AUSTIN, TX — (05-12-19) — Gay Texas State Rep. Julie Johnson (D), a trial lawyer, has taken down Texas’ “Save Chick-fil-A Bill” in a way that has GOP conservatives and anti-LGBT activists in rage.

The freshman Texas Representative made history by becoming the first married openly gay lawmaker in the history of the Legislature in 2018.

The Chick-fil-A Bill which is known as CSHB 3172, would have prohibited any “governmental entity from taking any adverse action against any person based wholly or partly on the person’s membership in, affiliation with, or contribution, donation, or other support provided to a religious organization.”

This was Republicans strike back at San Antonio City Council’s vote to ban Chick-fil-A from opening a location in the city’s airport over their anti-LGBT activism.

Upon hearing the banning of Chick-Fil-A banning from the airport, Republican Rep. Matt Krause introduced CSHB 3172 which the lobbying by religious group Texas Values.

CSHB 3172, would have prohibited any “governmental entity from taking any adverse action against any person based wholly or partly on the person’s membership in, affiliation with, or contribution, donation, or other support provided to a religious organization.”

Rep. Johnson, a member of the House LGBTQ Caucus, didn’t kill CSHB 3172 with your typical political tactics, instead, Johnson used her experience as a lawyer to nix the CSHB 3172. She pointed out the fact that the Bill’s sponsors had not followed procedure.

First, Rep. Johnson presented a point of order regarding state rules on CSHB 3172’s development, then she objected that the official analysis of the bill had been misleading.

While Republican lawmakers sat their complaining, Johnson’s objection couldn’t be ignored and the “Save Chick-Fil-A Bill” was defeated.

Thanks to Texas State’s legislative session schedule (where they barely work and draw six figure salaries every year), the save the ‘Chick-Fil-A’ Bill won’t have enough time to be re-introduced in the chanber before the end of the legislative session.

Needless to say, Republicans took to Twitter to voice their outrage.

Texas Values president Jonathan Saenz has vowed to keep the fight alive; the “Save Chick-Fil-A Bill,” he insists, isn’t an anti-LGBT measure. “This commonsense religious freedom effort is far from over,” Saenz protested. “We will not allow the clear will of the majority of Texans and a bipartisan majority of the Texas Legislature to be thwarted by a few.”

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R)is on board too. He’d opened an investigation into San Antonio’s decision blocking Chick-Fil-A at the airport, and declared, “The Constitution’s protection of religious liberty is somehow even better than Chick-Fil-A’s chicken. Unfortunately, I have serious concerns that both are under assault at the San Antonio airport.”

Article by: Paul Goldberg, Staff Writer

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