Senator Nelson,

My name is Bridget Allen. I am both a constituent and founding partner in a business headquartered in your district, and I am writing to express my concern over the ill-advised Senate Bill 6.

The creation of new laws regulating the minutiae of human bodily elimination may be the very definition of governmental overreach.

Laws already exist regarding predatory behavior and sexual assault. SB6 does nothing to improve public safety. It exists to regulate against a non-existent threat that cannot be backed up by substantive evidence. The fact that there has been no increase in public safety incidents in Texas cities that have ordinances that allow everyone to use the restroom appropriate to their gender speaks to the pointlessness of the proposed bill.

One group particularly endangered by SB6 is the very group the bill purports to protect, children. As a parent, grandparent, and former professional working with school age children, I am gravely concerned about the risks this bill poses to transgender and gender non-conforming children. If we truly care about children, we care about all children, and research has shown that acceptance, not marginalization, leads to the best outcomes for trans kids.

This bill is bad for the Texas economy. One need only to look at the billions of dollars North Carolina has lost since passing HB2 to see the future of a once robust Texas economy.

When my business partners and I founded Autonomous Press, we had several options of where to locate, and we chose Texas. Laws like SB6 not only go against our ethics and mission, they hurt our business. We need our LGBT authors and customers to know we stand on the side of acceptance. Sadly, the risk of losing potential sales and future book deals may force us to relocate.

Please don’t let pointless discrimination become the law of the land.

Sincerely,

Bridget Allen
Logistics, Autonomous Press