Austin Fights Bathroom Bill, RIP Local Businesses, and the Student Still Missing After 5 Years

that you think, I guess, breaking the law, they have a form that you can fill out. But you have to file a complaint with the whatever building first. So you have to go, you have to file a complaint, get a copy of that complaint, then go fill out a form. And the thing about this that makes me so mad is that the form has an option to submit photos. But taking photos inside of a bathroom is illegal. And it just, it screams. I don't have to be worried with the particulars. We just want to make sure we keep women safe. And this is how we've decided we're going to do it. It's messy. It's messy. And I hate that it's all under the guise of, like, keeping women safe. Right. I wanted to just get into a little bit of the local reaction to it because... Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right. Austin City Council passed a resolution that is working toward making city restrooms gender inclusive and just welcoming to all, gender neutral. And there was, after the resolution was passed, our one of our... beloved local drag queens Bridget Bandit was there and read a book called Everybody Pease on the Seths which just made me laugh. Listen, we love Bridget. Yeah. And then there was also something that happened at the Capitol that I thought was really interesting because talking about the difficulty and enforcing this and like, you know, who's watching these bathrooms are relying on like people to essentially see something, say something. Yeah. But there was a group of protesters who went to the Texas Capitol on December 6th. And they tried to use bathrooms and they actually got barred by Texas DPS officers. And some of the protesters were asked to show their IDs. And DPS since responded to the media and said that those were actually voluntary checks. But ultimately, DPS did let two trans women's into the restrooms after they shared their IDs, which had the female markers on them. When all of this was being, you know, debated in the ledge, there were people who were against this saying, like, are you going to ask people to drop trow? Like, every time they try and go to the bathroom, you know, at a public building, like, the Capitol. Like, what is the plan for this? Yeah. So it's like their access to the bathroom is cut off in this way and also their ability to change anything. Like, I don't, it just all fits together in my mind. As if those shenanigans are not enough. The Texas Department of Public Safety has a list that's containing 110 names of people who tried to update their gender on their IDs. August 2024, Texas stopped allowing drivers to update their gender on their driver's license unless it was to fix a clerical error. And then in March of this year, the Texas Newsroom at KUT reported that there was a list being made of people that are requesting this change. And now the newsroom requested this list and it has 110 names. And the agency is not saying why they're collecting the names. And that's the part of it that makes me worried and upset. That's really, really scary.

This idea that you're like sneakily holding on to names to hold on to like and with no purpose. Like what is your point? What are you doing it for? Why are you doing it if not for nefarious reasons? Right. Like are they going to have like a list of these people so that when they try to use the bathroom, they've been blocked from changing their gender markers so they don't have that on their license. So then they're on some like do not pee in the women's restroom list or something. The other thing is, you know, this is something that always comes up for me with these, with the continued attack on our trans community in Texas is the size of this population. Why are we focusing so much on this population that it's just so weird? And so the... I just want to play out what the result would be now if somebody's following the law and there's somebody who then doesn't match the gender of the other people in the bathroom because that's not how they identify. You know what I mean? Yeah. It's also, you know, I'm not a lawmaker, but it also just every time these bathroom bills come up. And, you know, this one was successful. They're so superfluous. Like, it's bad governing. Like, there's already laws against assault. Like, we already have that, right? And, like, that's what this bill is claiming to be about is, like, protecting women in the restroom because men are going to come in dressed as women in order to attack them. And it's, like, one... Where's data on that? And two, we already have a law against that. Like, if that does happen, they can be charged with assault, you know? Exactly. And also, let's, you know, transgender women being forced into men's restroom is, men's restrooms is not safe. That's not a safe thing. Like. So you're not protecting women. Right. And you're not protecting women. And it's just, you're just encouraging people to violate each other's privacy in restrooms. And while also. kind of leaving us to govern ourselves. And we know how well that goes. I have a question. Have either of you ever, ever, ever, ever encountered someone that looks like they're in the wrong bathroom? I mean, just ever. I would say myself, like I have walked into the wrong bathroom on occasion, you know, at a like a. somewhere, I don't know, where the bathrooms are like right next to each other. Oh, I use men's restrooms all the time, like at events. That is exactly where I was going with that, Kelsey. Because there's no line. That's exactly where I was going with that. Do you know how many times I have walked my ass in a men's bathroom to use it because there's no line? I can't. I can't count how many times I have waltzed my ass into a men's bathroom to get paper towels or napkins or whatever because the women's bathroom is out. I've never been in a bathroom and felt unsafe because there's someone next to me that doesn't look like they belong. Because when you're in a bathroom, you don't give a fuck. You're using the bathroom. It's just the whole thing is so. No, it's really about stoking fear because I also, you know,

