Maxine LaQueene, a drag performer billing herself as “the suspiciously large woman of Austin,” traveled to the Capitol Monday to speak against Senate Bill 18, the latest attempt by state Republicans to ban drag where possible. If passed, Senate Bill 18 will strip public funding from city libraries that host drag story hours.
In her two minutes before the Texas House’s State Affairs committee, LaQueene asked if any of the representatives had actually seen a drag show. Chairman Ken King cut her off in mid-sentence seconds later, refusing to let her finish her point that drag story hours promote literacy.
“I think he got upset that I asked them, had they been to a drag show,” LaQueene said afterward. “I could tell he was getting upset by me being instigating, right? But I’m tired of being nice and playing nice politics. These legislators aren’t playing nice.”
“I’m tired of being nice and playing nice politics. These legislators aren’t playing nice.” – Maxine LaQueene, Austin drag performer and activist
According to LGBTQIA+ advocates, Republican lawmakers have filed more anti-queer bills this year than in any previous session. Now that the session is entering its last weeks, many of the bills are dead. A select few are moving closer to passage.
Some, like SB 18, are re-ups of legislation that Republicans passed, or tried to pass, before. A previous version of SB 18, targeting private businesses rather than libraries, was passed in 2023 but struck down in court for violating the First Amendment. Senate Bill 13, by Sen. Angela Paxton also concerns libraries. It repackages a book ban from last session that was struck down in court, requiring school boards, rather than librarians, to decide which books can appear in school libraries. Many banned books deal with queer themes.
The failed “bathroom bill” from the 2017 session is also back. House Bill 239 would force people in public buildings to use the bathroom matching the gender they were identified with at birth. LGBTQIA+ rights lobbyist Mike Hendrix is worried the bill would punish queer-owned businesses. “This bill could put a lot of our historic gay bars out of business simply for being the welcoming and inclusive spaces they were founded to be,” he told us.
There are also bills – SB 406, SB 1696, HB 477, and others – that would stop trans people from updating their gender on birth certificates, driver’s licenses, and other documents. Brad Pritchett of Equality Texas, the statewide LGBTQIA+ advocates, says none of these bills serve a demonstrable need – people have been changing their gender on official documents for many years with no harmful effects. “They’re designed to create headlines,” Pritchett said. “But the reality is, behind every one of these bills, there are real, human stories of people impacted by these bills whose lives would be fundamentally changed for the worse.”
Republicans also filed many bills targeting trans children this session. HB 437 by Rep. Valoree Swanson would force kids placed in juvenile detention to be housed with those who match the gender they were assigned at birth, something researchers say endangers their safety and that, according to Pritchett, would apply to only four children currently in state custody.
House Bill 1106 by Reps. Matt Shaheen and Shelley Luther changes the definition of child abuse in state law to ensure that parents can’t be accused of abusing their children for refusing to affirm a child’s sexual orientation or gender identity. LGBTQIA+ advocates point out that, already, refusing to affirm a child’s sexual or gender identity is not considered child abuse under the law. However, they believe that passage of the bill would give parents a green light to stigmatize kids who need acceptance.
“I have sat with hundreds of young people who carried some version of the same wound – being rejected by the people from whom they needed love and acceptance,” social worker Laura Kanter told legislators on April 22 as they considered HB 1106. “Rejection broke their connection to the people they loved most. And I can tell you with absolute certainty, in over 20 years of this work, I have never once seen parental rejection lead to healing, not for the youth and not for the family. Rejection doesn’t heal. It divides. It scars. In too many cases, it nearly kills. And in some, it does.”
HB 1106 was passed out of committee. The bill’s supporters are working to get it a vote by the full House.
This article appears in May 9 • 2025.
