Does Fort Worth Need an Alternative to the Chamber of Commerce?

Texas Senate Bill 6, the Privacy Protection Act, also known as the “bathroom bill”, is a reasonable and thoughtful proposal that parents and businesses support.  But last week the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce announced it was joining Texas Competes, a coalition of “LGBT friendly” businesses that want to allow men into women’s intimate spaces.  And recently an editorial in the local newspaper spread fear about the economic consequences of the Privacy Protection Act.

The editorial cited Bob Jameson, head of the Fort Worth Convention and Visitors Bureau, as saying, “meeting planners cite the North Carolina restrictions and will not book large conventions at places where they believe that transgender clients would feel uncomfortable.”  He was referring to North Carolina, which about a year ago, passed a law that is being compared to the Texas proposal.  If you believed the news headlines, North Carolina should be on the brink of economic disaster, but at the end of November 2016 Forbes ranked North Carolina #2 for the second straight year among the Best States for Business.

Let’s set aside the fearmongering, and examine a few facts.  In November 2015, Houston voters overwhelmingly rejected a proposed City ordinance that would have added “gender identity” to its nondiscrimination code and allow anyone to use any restroom regardless of their biological sex. LGBT extremists bullied residents with fearsome rhetoric there, too.

Houston is home to 24 Fortune 500 companies, the third highest concentration of any metro area in the United States.  None have left since 2015.  Houston also hosted the NCAA’s Final Four in April 2016 – only months after rejecting the LGBT extremists.  And in a few weeks Houston will host Super Bowl LI.  It sounds like Houston’s business and tourism has grown in the past year.

Around Texas, Irving and Frisco are doing fine without an ordinance covering transgender individuals.  And no concerts or NFL games have been cancelled at AT&T Stadium because Arlington’s code doesn’t include “transgender” or “gender identity.”  JerryWorld has even hosted a Super Bowl and the Final Four.

Only 5 Texas cities out of 1,216, or 0.5%, have local nondiscrimination ordinances that address transgender people in places of public accommodation.  At issue is whether the state may preempt these cities to conform their nondiscrimination ordinances to state requirements.  Preemption is an important concept for a simple reason: the state has a compelling interest in ensuring the uniformity of law.  Cities, counties and school districts are jurisdictions created and regulated by the state.  And from fracking to gun rights to sanctuary cities, the state has a duty to ensure its subdivisions adhere to state policy.

Other states are informative.  Similar preemption laws to prevent men from going into women’s bathrooms have been proposed in nearly a dozen other states, and Tennessee and Arkansas already passed such laws.  Did Walmart move its headquarters out of Arkansas when the state passed a preemption law in 2015?  No.  Tennessee passed a preemption law way back in 2011, and Tennessee is still the country music mecca.  Both laws had bipartisan support with numerous Democrat legislators voting in favor.

Back to Fort Worth where the City added transgender protections to its nondiscrimination code in 2009 – shortly after the Rainbow Lounge debacle.  Fast forward a few years and take a quick survey of the nation, and it’s easy to see why many people of sincere faith are not just concerned but preparing for persecution.

From Washington florists to cake bakers in Longview, Texas, freedom-loving citizens are being run out of business because they fail to bow at the altar of LGBT political correctness.  And just in the past few months from Iowa to Massachusetts, churches and pastors have been threatened with civil and criminal penalties if they dare teach that a man is not a woman.

Two of the largest and most economically beneficial conventions in Fort Worth are a religious convention and jewelry convention that host thousands of people from all over the country.  Both events are overtly Christian.  The economic impact from both of these conferences tallies in the tens of millions of dollars.

Economic boycotts like those being threatened by the LGBT extremists are a two-way street.  Just ask Target.  Even though the market is at all-time highs, Target stock is down nearly 24% since April 2016 when it announced its men-in-women’s bathroom policy.

The Fort Worth Christian conventions will soon find out Fort Worth business leaders are advocating policies that oppose those organizations’ values. If these groups decide to take their convention business to Irving, Frisco or Arlington, how much negative economic impact does that have on Fort Worth?

According to the Chamber, 90% of its 2,100 member companies are small businesses.  How many of those small Fort Worth businesses want men in women’s and children’s intimate spaces?

Why is the Chamber championing a social agenda instead of “making Fort Worth an excellent place in which to live, work and do business”?  Why is the Convention & Visitors Bureau advocating social issues that are opposite of the values of Fort Worth’s largest conventions?  Why are Fort Worth business elites abandoning the values of 80% of Fort Worth residents?

Others may disagree about how to best protect women and children, but disagreement is not discrimination.  And holding fast to thousands of years of historical understandings of human sexuality is not hate.  It’s time to spread facts not fear.

WHAT TO DO?

Email Bill Thornton bthornton@fortworthchamber.com, President of the Fort Worth Chamber, to tell him the Chamber doesn’t represent you or your business. Then sign your business up with a coalition of other businesses that believe Texas Profits when Texas protects freedom and privacy.