Texas Competes website to show that you oppose any discriminatory measures that will weaken the Lone Star economy. The Texas Competes website also includes very compelling information about the economic case for an LGBT-friendly state brand. Please share these links with your network to help defeat this unnecessary legislation!
Hugh Forrest tries to write four paragraphs per day on Medium. These posts generally cover technology-related trends. When not attempting to wordsmith, he serves as Chief Programming Officer at SXSW in Austin.
