Texas Republican and former state Rep. Bryan Slaton

State Rep. Jessica González

UPDATE: It is worth taking the time to update this to include the comment from state Rep. Jessica González, a Democrat from Dallas and one of the founding members of the Texas LGBTQ Caucus (as reported by The Texas Tribune):

“It’s no surprise that the man obsessed with children’s bodies — especially transgender kids — is a predator,” González said in a statement. “The courage to stop a predator has to extend to opposing his crusade to fixate the entire state on children’s genitals. He’s been calling my community ‘perverts’ and ‘groomers’ for years — when it turns out he should’ve invested in a good mirror.”

ORIGINAL POST: One day after now-former state Rep. Bryan Slaton announced his resignation from the Texas House of Representatives, members of the House have voted to expel him. His resignation and now expulsion comes in the wake of an internal investigation that determined he had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a female intern in his office.

A two-thirds vote of the House membership was necessary for expulsion. Today’s vote was unanimous. It is the first time since 1927 a member of the House has been expelled. (I looked but have not yet found out who was expelled in 1927 and why.)

As the Texas Tribune reports, after the vote Slaton’s nameplate was removed immediately from both his desk on the House floor a from the vote tally board at the front of the chamber.

Before House members voted, members of the House General Investigating Committee outlined the “unpleasant” and “graphic” allegations against him, pointed out that he had neither disputed the allegations nor expressed any remorse and that he tried to obstruct the investigation, the Tribune reports. Committee members also said Slaton had probably committed several crimes, including giving alcohol to a minor.

The House members went ahead with the vote to expel, despite’s Slaton’s resignation on Monday, because without the vote he continued to be entitled to his House salary and per diem, continued to sit on assigned committees and was counted toward establishing a working quorum of the House until voters could choose a replacement.

Gov. Greg Abbott will have to call a special election to replace Slaton, but that can’t happen until the current legislative session ends on Memorial Day.

— Tammye Nash