Houston Democrat joins GOP lawmakers in reviving transgender sports bill
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Rep. Harold Dutton, D-Houston, says his flip-flop on the transgender sports bill is a “consequence” of unrelated HISD legislation that died this week.Wilf Thorne / For The Chronicle
Legislation banning transgender girls from playing on girls’ scholastic sports teams was revived in the Texas House on Friday morning, just days after it appeared blocked.
On Friday morning the House Public Education Committee reconvened and voted 8-5 to advance the bill to the floor of the House for further consideration. That vote came just four days after the same committee had only six votes to move it forward one short of the required seven.
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With 33 days left in session, Texas Senate remains busy
With 33 days left in session, the Texas Senate remains very busy with pending legislation.
A last ditch effort to de-rail a proposed ban on medical gender transition care for minor Texans fell short in the State Senate.
The measure would categorize re-assignment surgery and hormone therapy delivered to children under 18 as criminal child abuse .
Opponents called the restrictions callous, discriminatory, and life-threatening. It s very clear that the proponents of this bill do not like the transgender families and what they are living through, said Houston State Senator John Whitmire. I don t want to drive anymore kids underground and I don t understand this phenomenon and I don t think any of us do either, and the last place we should be passing laws is over stuff we don t understand that profoundly effects people who do understand it because they are living it, said State Senator Nathan Johnson of Dallas.
Heights resident Anna Eastman, a former Houston ISD trustee and former state representative, said she cannot remember a time when there were so many proposed state laws that would negatively impact the transgender community. The so-called âbathroom billâ was in the 2017 Texas Legislature session and did not pass.
This year, however, Equality Texas â a political advocacy organization that advocates for LGBTQ+ rights â has identified more than 10 bills it says target transgender youth and families. In the past few weeks, bills that would ban gender-affirming healthcare for youth and prohibit youth participation in sports that align with a transgender personâs preferred identity have been moving through the House and Senate.