Currently, 30+ anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been lined up in the Texas legislature, causing a panic in queer Texans. These bills propose limitations on what language around sexuality and gender can be used in school, who can play on school’s sports teams, access to transgender healthcare, and more. 

Due to misunderstandings stemming from a lack of news coverage, there has been some anxiety from news around these proposed Texas bills. However, most of these bills have been either dropped in the house or senate, or will  not make it to the next legislative session. The two bills currently being considered will echo the recently passed ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law in Florida are up for voting in the next legislative session. These two bills (HB 631 and HB 1155 are centered around restricting how schools discuss sexuality and gender in grades K-8. Grapevine-Colleyville ISD in north Texas pulled books from school libraries that contain contents of sexuality, gender, and race. They also prohibit teachers and educators talking about sexuality and gender in elementary classrooms. 

While this set of bills is not explicitly anti-LGTBQ, it undermines progress and with such restrictions, there will not be any talk of the LGBTQ+ community. The consideration of gender exploration and sexuality (covering basic sexual education) will be heavily regulated in younger educational environments.

Still, there is an air of unknowing and stress around these bills. People aren’t sure what’s a bill and what’s hearsay. 

James Parker, AP English and Art History teacher who also sponsors Carnegie’s PRISM Gender-Sexuality Alliance, hasn’t seen a major impact yet on educator censorship regarding gender and sexuality in Houston specifically.

“Well, I don’t even know what bills are being proposed. I haven’t heard anything specifically, but I certainly haven’t heard anything from our administration or our school or our school district” Parker said. “I haven’t heard about any changes, even though there’s lots of talk in the media about things I haven’t heard anything specific,” 

Parker isn’t the only one who isn’t seeing major changes yet. When asked in a poll whether they were aware of the bills before the poll on a scale of 1-5 (1 being not at all and 5 being very aware), 63.2% of respondents answered either 1, 2, or 3.

“Even with the bill that passed in Florida” Again, Parker explains. “I think there’s still some misinformation. Like, is it actually being enforced? Was it just a political ploy on the part of the governor to get votes? Are they actually going to enforce the bills?”

The bills that people heard about the most were the bills that did not end up getting passed, and the bills that people heard the least about are the bills that will likely be passed. For example, bills talking about trans youth in sports and trans healthcare, which poll-takers knew the most about, were not passed. However, a bill talking about restricting enforcement of certain executive orders is being reviewed by the Senate State Affairs Committee (SB 1206). 

In Houston specifically, HISD has released a nondiscrimination policy in 2011 that continuously gets updated and still stands to this day.

“I think there are probably some districts [doing things differently] because everything is independent school districts, different districts have different policies…I was happy when HISD finally passed [a] nondiscrimination policy for its employees, and it was nice to see, finally, okay, we’re also going to protect the employees of the district. But I’m sure there are numerous districts in the state of Texas that don’t have nondiscrimination policies in place. So that’s always probably the first thing you want to have that on the books, but that’s going to always go by community, community, district by district sort of thing,” Parker said.

Below are explanations on the aforementioned bills.  Information about any other bills that will be drafted or considered in the state legislature can be found on this Texas Legislature website.

SB 373 was introduced with House Bill 4042, and it requires students in public schools who play sports to play on the team of their gender assigned at birth. It was referred to State Affairs but not passed. 

SB 1646 determines that any parent attempting to get their child gender affirming medical care is abusing said child. Dropped dead. 

SB 1311 prohibits gender affirming healthcare in children, including reassignment surgery. Referred to Public Health but was dropped. 

SB 1206 is a Senate bill that limits the enforcement of certain federal executive orders by state governments. While this bill may seem very vague in regards to how it affects LGBTQ+ Texans, it implies that any executive order passed by the federal government can be ignored by the state, including executive orders regarding LGBTQ rights. This bill is currently in the process of being reviewed by the Senate State Affairs Committee, but it was not yet passed.

SB 738 is a Senate bill that allows officiants of weddings to refuse service to any person who doesn’t follow their personal beliefs. Although it does not outright say it, a bill with a similar intent included LGBTQ+ people in their definition of people who can be refused service based on others’ personal beliefs. This bill is currently in the process of being reviewed by the Senate State Affairs Committee, but it was not yet passed.

SB 1148 is a Senate bill that prohibits minors from changing their gender marker on their birth certificates. This bill is currently in the process of being reviewed by the Senate State Affairs Committee, but it was not yet passed.

SB 210 is a Senate bill that allows trans people to change their gender markers on their official documents. It is specified as “certain persons” being allowed to change their gender markers. This bill is currently in the process of being reviewed by the Senate State Affairs Committee, but it was not yet passed.

SB 97 is a Senate bill that discusses the dangers of conversion therapy and how it should be regulated. This bill is currently in the process of being reviewed by the Senate Health & Human Services Committee, but it was not yet passed.

SB 129 is a Senate bill that discusses LGBTQ+ rights in regards to official Texas Law (The Texas Constitution). This bill is currently in the process of being reviewed by the Senate State Affairs Committee, but it was not yet passed.

All in all, these bills won’t have a direct effect on high schoolers, but the next generations will be out of touch with topics of sexuality and gender. However, the most detrimental bills have been dropped and won’t become laws.