I'm saying this without having experienced it because if there was someone a man in the women's restroom, like I feel like people have said, I've seen that happen and people have been like, oh, this is the women's restroom and they leave. Or like even if a man was in the women's restroom, I would just be like, okay, well, I'm going to pee. Like, I don't know. Like, there's so much fear around this and I would. Unless it's an actual, like, assault situation and something bad is happening. Like, that can happen, you know. Absolutely. Say it can happen in a bathroom. It can happen in a... It can happen anywhere. It can happen in a bathroom. It can happen in a... It can happen anywhere. It can happen in those. It can happen anyway. It just feels like Texas Republicans are doing without there being, like, a huge swath of Texans who care about it. I think that, though, you have to wind it back because this started more than 10 years ago. We've been hearing, they tried to pass this same bill over and over and over again. And back, I think then when the hype started, it was all this effort. I don't know. This is my theory, so I could be totally off. No, you were a lunch reporter. Let's hear it. Yeah. Is it like that the goal was to get Democrats to respond in this very protective. pro trans way to like distract them essentially from like focusing on abortion and like bigger impact things like things that you know civil I don't know all the things so I do think that it was kind of like thrown out there to distract to move the focus to something else. And it worked for a long time. And now I don't, I think you're right. I don't know that people are still that all that hyped up about France. Like surely they're fatigued over this. Right. Right. I think that what's happening is that there are a bunch of Republicans that someone has told that being gay is bad. And every offshoot of gayness or homosexuality is bad. And it's immoral. And so they don't bother trying to educate themselves. They don't bother trying to. figure out what's real and what's not. They just use fear. They use ignorance. And it fucking works. It works for the percentage of people that are also like everything that has anything to do with homosexuality is immoral. Right. Everything is lumped in together and there's no nuance and they take the fucking humanity out of it. And here's where we are. Now you're arguing about who can go into a bathroom. I do want to point out like there are. like log cabin Republicans you know like a faction of Republicans who are gay that exists and I just think I don't know how they think about this topic you know I really don't I feel like that would be a hard They separate themselves because that's them. That's not me. Right. Right. Or if they're just like, we're just focusing on other things. We're not going to focus on that this isn't a real issue kind of thing. You know, but there's some justification that has to happen because there are gay Republicans. Just saying. Yeah, the mental gymnastics, honey. Meanwhile.

A lot of the bathrooms in our city are unisex or they're non-gendered. Exactly. There's a workaround. Single use. Single use. And there seems to be no issue with that. Every single, almost every gay club I ever go into. I am in the bathroom with men all the time. We are peeing together. Yeah. There are plenty of ways for women to get assaulted. Unfortunately, we all know that. This, like, pinpointing to bathrooms and transgendered people is just... It's just so ignorant. It's a red herring. Like, there are other ways to make us safer, actually. There are other ways to make a safer. A lot of other ways. But, you know, listen, as usual, I just, I feel for my transgender babies in my community because they just, they continue to catch hell. And so, you know, we'll keep talking about it. And we'll. Stay on top of it. Here's hoping to have packs and stubs his toe today. How about that? There we go. There we go. He's too busy. He's in the bathrooms. Can you imagine he's like peeking over the? Hey, what's happening in there? You have an ID? That's bad. Anyway. Right, exactly. He's hanging out in the women's restroom. That is what we do not want.

