‘Queer Dance Freakout’ protesting bathroom bill targets Abbott, Patrick

A group of gay activists is throwing a dance party of sorts at the Texas governor’s mansion Thursday to protest the proposed transgender bathroom bill and other legislation deemed unfriendly to the LGBT community.

Called “Queer Dance Freakout,” the event will be from 6 to 9 p.m. between 10th and 11th streets outside Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s mansion in Austin.

“We say NO to anti-transgender bathroom bills,” organizers say on the event’s Facebook page. “We say NO to marriage equality limitations. We say NO to old men saying what we can and cannot do.

“We say YES to shaking our asses. We say YES to the freedoms of the body. We say YES to sweating in the streets while we ride the beat.”

So far, more than 400 people have said they’ll be going and another 680-plus have expressed interest.

The protest party targets what the group calls “transphobic and homophobic laws Greg Abbott and Dan Patrick and their administration have got in the pipeline.”

Senate Bill 6, the so-called bathroom bill, is one of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s top priorities for the Legislature this session. It would require people to use restrooms in Texas public schools and government buildings based on their biological sex. SB 6 also pre-empts local nondiscrimination ordinances and school policies that allow transgender Texans to use the restroom that corresponds with their gender identity.

“The people of Texas elected us to stand up for common decency, common sense and public safety,” Patrick said in announcing the bill’s filing in January. “This legislation codifies what has been common practice in Texas and everywhere else forever — that men and women should use separate, designated bathrooms. It is supported by an overwhelming majority of Texans including both Democrats and Republicans, Hispanics, African-Americans and Anglos, men and women.”

The Texas Association of Business has come out against SB6, and the NFL and NBA have warned state officials that they risk future prime events by enacting such legislation. House Speaker Joe Straus has cautioned lawmakers about doing anything that might make the state less competitive. Abbott hasn’t taken a position on SB6, and won’t be around Thursday for the protest anyway, according to a report in The Dallas Morning News. He’s scheduled to attend a meeting in Washington of the Republican Governors Association.

Meanwhile, a new commercial began airing Monday asking Texans to “take a seat and make a stand” against SB6. “I Pee With LGBT” was created by ad agency GSD&M and Oscar-nominated Texas filmmaker Richard Linklater in conjunction with a campaign launched by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas and the nonprofit Legacy Community Health.

“You’ve got to roll up your sleeves, pull down your pants and pee with LGBT,” a speaker says in the one-minute ad.

“You’ve got to take a seat to make a stand,” says another, “because this isn’t a privacy issue.”

“And we can take care of ourselves,” says a woman sitting in a bathroom stall next to her.

“We damn sure ain’t gonna end up like North Carolina,” a guy in a cowboy hat growls.

This story was originally published February 21, 2017 at 1:39 PM with the headline "‘Queer Dance Freakout’ protesting bathroom bill targets Abbott, Patrick."