{"id":6935,"date":"2017-07-07T18:00:09","date_gmt":"2017-07-07T18:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=6935"},"modified":"2017-07-07T18:00:09","modified_gmt":"2017-07-07T18:00:09","slug":"boycotts-over-religious-freedom-bills-could-cost-texas-billions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=6935","title":{"rendered":"Boycotts Over \u2018Religious Freedom\u2019 Bills Could Cost Texas Billions"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Calif.<\/a>

Calif. Attorney General Xavier Becerra issued a ban on state employee travel to Texas, with Texas\u2019 new state law legalizing discrimination against LGBTQ families in adoptions. Photo: Angerer\/GettyImages<\/p><\/div>\n

by Mark Richardson<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

AUSTIN, Texas<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 The predicted economic backlash against Texas has begun in protest of the state\u2019s new laws that allow discrimination in the name of religious freedom.<\/p>\n

Last week,\u00a0California banned official travel to Texas<\/a>\u00a0by state employees in response to a Texas state law allowing foster care and adoption agencies to disqualify LGBTQ families for \u201csincerely held religious beliefs.\u201d Dozens of other states and groups say they\u2019re also considering economic boycotts.<\/p>\n

Dan Quinn, communications director with the Texas Freedom Network, said the sanctions should come as no surprise to the lawmakers who advocate for \u201creligious freedom\u201d bills that discriminate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not like folks weren\u2019t warning that this would happen before legislators gave this special protection to adoption and foster care agencies that discriminate,\u201d Quinn said. \u201cBut now they want to double down on all this in the special session with this ridiculous bathroom bill.\u201d<\/p>\n

He is referring to a controversial bill coming up in July to regulate which restrooms transgender people can use.<\/p>\n

In the regular session, lawmakers passed an anti-sanctuary cities bill allowing police to ask people in custody about their immigration status. Hispanic groups claim it will lead to racial profiling.<\/p>\n

Quinn said he believes conservative Republicans are pushing such measures as a form of \u201cpolitical theater,\u201d which he warned could have an unhappy ending for Texas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat they are proposing here solves no problem; there is no problem. So, the only reason they\u2019re doing this is for political reasons,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat we\u2019re really seeing here is this slow motion economic train wreck, and the special session could turn that into a full-on disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quinn said a study by business leaders found an organized boycott could cost Texas more than $8 billion and 35,000 jobs. The state also could lose business from conventions, tourism and sports leagues like the NCAA, the NBA and the NFL.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce you get beyond the moral problem with it, you have the economic problem with it,\u201d Quinn said. \u201cAt that point, you do begin to wonder, \u2018Will this register with them? Do they see this as a big problem with leaders?’\u201d<\/p>\n

Other states \u2013 including Alabama, North Carolina and South Dakota \u2013 have seen economic hits from boycotts after passing similar legislation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Mark Richardson AUSTIN, Texas\u00a0\u2014 The predicted economic backlash against Texas has begun in protest of the state\u2019s new laws that allow discrimination in the name of religious freedom. Last week,\u00a0California banned official travel to Texas\u00a0by state employees in response to a Texas state law allowing foster care and adoption agencies to disqualify LGBTQ families […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6936,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6935"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6937,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6935\/revisions\/6937"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}