So, okay, there's a lot of news coming out of Texas State down the road. 30 miles down the road, exit 206. Yeah, just down the road. So there's some things happening at Texas State. What's going on? Even Ruth and Kelsey, what's happening? All right. It seems like there's a good ending to one story out of Texas State that didn't start off so well. The university has been pressured successfully into like making the right decision about a Black History Month exhibit, but it still hasn't happened yet. So TBD, but the backstory is in October, the founder and curator of Black History 101 Mobile Museum, whose name is Khalid L. Hakim. He said that a Texas State University School official approached him to bring the exhibit to campus for Black History Month. But then, like, a week later, this same official said, actually, never mind. The supervisors did not approve of this and basically disinvited him from the... campus from bringing his exhibit there. The university cited the state's fairly new anti-DEI law. And after that came out, the university faced a lot of pushback from the ACLU, N.ACP, and others. And there was an Austin American statesman story that ran saying what had happened, just kind of laying out the news. At some point after that, a university spokesperson said that they were going to consider bringing the exhibit to campus for Black History Month programming in the future. So was it that hard? Couldn't it? I mean, why did you take all this to? I also like. But I want to hear it. You're the Bobcat. You're our resident Bobcat here. Well, I do have a couple of things to say about this. So one, with anti-D-EI, diversity, equity, inclusion, if we are going to follow this new law about it and, you know, DEI stuff is banned from schools and Texas State is a public school. And you're going to use that to ban a Black History Month thing from coming to campus. Like, is that, are you not just explicitly saying white history only? Like, is that not, like, that's a bad look. Yeah. And then. What's interesting about Texas State and something I don't understand about Texas State is so I graduated in 2016 and that was right when Trump was elected and I was leaving campus right before a bunch of stuff happened because then I started writing about it when I worked at the San Antonio Express News. For some reason, Texas State is a place where white supremacists are...

Like, they feel fine to, like, distribute flyers and to try to have protests there or to have gatherings there or whatever. And I just don't understand, like, what's happening at Texas State specifically. And, like, obviously, over the years... the university has denounced white supremacy and they've said... Officially. Yeah, like officially have been like, you know, these flyers are not welcome on campus and all this stuff. But I just wonder what it is about San Marcos specifically and this campus specifically where these things are happening. I'm really not trying to say my beloved university is like safe for Nazis or anything like that. And also... You know, doing this explicit, like, a black, it's a black history month exhibit. There are black people in America, you know? Yeah. And being like, no, we can't have this because of this anti-Dei law. Yeah. How else am I supposed to take that? Are we allowed to have a Mexican American Heritage Month exhibit? You know, like, how else are we supposed to take that information? And, like, I'm glad that they were pressured correctly into bringing this back because how silly, how stupid? So stupid. I don't know how you talk about Black History Month without diversity being a part of the discussion. Like, and equity and inclusion. Like it's, this is the history of America. Like it or not. They do not like it. They do not like it. They like to, they prefer to live in a different reality. Well, what's also happening at, um, At Texas State is the family of a missing Texas State student named Jason Landry held a vigil marking the five-year anniversary of his mysterious disappearance. On December 13th, 2020, Jason of Texas State Jr. decided to drive from San Marcos to his hometown just south of Houston for Christmas break, and his car was found abandoned on a dirt road in Luling, Texas, where police also found his cell phone and closed, but no sign of him. It was originally investigated as a car crash, but then became a missing person's case. It's still open and active. Search teams gather monthly to conduct searches for any signs of his body or other evidence. And there are a few theories of what could have happened to him that he was maybe involved in a carjack or stumbled upon a drug deal that went wrong and was abducted or his body was eaten by wild animals, which is horrifying, but nothing has been firmly proven. on any of these theories since the body still has not been found. It is a mystery. There is nobody. This man is gone. They have not been able to find him. The family is offering a $20,000 reward for any information to help bring him home. Um, Texas Monthly has a really well reported story on this and everyone listening should go and read it because Texas Monthly went through like all of these theories, right? And they interview all these people. And there's so many people in Luling who have like taken this case upon themselves. Like they're, yeah. And like the same way with all kinds of.

