A slew of anti-LGBTQ+ bills are becoming law now that the 89th legislative session has drawn to a close. In just 120 days, the GOP-controlled House and Senate filed over 200 bills targeting the queer community – with the majority aimed at transgender individuals, according to nonprofit Equality Texas’ bill tracker. A select few sit on the governor’s desk, awaiting his signature.
Rip the paper rainbows off the wall and say goodbye to your GSA club. Also known as the Texas DEI ban by public school advocates, Senate Bill 12 was passed by the House, which slashed LGBTQ+ clubs in K-12 public schools, stating that schools are not to sponsor or authorize them.
Authored by Republican Sen. Brandon Creighton, SB 12 largely takes aim at diversity, equity, and inclusion curricula in public schools and also blocks school districts from taking race, gender identity, or sexual orientation into consideration when hiring. The bill also requires parents to give written consent to allow their children to join school clubs.
Come September, a strictly biological definition of male and female will be written into state law. House Bill 229, titled the “Women’s Bill of Rights,” joins 14 other states that have also recently defined “female” and “woman” based on biological markers. Texas’ law calls a woman someone who is “able to get pregnant, give birth, and breastfeed children.”
HB 1106 “would allow parents to send their gay and trans children to conversion therapy, to misgender them at home or taunt them for their identity without any negative ramifications.” – Queer-focused newspaper the Dallas Voice
HB 229 enforces a solely biological interpretation of sex on all forms of government identification in the state, such as driver’s licenses and passports. The bill echoes federal action, as it aligns with the Trump executive order aiming to eradicate “gender ideology extremism and restore biological truth.” LGBTQ+ advocates say it’s an effort to erase the over 120,000 transgender Texans from public life, and may cause undue harm to the thousands of Texans who are intersex.
Senate Bill 1257 is more discreet in its discriminatory effects. The measure, passed by the House and waiting to be signed into law, mandates that insurance providers covering gender-affirming care must also include the cost of “gender transition adverse effects and reversals,” significantly increasing the price for transgender adults. Critics say that the bill could raise the cost of gender-affirming surgery so much that insurance companies may stop covering trans care altogether.
In more trans-focused legislation, the Texas Senate sneaked in a measure at the tail-end of the Legislature, altering the Texas Family Code’s definition of child abuse and neglect.
HB 1106, introduced by Reps. Matt Shaheen and Shelley Luther, states that parents who refuse to affirm a child’s perception of their gender cannot be considered abusive for that refusal. Progressive, queer newspaper the Dallas Voice wrote that the bill “would allow parents to send their gay and trans children to conversion therapy, to misgender them at home or taunt them for their identity without any negative ramifications.”
Anti-queer bills sent to the governor’s desk are likely to get his approval and become effective Sept. 1, barring any lawsuits to block the bills.
This article appears in June 6 • 2025.