Jewish Texas Politician Helps Sink Anti-Transgender ‘Bathroom Bill’

Image by Texas Observer

By Daniel J. Solomon August 17, 2017

The Jewish leader of Texas’ State House of Representatives helped crush an anti-transgender “bathroom bill,” cementing his reputation as a moderate Republican in a state where the party has increasingly drifted rightward.

“I’m not embarrassed to say that I know how to govern without being an extremist,” House Speaker Joe Straus told the New York Times in July, when the bathroom bill was in hot contention and the far-right was calling for his ouster.

The so-called bathroom bill was the pet idea of lieutenant governor Dan Patrick, who convinced governor Greg Abbott to call a special session in the summer for the legislature to consider the matter and other far-right priorities.

Straus effectively killed the bill, and other items around taxes and spending on the Abbott agenda, leading the governor to publicly place the speaker in the cross-hairs.

“There’s no evidence he’s going to change his mind on it, and that’s why elections matter,” Abbott said in a radio interview after the bathroom bill’s failure.

Straus, who has been speaker for eight years and comes from a family of wealthy Republican fundraisers, has shrugged off the threat.

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

Daniel J. Solomon is the former Assistant to the Editor/News Writer at the Forward. Originally from Queens, he attended Harvard as an undergraduate, where he wrote his senior thesis on French-Jewish intellectual history. He is excited to have returned to New York after his time in Massachusetts. Daniel’s passions include folk music, cycling, and pointed argument.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO