Email (excerpted), DeAnne Cuellar, communications coordinator, Equality Texas, Feb. 9, 2017

2:38 p.m.

[THIS EMAIL INCLUDED TWO ATTACHMENTS: A one-page document summarizing the Texas proposal and North Carolina law and a spreadsheet comparing specific provisions in the approaches.--PolitiFact Texas]

(Cuellar’s email)

It is important to note that there is pervasive misinformation being pushed on SB6 - that it is different from HB2 because it only applies to public agencies and schools. Those are the exact and only entities that HB2's bathroom restriction applies to (see bill text at http://www.ncleg.net/Sessions/2015E2/Bills/House/PDF/H2v1.pdf).

The only difference in application is that under SB6, a private entity leasing a publicly owned facility (like a stadium) can set its own bathroom and changing room policies while it is occupying the building. But any statement that SB6 is different because it does not affect private businesses' restroom policies is a deliberate misrepresentation of the facts. HB2 also does not affect private businesses' restroom policies.

That said, there are two significant differences between the two bills:

• HB2 nullifies all LGBT-inclusive municipal nondiscrimination ordinances. SB6 only goes after, and nullifies, the portion of those ordinances that protect transgender people when they are using restrooms, changing rooms, etc.
• HB2 does not have an enforcement mechanism. SB6 allows the AG to go after a public school for $10,000-10,500 per every single day the school is in violation, e.g. accommodating a transgender student by allowing that student to use a multi-user restroom that corresponds with his/her gender identity. Law enforcement in NC have said they don't know how to enforce HB2 because that enforcement mechanism is absent. In Texas, a mechanism exists, so enforcement is more likely. If the AG fines a public school for tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, the headlines could be very damaging to Texas' brand.

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DeAnne Cuellar | Communications Coordinator

Equality Texas