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Editor’s note: This article will be updated through the legislative session. Check back for the latest news on these proposals.
As fundamental questions of gender and sexuality dominate Republican priorities at the state and federal level, the Texas Legislature is considering a record number of anti-trans bills this session.
While there haven’t yet been the big fireworks of last session, lawmakers are quietly pushing proposals to further restrict the lives of trans people — what bathrooms they can use, what government documents they can obtain and what services public schools and mental health providers can offer to young people.
Whether these proposals will survive the legislative process remains to be seen. In a busy session focused on private school vouchers, property tax cuts, immigration enforcement and a THC ban, these bills may fall down the priority list.
But with federal and state executive actions, as well as recent lawsuits and opinions from the attorney general, many of these measures are already impacting the lives of trans Texans — whether the Legislature ever takes a vote on them.
Like all legislation, these proposals must win approval from a majority of lawmakers in both the Texas House and Senate. Part of that process includes committee hearings, where a small group of lawmakers in each chamber vet the bill at a public meeting. Sometimes those committees make changes to the proposal based on testimony from the public.
Here’s how some of the biggest battles are shaping up so far.
Sex definition
Perhaps the greatest concern for LGBTQ+ advocates this session are the so-called “sex definition” bills that seek to define male and female as two separate, unchanging sets of physical characteristics assigned at birth.
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These bills would restrict whether trans people can have their gender changed on government documents, like birth certificates and driver’s licenses. The executive branch has already moved on this front, with Gov. Greg Abbott asserting there are only two sexes and directing state agencies to not honor court rulings directing them to change someone’s sex on government documents.
These bills would codify those executive actions in state law.
The Senate passed Senate Bill 406, filed by state Sen. Mayes Middleton, a Galveston Republican, on a 20-11 party-line vote. The legislation would require birth certificates to list someone’s biological sex and prohibit that marker from being changed for minors. The bill will now go to the House, which has its own version of this bill, House Bill 477.
A group of 15 senators have also signed on to Senate Bill 1696, which goes further by prohibiting anyone from changing the sex listed on their birth certificate. The bill is before the State Affairs Committee.
Johnathan Gooch, communications director for Equality Texas, said trans people often change their birth certificate to align with the gender identity that they live as and to allow them to update their driver’s license, passport and other government documents.
“When there starts to be discrepancies between government documents, that just makes trans people’s lives so much more difficult,” he said. “If they can’t update their driver’s license, then they might be forced to out themselves when they are pulled over at a traffic stop, which makes them vulnerable to violence, which we know trans people experience at higher rates.”
House Bill 3817, filed by Rep. Tom Oliverson, R-Cypress, would create a criminal offense for “gender identity fraud,” making it a state jail felony for someone to represent their gender as “opposite of the biological sex assigned to the person at birth.”
This bill, which has not been heard by a committee, has been widely criticized by LGBTQ+ advocates.
“Bills like these are dangerous and misleading,” Gooch said.
Bathroom bills
In 2017, conservative Texas legislators tried to pass a “bathroom bill” requiring that people use a facility that aligned with the sex they were assigned at birth. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick pushed lawmakers into a special session over the issue, but business interests killed it at the last minute.
There have been similar bathroom bills filed each session since, but the issue may get more attention this session after national battles over bathroom privacy have reared their head under the pink dome.
More than 80 legislators have signed on to co-author House Bill 239, called the “Texas Women’s Privacy Act,” mandates that family violence shelters, prisons and state and county buildings, including public schools and universities, segregate private facilities, like bathrooms, by sex.
Those private spaces could only be used by people whose sex on their “original birth certificate” matches the assignment of the facility.
The bill is before the State Affairs committee but has not been scheduled for a hearing. Its Senate companion has also not yet been heard by a committee.
There are other similar bills aiming to restrict what facilities people can use. House Bill 2704, filed by Rep. Joanne Shofner, a Nacogdoches Republican, lays out similar limits as the other bills, but the enforcement is through private lawsuits, rather than state action. That bill is also awaiting a hearing before State Affairs.
Rep. Valoree Swanson, a Spring Republican, has filed two bills that would require state prisons and jails to place people in facilities based on the sex they were assigned at birth. House Bill 403 addresses adult and juvenile inmates, and is awaiting a hearing, while House Bill 437 specifically addresses juvenile offenders and was heard by the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence and left pending in late March.
Schools and mental health providers
There have been a slew of bills filed addressing what role schools can play in supporting a student’s gender transition. Texas has outlawed a wide range of transition-related medical services for minors, but some trans young people still choose to socially transition, meaning changing their names, pronouns and how they present themselves.
Under House bills 3411 and 3616, both filed by Rep. Nate Schatzline, a Fort Worth Republican, schools and teachers would be prohibited from supporting a student’s social transition. Teachers could lose their job and have their license suspended if they support a student in using different pronouns or names or changing how they dress, or if they provide a student with information about LGBTQ+ resources. Schools could lose state funding if they facilitate this.
Neither bill has been heard by a committee.
Several bills would prevent schools from teaching about sexual orientation or gender identity, while others would require that schools get parental consent before they offer any mental health treatment.
Senate Bill 400, filed by Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, would require schools to get parental consent before performing a psychological or psychiatric examination on a student. After an amendment that clarified that this would not stop school employees from asking about a student’s general well-being, the measure passed the Senate 28-2 and is now before a House committee.
While this bill does not explicitly address LGBTQ youth, Gooch said it raises concerns about where students who don’t feel safe sharing with their parents can access safe resources.
“We obviously trust parents to know what’s best for their kids but occasionally, for whatever reason, young people might not feel safe or might worry they might not be accepted if they talk to their parents about something,” he said. “If young people don’t have reliable, knowledgeable adults to talk to, their next source of information is the internet, which is much less reliable and could put them in a vulnerable position.”
Drag bills
Last session, Texas passed a law prohibiting drag performers from dancing suggestively or wearing certain items in front of children. Just a few weeks after the law went into effect, a federal judge struck it down, saying it was unconstitutional.
Some lawmakers are trying again this year. Reps. Toth and John McQueeney, a Republican from Fort Worth, have authored a bill that would allow drag performers and those who promote their work to be sued for performing in front of minors. This private lawsuit mechanism, first tested in a 2021 abortion ban, has been successful at circumventing legal challenges. The bill is before the State Affairs Committee.
Disclosure: Equality Texas has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
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