The Texas House’s State Affairs Committee will hold hearings on two separate bills with implications for the LGBTQ community at 8 a.m. Monday, April 14, and Equality Texas is urging LGBTQ Texans and their allies who are able to testify at the hearings or drop cards at the Capitol.
One of the two is House Bill 3225, which ostensibly is intended to prevent students in public schools from accessing “explicit materials.” That, of course, is a good goal. However, this same language has been used in school boards across the state to restrict access to stories about LGBTQIA lives, Equality Texas notes, adding in its action, “This is a book ban, plain and simple.”
House Bill 4503 imposes a narrow definition of “biological sex” that restricts updates to medical records. This bill follows the pattern of requiring “biological sex” on all government documents, which can pose challenges for trans Texans who need to access health care or may need to share their records with out-of-state doctors.
“Dropping a card” refers to the action of officially registering your opposition to or support of a specific piece of legislation under consideration by the Texas Legislature. A card can be dropped only on the day a bill is being heard by a House or Senate committee and only on Capitol grounds from a laptop, tablet or kiosk with a connection to the free public Captol WiFi.
Check out Equality Texas’ instructions on dropping a card for more information.
— Tammye Nash