crime that happens in the U.S. There are like Facebook groups of people who are just kind of like obsessed with this and like trying to solve the case. It's terrible. Yeah. It's a hard time like a hard time a year also to not have to have unanswered questions about where your people are. That's tough. That's really hard. Five years and nothing nobody. That's crazy. It's crazy. So we hope, you know, we are sending all the good juju to this family. Five years is a long time. So, okay, now the year is winding down. And, you know, it's gotten us to thinking about how the city has changed. You know, Austin is no stranger to growth because it, you know, the growth causing us to lose businesses that we hold dear. Like this has been happening steadily for a while. This year is no exception. So we want to chat about a couple of beloved Austin businesses that we lost in 2025. KUT has a great story out this week about 10 beloved spots to shut down this year. The 10 spots are... Coriente, Tom's Market, Trudies, Aster's Ethiopian, Hannah World Market, Jim Jim's Water Ice, Black Star Co-op, Pub, and Brewery, the Skylark Lounge, Eastside King, Limbo, and Triple Z threads. And so we each want to really quickly just talk about one of these businesses that we particularly love and why. Even Ruth, you want to go first? Yeah, Tom's Market, I... I found myself going there more than I probably thought about. It used to be on Barton Springs is the one that I would pop into. I missed the lady. There was a sign outside of it with a woman in her bathing suit, like an old, like 50s style bathing suit. With her hand up, I missed the sign. I run by there all the time. I ran there this morning. And. I have no interest in going to whatever the new one is. I don't even know. I know it is still El Market, but the lady's gone. You know what I really liked was they had like a little coffee station set up all the time. And you could just reach into their cooler and get your cream, like whatever kind you want. Oh, yes. Yes. I used to go there, like, every day. There's one right next to the old statesman building, and I was there all the time. And you could put a little cinnamon in your coffee, and they had fun little, like, gifty things. Yeah. Tom's was the best. What about you, Kelsey? So I'm going with Coriante. That's the one I'm most sad about on this list. And this just happened. They closed in November, and they were in business for 20 years. And it was just... the best food and it was such a nice thing to have downtown because like there's so much downtown that i just like don't care about to eat like i don't really want to slice the pizza all the time kind of thing and it was just so delicious and they had dumplings and like you could pop in during south by i would always be down there for south by and it just feels like one of those cool special awesome places and it's con

So, yeah. Oh, man. Shout out to Coriante. Yeah, what about you? For me, of course, it's Skylark Lounge. I mean, Skylark Lounge, I think that that is probably one of the most upsetting closures for me in recent memory because it's just, it was such a quintessential. iconic Austin venue. And some of my favorite people play there all the time. It's just like when someone is coming into town, Skylark is an easy place to take them. Singing on that stage is fun. It's like one of the last kind of like old Austin, go somewhere, hear some music, drinks are cheap. It's diving. You're dancing, getting sweaty. Yeah, it's Skylark for me, always, period. And Trudy's was going to be second, but Trudy has been going downhill for a while. So Skylark for me, RIP to all those businesses that we're losing this year. And speaking of which, we want to really, really, really quickly do an RIP to Joe Ely. If you don't know who Joe Ely is, I don't know what to talk. I don't know what to tell you. Joe Ely is Austin. Austin icon, Austin legend. Austin, he's a musician. He passed away this week. And like just the out, the pouring of people that like there were some people that before I realized what was happening, it just said, Joe. Right. That's it. Dot, dot, dot. I'm like, Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe, who? Joe, what's that? Like, what's happened? Like, what's Joe? Like, not Joe, no, no. I'm like, who the fuck? What's Joe? What Joe? It's Joe Ely. Joe Ely. musician yeah yeah he was 78 he was in like the austin hall music hall of fame um really changed the music scene here he was from originally like amarillo and then west texas i think but a lot of people associate him with like the the new music that austin became kind of known for like the you know hippie hippie kind of rocky kind of style I don't know. In my opinion, I know a lot of people might disagree with me, but he has a song called West Texas Waltz. And it's like that is probably one of the most Joe Elyish song. You know what I mean? Like I think it's a really good representation of what he does. That's it. If you want to know what he does and what he sings, try West Texas waltz. It's a pretty good song. But yeah, RIP, Joe Ely, rest easy. Okay. So now, as we round out this last Friday news roundup of the year 2025, I want to know how you will be spending your weekend because I am nosy. Kelsey, what are you doing this weekend? So I am trying to get into some holiday fun this weekend. I'm trying to get over to Kitty Cohen's Hanukkah Bar because I still haven't done that. I think I'm going to make Latkas this weekend, which is such a grind, such an undertaking. My house is going to smell like oil, but I'm very excited. And then I need to get out to 37th Street lights. So trying to mix all that in. We'll see what happens.

