Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick

The Texas Senate today passed Senate Bill 17, which would allow professionals — including health professionals — to discriminate based on their own “sincerely-held religious beliefs. The bill was authored by Sens. Charles Perry, Paul Bettencourt, Brian Birdwell, Donna Sue Campbell, Brandon Creighton and Bob Hall, all Republicans, and Democratic Sen. Eddie Lucio.

The final vote was 19-12. Lucio was the only Democrat to vote for the measure, and Sen. Kel Seliger of Amarillo was the only Republican to vote against it.

(For a record of the Senate’s actions on SB 17 so far, go here. To read the actual content of the bill, go here.)

According to the Texas Tribune, Perry defended his bill as providing “pre-emptive protection for religious employees at a time when, he claimed, religion is under attack.” Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has put Perry’s bill on his list of “top 30 priorities” for this session, and his spokesman, Alejandro Garcia told the Tribune last week that SB 17 “will ensure that anyone can practice their profession in Texas without being forced to compromise their religious faith.”

But opponents said SB 17 is just bigotry poorly disguised as religious freedom.

Sen. Royce West, a Dallas Democrat, said during today’s debate that “the practice of faith has been tied to a lot of hideous practices,” such as prohibiting interracial marriages. He added, “The reality is that a lot of people have done things that were not consistent with being a Christian” while claiming religious motivation.

Sen. José Menéndez, D-San Antonio, offered an amendment that would specifically prohibit professionals from refusing service based on gender identity or sexual orientation, but his amendment was defeated on a 19-12 vote.

Equality Texas, the state’s largest LGBT lobbying group, has called SB 17 “Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s new attack on LGBTQ Texans,” saying that the legislation “escalates his LGBTQ attack from bathrooms [referring to 2017’s anti-transgender bathroom bills] to every licensed profession in Texas.”

Equality Texas issued a statement this afternoon after the measure passed the Senate, calling SB 17 “a sweeping bill that would empower and protect discriminatory behavior across hundreds of professional activities — including medical care, where providers or clinic owners could refuse treatment for LGBTQ people in need of care.”

The statement continued, “We urge Texans to demonstrate their opposition to SB 17 and urge the Texas House of Representatives to reject this discriminatory legislation.”

Equality Texas Interim Director Samantha Smoot said, “Dan Patrick has doubled down on his attack on the LGBTQ community, moving out of bathrooms and into every single licensed profession in Texas.”

She warned that SB 17 will create dangerous “religious exemptions” for hundreds of professions, “from barbers to tow truck operators to doctors,” adding that an occupational license holder would be able to cite “sincerely held religious belief” to defend discriminatory behavior and “the licensing agency that oversees the occupation would have no recourse to remedy that discrimination. This includes health care providers, who could turn away sick and injured people seeking care, unless immediate live-saving measures were needed, based just patient’s identity, or that of their parents.”

Smoot said Patrick has included SB 17 on his “top 30” priority list, signaling his intention to pass it no matter what. In 2017, when moderates in the Texas House stymied his efforts to pass the anti-trans bathroom bill during regular session, Patrick used his influence in the Senate to force a special session and to get the bathroom bill on that special session’s agenda.

Smoot noted that there are 15 other bills before the Texas Legislature this session that would “would make a mockery of religious freedom” and guarantee that “discrimination will be permitted.”

Smoot said, “Religious freedom is a fundamental American value protected in our U.S. Constitution.  But religious freedom was never intended to be a license to discriminate. SB 17 would create a religious litmus test, and open the doors to discrimination and to real harm to LGBTQ Texans.  Dan Patrick has launched a whole new war against LGBTQ people, and this ‘license to discriminate’ bill is our No. 1 threat this session.”

As in 2017, Patrick continues to push his anti-LGBT bills forward in the face of overwhelming public disapproval, including from the state’s business leaders. Last week, representatives from Amazon, Facebook and Google along with tourism officials from several of the largest cities in the state held a press conference to speak against SB 17.

— Tammye Nash