We’re still anxiously waiting, of course, to see if Gov. Greg Abbott chooses to veto Senate Bill 3, which will take a sledgehammer to Texas’ THC and hemp industry. He has until June 22, this Sunday, to make any final vetoes on bills passed within the last 10 days of the session — the ball is no longer in his court for anything passed before that. If he chooses not to exercise a veto on a piece of legislation approved by the Texas House and Senate before that June 22 deadline, it will be law, and most will go into effect early this fall.
The LGBTQ+ advocacy group Equality Texas warns that an especially worrisome category of bills targets an already marginalized community. Those bills will likely become law within the coming months; Abbott has already signed some, and others are waiting for the final approval or the codification deadline.
Those bills target LGBTQ+ Texans, especially those who identify as transgender, in several ways, and align with a trend of “more and more extreme” bills being filed each session, Johnathan Gooch, a spokesperson for Equality Texas, told The Dallas Morning News.
“The hope is that it will overwhelm people, and people will just surrender and throw their hands up in the air,” Gooch said.
While some strides were made for LGBTQ+ Texans, more steps were taken in the other direction. One bright spot was the House adoption of state Rep. Venton Jones’ House Bill 1738, which would repeal an outdated ban on same-sex intercourse. While lawmakers have tried to tackle this provision in sessions past, Jones is the first legislator to successfully get a repeal through a chamber.
Still, the Texas House LGBTQ+ Caucus described the legislative session as an “incredibly difficult” one on social media in the session’s final days.
“We’re exhausted and disappointed by the dangerous and cruel legislation we saw in the Texas Lege,” the caucus wrote on social media at the start of June in honor of Pride Month. “We cling to each other, to hope and to the fact that we are here to stay, and we will always fight for our community.”
Bills Set to Go Into Effect
One of the six bills that Equality Texas identifies as “Anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation,” House Bill 1257, was signed by Abbott on May 24 and goes into effect on Sept. 1 of this year.HB 1257 mandates that insurance companies willing to cover gender-affirming patient care must also foot the financial bill if that individual decides to detransition. The bill does not require the patient to have been under that insurance company’s care during their initial gender-affirming care.
Advocates have worried that the bill, which is the first legislation of its type in the United States, will incentivize insurers to cease payments for gender affirming surgeries and therapies.
“We are not forcing any insurance company to offer any coverage that they don't want to,” Rep. Jeff Leach, a Republican from Collin County who authored the bill, said during the session. “Other than if you take someone to the dance, you’ve got to take them home if they want to go home.”
Bills That Were Passed Targeting Trans Texans
Bills targeting LGBTQ+ Texans passed in the session’s final days, and several align with rhetoric being promoted on the federal level by President Donald Trump.At the start of the year, Trump signed an executive order that explicitly defines “male” and “female” through a biological lens, something that House Bill 229 sought to do across state law. The bill was sponsored by a swath of Republican legislators and was sent to Abbott on May 30. Most immediately, the bill will mandate that state records reflect a narrow, biological interpretation of “male” and “female” and will make it difficult for transgender Texans to receive state documents such as passports that reflect the gender they identify as.
The bill also fails to account for intersex Texans, who do not fit into the state-adopted definitions of male and female.
A similar law that awaits Abbott’s approval is Senate Bill 1188, which will require that all electronic health records include a “biological sex at birth” category that is determined by the reproductive system a person is born with. Advocates warned the provision could lead to patients being misgendered or outed.
“Knowing that documentation choices could trigger a government investigation discourages providers from recording accurate individualized information, especially in complex cases involving gender or sex variation,” Rep. Ron Reynolds, a Democrat from Missouri City, testified. “It places fear and legal exposure ahead of best medical practice.”
House Bill 18 also took a swing at transgender Texans, although it started as a bill that would bring better healthcare access to rural communities. A last-minute Senate amendment by Rep. Steve Toth, though, denies mental health services for children seeking gender-affirming care — even if parents consent — if their gender identity is not aligned with their biological sex at birth.
Mental health services had been allowed for minors questioning their gender expression, up to this point.
And a Few More
Perhaps the bill that will be most immediately noticeable, especially for LGBTQ+ Texans who are still enrolled in school, is Senate Bill 12.SB 12, dubbed the “Parental Bill of Rights, " was sent to the governor on June 3. The bill will limit what sex education can be given to students without their parents being notified and ban clubs based on gender expression or sexuality, including Gay-Straight Alliances.
“One of the deadliest things that our youth go through is experiencing the perception, at least, of isolation,” Ash Hall, ACLU Texas’ policy and advocacy strategist for LGBTQIA+ rights, told the Texas Tribune. “GSAs are a powerful way that we can combat that and make sure that our youth are getting support.” The bill also further erodes protections for diversity, equity and inclusion mandates.
House Bill 1106 is the final ordinance on Equality Texas’ list, and the bill would amend the Texas Family Code to ensure a parent who refuses to provide gender-affirming care for their child cannot be found perpetrating abuse or neglect of that child. The bill states that even if that decision results in self-harm or suicidality, the parent would not be liable.
The bill was sent to Abbott on May 30 and will go into effect on Sept. 1 if not vetoed before Sunday.
