Remember the bathroom bill from the 2017 legislative session? It’s back. If Republicans get their way, this time next year people in state-run spaces like public schools and office buildings who present and identify as men will be required to use women’s restrooms. Those who present and identify as women will be using men’s restrooms. Republican values in action!
The bathroom bills – there are several of them – are one example of the dozens of anti-queer bills filed by Republicans so far this session, many aimed at transgender Texans. “We’re already seeing so much anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation,” Brigitte Bandit, a drag performer, civil rights defender, and member of the city’s LGBTQ Quality of Life Advisory Commission, told us wearily. “It’s like, okay, obviously this is going to be a priority for y’all.”
A priority, yes – trans attacks have become an indispensable tactic for the Republican Party, helping it win elections and distracting from its ongoing impoverishment of the state. Miriam Laeky of Equality Texas, an advocacy group fighting for queer rights, told the LGBTQIA+ commission in December that she and her colleagues have identified 60 anti-queer bills filed so far, half of them targeting trans people. Many, like the bathroom bill, are refilings of bills that were considered and rejected in previous sessions.
“The point of these bills and these refiles is to once again see what sticks,” Laeky said. “But also, it’s a cruelty tactic. They win when they exhaust us.”
One of the major refilings is the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill, House Bill 976 by Rep. Steve Toth, R–The Woodlands, which would forbid teachers from providing instruction regarding sexual orientation or gender identity to students from kindergarten through the eighth grade. Other anti-queer bills centered around schools include book bans and the prohibition of trans athletes in sporting contests.
Republicans also want to broaden laws against providing health care to trans people after the success of last session’s SB 14, which prohibits doctors from treating trans children experiencing gender dysphoria. Several bills would limit or eliminate health plan coverage for gender care. SB 115 by Sen. Bob Hall, R–Edgewood, would allow people treated for gender dysphoria to sue doctors and caregivers for malpractice.
As Laeky said, “Unequivocally, we are going to see, and have seen in prefiled bills, attacks on trans adult care.”
Republicans have also filed several bills forbidding citizens from changing their gender on driver’s licenses, birth certificates, and other official documents. “A document, policy, survey, questionnaire, report, publication, notice, or other written or electronic material produced by a governmental entity or official may only reference two sexes, male and female,” Hall’s SB 84 states.
Laeky said the success of the anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation will depend in part on who House members choose for their next speaker – Rep. David Cook, R-Mansfield, or Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock. Both are hardline conservatives, but Cook has promised, if elected, to marginalize Democrats; Burrows is more of an old-style, establishment Republican who is seeking Democrats’ support.
Laeky emphasized how important it will be for advocates to show up at the Capitol in person this session and testify before committees when anti-LGBTQIA+ bills come up for consideration. “It’s going to require more people power than you’ve ever seen before,” she said. “If you can stop something in committee, that doubles your odds of success. … You just have to convince a lot less people on a committee.”
Brigitte Bandit became a nationally known activist after her testimony at the Capitol last session, appearing in drag to argue against SB 12, a bill to ban drag performances. After SB 12 passed, Bandit joined a court challenge that succeeded in getting SB 12 declared unconstitutional. She said she’ll be at the Capitol again this session to testify on a refiling of the drag ban, HB 1075 by Rep. Nate Schatzline, R-Fort Worth, which allows children to sue drag performers. She said she’ll also testify against the Don’t Say Gay bill, the bathroom bill, and bills attacking trans health care. And she expects to have many people at her side.
“People are paying attention, especially drag performers,” Bandit said. “There’s a whole new generation of drag performers who are ready to go up and make their voices heard. I imagine that there’s probably going to be a lot more people in drag at the Capitol than there was the previous time.
“And yeah, you have to sit there and wait before you testify. But the interesting thing about it is, you’re not alone. You’re with your community, you’re sitting there with all your friends, and just kind of, like, laughing and finding some kind of weird, weird moments of joy in such a fucked-up place.”
This article appears in January 10 • 2025.
