AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – Police chiefs from Texas’ largest cities rallied outside the state Capitol Tuesday in opposition to a “bathroom bill” targeting transgender people, just as Senate Republicans inside lurched toward a new vote on restrictions similar to those approved in North Carolina.
The chances of the bill ultimately reaching the desk of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott remain tenuous despite overwhelming GOP control of the Legislature.
Abbott summoned lawmakers back to sweltering Austin for a special legislative session, largely because the first efforts to put bathroom restrictions on transgender people collapsed in May. The bill has ripped clean open a rancorous split in the Texas GOP between moderates who stand with high-profile opponents – including Apple and the NFL – and social conservatives who drive the state’s political agenda.
The Senate is again poised to overwhelmingly approve the bill, but Democrats were trying to stall a vote with procedural challenges and drawn-out debate.
State troopers removed a few protesters in the mostly empty Senate gallery who shouted “This is a farce!” and unfurled a banner that read “Y’all means all” over the second-story railing.