Texas Starte Capitol
TAMMYE NASH | Managing Editor
nash@dallasvoice.com
With less than two weeks left in the 89th Texas Legislature’s regular session, more than half of the 220 anti-LGBTQ that were introduced this session “didn’t get out of committee, and so, they died last Monday,” May 12, according to Jonathan Gooch, communications director for Equality Texas said on Wednesday.
Wednesday, he noted, marked “another major deadline:” the day by which Senate bills that have crossed to the House have to be voted out of committee to remain viable in this session. “Twenty-eight bad bills have crossed over to the House from the Senate. I am not sure how many are in committee still, but there are another handful that will die there,” he added.
Many of the “really dramatic” pieces of legislation that could have caused serious harm to the community “thankfully, never made it out of committee.” Among those, Gooch said, was the legislation called the “gender fraud bill,” which would have made it a criminal offense to present oneself in public as something other than your gender assigned at birth.
“That bill,” Gooch said, “basically would have made it illegal to be transgender in public. It was just utterly ridiculous.”
Another such bill not voted out of committee was legislation that would have expanded the state’s already-existing ban on gender-affirming care for minors to also prohibit gender-affirming care for adults.
But even with those bills now dead, Gooch warned, “There are still some very bad bills in play.”
Senate Bill 1257, for example, increases insurance liability for gender-affirming care, in essence requiring insurance providers to cover any and all unexpected results of such care.
While the bill does not ban such care outright, Gooch said, “it makes offering coverage for such care so expensive for providers that they will have to increase the cost for coverage, and some will just drop the coverage altogether.”
That bill has already passed by the House and the Senate and has been sent to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk to await his signature. “And we have no indication that he is going to do anything with it other than sign it,” he noted.
HB 229 has crossed into the Senate and has already had a hearing there, Gooch said. If passed, it would very narrowly define “gender” to the point that transgender and intersex people are excluded completely. If it passes, it will apply to every state government agency and documents, effectively banning accurate government ID for anyone other than cisgender men and cisgender women.
“It makes life super cumbersome if your government paperwork doesn’t match how you actually live your life,” he added.
HB 116 has also crossed into the Senate and was scheduled for a committee hearing on Wednesday, May 21. This is the bill that would amend official definitions of child abuse and create exceptions so that parents not affirming their child’s sexual orientation or gender identity cannot be considered child abuse.
“It is written in a kind of clunky way, but basically it allows parents to engage in harmful practices, such as conversion therapy and other so-called treatments,” Gooch explained.
“When you get down to it, what it does is it gives permission for parents to bully their children.”
What makes this proposed legislation even more egregious is that “there are no examples at all of children being removed from their home because their parents were not affirming,” he said. “It’s a completely made-up emergency. It does not address any real problem. It does not protect kids; it protects abusers.”
SB 12, an education bill that is Texas’ version of Florida’s “don’t say gay” law and that would ban DEI policies and would require parental permission for minors to access mental health resources, has crossed into the House and was reported out committee on Wednesday this week.
“It will be on the House floor for a vote sometime in the future,” Gooch said.
Despite the record number of anti-LGBTQ bills introduced in this session, there were some highlights for the community, including the House of Representatives’ historic passage of state Rep. Venton Jones’ legislation repealing the Texas sodomy law, which remains as part of the state penal code despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2003 decision. The measure has been sent to the Senate, where its prospects remain uncertain.
Repeal of the sodomy law, known as Section 21.06 of the penal code, has been introduced in the Texas House in every legislative session since the early 1990s when Glen Maxey, Texas’ first openly LGBTQ state representative was in office. This is the first time it has advanced.
Another bill that Jones authored, a measure including HIV testing in standard STD testing, was also approved by the House. And a bill that would change Texas’ standard marriage license form to be gender neutral was approved, while a measure expanding who can perform wedding ceremonies earned a hearing.
“That is a very small win,” Gooch said. “But it’s not nothing.”
And while the community’s response during this legislative session may not have been as publicly visible as in 2023, Gooch said the response has definitely been significant.
“It is worth noting that in just crazy times like these, there have been a lot of people who’ve shown up,” Gooch said. “Last session, there were a lot of rallies. It was all very visible. That’s not really been the case this time, but every time I have been at the Capitol, I’ve seen [LGBTQ people and allies] there. They are dropping cards and talking with their representatives.
“And in almost every hearing, we outnumbered our opponents about four-to-one,” he added.
“That’s a very generalized statement, but overall, we have definitely out-numbered our opponents. We have to keep going. Call your representatives. Email them. Let them know where you stand.”