HB 1738, state Rep. Venton Jones’ bill to remove language criminalizing consensual sexual contact between adults of the same gender, passed the House on a third reading on Friday, May 16, by a vote of 59-56. The vote came just in the nick of time, since Friday was the last day for the House to consider third readings — the final floor vote — on House bills, notes Equality Texas, and that means any House bill that did not get a third reading is dead.
The 59-56 vote is tighter than the second reading vote, in which the measure advanced on a vote of 72-55, with five House members present, not voting. The third reading was a “voice verification” vote requiring members to be seated in their seat and vote when their name is called.
Dallas Voice contributing writer James Russell, who covers the Texas Legislature for the Voice, said that in the third reading vote, Corpus Christi Republican Todd Hunter switched from “present, not voting” to “nay,” while Republicans Jay Dean of Longview and Ryan Guillen of Floresville flipped from “yay” on the second reading to “nay” on the third.
Russell said the voice verification vote is intended to kill bills, but “looking at the tally, it allowed people to walk” and not vote.
While the measure’s passage in the House — it has been introduced in every legislative session since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned same-sex sodomy laws in every Texas Legislature since 1993 when the state’s first openly-gay House member, Glen Maxey, was in office — was a landmark in the House, Russell said it will, unfortunately, “probably be ‘received by the Senate’ and die” as the session ends on June 2.
Other Legislature news
An email from Equality Texas on Friday that this past week was “especially rough” for the LGBTQ community in Texas and those advocating for it in Austin.
“Every day kind of felt like a new domino toppled over,” the email noted, with the House voting on Monday, May 12, to pass Rep. Ellen Troxclair’s HB 229 “that claims to ‘protect women’ but literally uses the logic and language of ‘separate but equal’ to prove its point.”
“Make no mistake,” the Equality Texas email stresses, “this bill does NOT do anything to protect women. It actually entrenches outdated, misogynistic stereotypes about women into legal definitions and serves to further marginalize trans and gender nonconforming people.”
Then on Tuesday, May 13, the House Public Education committee heard SB 12 first — “once again, giving very few people the chance to show up and drop a card or testify,” the email points out. “As if slotting the bill first wasn’t disenfranchising enough, at 9:45 a.m. when Chairman [Brad] Buckley called up three people to testify, he also announced that those three people would be the last ones to testify.
“Dozens of others who had already registered were shut out of the process and had their voices silenced because Buckley wanted to close the bill before the 10 a.m. House meeting.”
However, Equality Texas notes, there is some good news, too: “As of Monday, 139 of the over 200 anti-LGBTQIA+ bills filed this session are officially dead.”
The organization promised an “updated total for how many bills are still in play,” and noted these “remaining key deadlines to keep in mind:”
• May 24: Last day for House committees to report Senate Bills
• May 27: Last day for House to consider 2nd reading of Senate bills
• May 28: Last day Senate can consider all bills on the 2nd or 3rd reading
• June 2: SINE DIE (Last day of session)
Equality Texas also offered this information on “bill movements” in the legislature so far:
Passed second chamber:
• SB 1257, companion bill to HB 778 (increasing insurance liability for gender-affirming care) was voted out of committee in second chamber.
• SB 12 (parents can gatekeep mental health resources, DEI ban, Don’t Say Gay, GSA ban)
• SB 689 (DEI ban in government)
• SB 965 (religious speech/prayer in schools)
• SB 2920 (gender regulation in collegiate sports)
• SB 18 (drag story hour ban)
Voted out of originating chamber
• HB 1106 (conversion therapy no longer considered child abuse)
• HB 1738 **GOOD** (repeal the state’s antiquated sodomy ban)
Voted out of committee in originating chamber
• HB 1655 (prohibiting teachers from affirming trans students)
Left Pending
• HB 229 (narrow definition of “biological sex”)
• HB 3225 (censorship in public libraries)
Upcoming Hearings
Tuesday, May 20
• SB 1396 (prohibition on adopting national sex ed standards) in the House Public Education Committee
Wednesday, May 21
• HB 1106 (conversion therapy no longer considered child abuse) in the Senate State Affairs Committee
— Tammye Nash, James Russell