March 13, 2017      7:56 PM

SB: Bathroom ads against Speaker just latest episode in decades-long anti-gay crusade by Hotze

Dr. Steve Hotze began his anti-gay activism as early as 1982, belongs to a group that thinks women can only work outside the home with their husband’s consent, thinks gay marriage will lead to “sodomy in kindergarten,” and has suggested the Jewish Speaker wants to outlaw Christianity

As the Texas Senate State Affairs Committee last week was getting down to work on the “bathroom bill,” Dr. Steve Hotze, an anti-gay activist and business partner of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, began running television ads against Speaker Joe Straus in his district demanding the measure receive a vote in the House. If Senate Bill 6 passes the full Senate, which seems likely this week, Dr. Hotze’s plan includes running TV ads and robocalls in the districts of other key Texas House members.

Feedback from a significant number of Quorum Report readers indicates Dr. Hotze is not as familiar around the Capitol as, for example, the political activities of Midland oilman and Empower Texans Chairman Tim Dunn.

The Houston delegation is certainly familiar with Hotze. It’s probably an understatement to say Hotze’s history of involvement in Harris County politics is extensive. It was in the Bayou City where he was joined by Lt. Gov. Patrick in defeating the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance. Gov. Greg Abbott, risk averse as always, did not get involved with that until it was pretty clear HERO would be defeated and sent out a tweet supporting Hotze’s position right before the election. In the suburbs around Houston, Hotze’s activism and political cash were critical in unseating former Representatives Debbie Riddle, R-Tomball, and Wayne Smith, R-Baytown, in last year’s Republican primaries.

Outside Southeast Texas, though, Dr. Hotze has not had nearly as much impact and therefore is simply not as well known. Critics of the “bathroom bill,” including the Texas Association of Business, argue Hotze’s latest cause will hurt the Texas economy because it is viewed by many as discriminatory.

Given all that, it seems appropriate to provide a primer on Dr. Hotze’s political activities over the years and let readers judge for themselves.

Hotze’s group, the Conservative Republicans of Texas, has been listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group alongside the New Black Panthers, Neo-Nazi organizations like the Atomwaffen Division in San Antonio, Holocaust Denial in Kerrville, and chapters of the KKK like the Militant Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in Flint, Texas.  

His activism stretches back as early as 1982, when Dr. Hotze fought the “homosexual agenda” in Austin.

By Scott Braddock

Copyright March 13, 2017, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved