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Reuters By Jon Herskovitz AUSTIN, Texas, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Texas measures to restrict access for transgender people to bathrooms in schools and public buildings appear doomed after moderate Republican powerbrokers blocked the bills and hundreds of businesses opposed them. The so-called " bathroom bills " have caused rifts among Republicans who control the state's legislature, leaving no likely path to passage before a 30- day special session wraps on Wednesday, analysts and lawmakers said on Monday. Enactment in Texas, the most populous Republican -dominated state, could give momentum to other socially conservative states for additional action on an issue that has become a flashpoint in the U.S. culture wars. But House Speaker Joe Straus , a pro- business Republican who controls the agenda in the body, has shown little interest in passing a bathroom bill, which he said was not a priority. On Monday, opponents ...

“Defeating this discriminatory and dangerous legislation in Texas is a huge victory that will have an impact far beyond the Lone Star State ,” Kasey Suffredini, the acting chief executive of Freedom for All Americans, a national gay rights and transgender rights group , said in a statement. In the special session, conservative lawmakers passed a version of the bill in the Texas Senate, where Mr. Patrick presides, but the moderate Republicans who lead the Texas House never referred it to a House committee , so it was effectively dead on arrival in the chamber. Another version, written by a House lawmaker , was never given a hearing. The bills would effectively have required transgender people to use bathrooms, locker rooms or showers corresponding with the sex listed on their birth certificates, not their gender identity, in government buildings and schools. The procedural moves in the House that killed the bathroom bill were led in large part by the House speaker, Joe Straus of Sa...

“Defeating this discriminatory and dangerous legislation in Texas is a huge victory that will have an impact far beyond the Lone Star State ,” Kasey Suffredini, the acting chief executive of Freedom for All Americans, a national gay rights and transgender rights group , said in a statement. In the special session, conservative lawmakers passed a version of the bill in the Texas Senate, where Mr. Patrick presides, but the moderate Republicans who lead the Texas House never referred it to a House committee , so it was effectively dead on arrival in the chamber. Another version, written by a House lawmaker , was never given a hearing. The bills would effectively have required transgender people to use bathrooms, locker rooms or showers corresponding with the sex listed on their birth certificates, not their gender identity, in government buildings and schools. The procedural moves in the House that killed the bathroom bill were led in large part by the House speaker, Joe Straus of Sa...