Kelsey, you, that's like busy. Yeah, there you go. That's busy. Look at that. Nikki-esque. It is. It really is. We'll talk about you. My dad is having a Hanukkah party and he is making Latka's, which I love somebody else taking on that stinky exercise. Shout out to Hank. Shout out. Exactly. So I am going to be picking up some brisket from mom's foods to contribute. to our Hanukkah party. Yes. And then the other thing I do have a little like holiday bucket list thing that I want to do that I've never done is the Longhorn Lights through UT. Yes. I saw it running through campus today. There's like this big. Well, they do like their own light. They do orange and white lights. Yeah. And they had like this mini tower thing that I ran by that I think is part of it. So I think it's like more interactive than the trail of lights. Like, you know, where you can actually like get out and walk around a little more like off the trail. So I'm going to do that and check it out. So I'll let y'all know next year how that goes. That sounds cute. I love that. Next year. I know. Okay, y'all. This weekend, there's a lot happening. First up, so far sounds is bringing Duke Ellington's The Nutcracker Jazz Ballet for one night only at Brazos Hall tonight. Woo! Six to nine, 30 bucks. I think it'll be worth it. You do with that information, which you will. Our friends over at 1972 is having a holiday party tonight. It's going to be hosted by Violet Ward and it'll be drink specials, food, and a contest. And here are the, I love this. So the competition is going to include best holiday pajamas, ugliest holiday sweater, and overall best holiday dressed. And I love it. And then Annie's Day and Night is having a nighttime market. It's. Yeah, it's Nightmare Before Christmas themed. And then it is, what's this holiday market? You can come dress as your favorite character. There's going to be a white elephant gift exchange. And then they're going to have a sing-along movie. They're going to play the movie at 6 and 8 so you can sing along and you can shop. And that's going to be Annie's Day and Night. What's this? I know. I'm so excited. I'm so excited. Y'all, oh my God, I freaking love Nightmare Before Christmas so much. That's starting at 6 o'clock. And then tomorrow, Tweety's is having their third anniversary. They're having a third anniversary party. And there's going to be, they have like one, two, three, four, five, four bands. They have a DJ. It's free. It's going to be all night. And, you know, I love Tweety. So I'm always down to like. do stuff with them because Tweeties is great. Also happening on Saturday is Tiki Christmas and Holiday on 7th. They have an ugly Christmas party, ugly Christmas sweater party, or you can also do a tropical shirt at their holiday teaky party. Okay. And then the only thing that's happening on Sunday that I have any interest in is the holiday block party at Revival Vintage and Red Stella Salon. Y'all know I love shopping. So that's 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

And they're going to have an IV hydration station, salon specials, DJ Prissy P, whoever that is. I love that name. Flash tattoos, local vintage makers, local vintage and maker vendors. It's sponsored by Bubbler and Blue Al Brewing. Anyways. So yeah, full, full, full weekend. Before we go. I got very special, special, special, special shout out. Y'all want to know who we shout out? Oh, yeah. Yes, please. Shouting out our new members. Blu-boo-boo-blum! We want to send a shout out to Sam S and Jim Jordan S. Welcome to the CityCast Awesome Neighborhood. Welcome. Hello. Welcome. Come on in. We love you. You're our friend now. Welcome to our club.

We love our members. We love you. We love you. We love you. Current and new members, welcome to the fold. And those of you listening, if you are not a neighbor yet, I don't know what you're doing, but you can become a neighbor too. And. Since it's the holiday season, you know, you could also gift a city cast membership. If you feel in. What? Yeah. You can gift a city cast membership. If you're feeling generous and you want someone to have daily news and events and culture and hear these cute stories and hear our voices, you can gift that to somebody that you love. Give the gift of Nikki and Kelsey directly to your inbox and your ears every day. Every day. I would love to be in your inbox every day. Every day. And if you have someone that's hard to shop for you, this is perfect. It's a perfect thing to get somebody that you don't know what to get them. If they love Austin and they like to connect with a city, go to membership.cass.fm. Get them a membership. And thank you so much. Kelsey, Eva Ruth, thank you so much for round than out the news with me for the last time in 2025. You guys are the wind beneath my wings. Oh, this has been awesome. Goodbye, 2025. See you in 2026, I guess. I guess, guys. Bye. Bye.

That's all for today here on CityCast, Austin. Our executive producer is Eva Ruth Morveck. Our producers this week are Zoe Culkin, Elizabeth Kama, and Alyssa Casals. And I'm your host, Nikki Devon. Our Hey Austin Newsletter editors this week are Adrian Gonzalez and Kelsey Bradshaw. And music is by Nelson Valenti Aguilar of Como Las Movies, with additional music by All the Comonos and Tambour, Beverly Niven, Donna, and Roo Walker from Triple Scoop music via Getty Images. If you enjoy the show, tell your friends, write the show, leave us a review, and of course subscribe to our Hey Austin newsletter. We'll be back Monday morning with more news from around the city. Bye y'all.