Texas Senate passes bills restricting minor gender modification, 'drag queen story hour'

The Texas Senate passed three bills this week related to banning gender modification surgery for minors, banning children from being exposed to sexualized performances and penalizing public libraries that host “Drag Queen Story Hour” for minors.

Two bills filed by Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, SB 12 and SB 1601, relate to exposing children to sexualized performances and “Drag Queen Story Hour.”

State senator and doctor, Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels, filed SB 14, relate to child gender modification procedures.

All three bills passed their respective committees after lengthy and contentious hearings last month. Hughes’ bills and Campbell’s bill passed the Senate on April 5 and 4, respectively.

SB 12 “restricts certain sexually oriented performances on public property, on the premises of a commercial enterprise, or in the presence of a child,” according to the bill language. It also authorizes a civil penalty and creates a criminal offense of a Class A misdemeanor.

Prior to the final vote, Sen. Hughes said on the Senate floor the bill “does not speak to the actions of individuals or performances, in fact, the subchapter has a second section where they define performance, but it is not covered in that section of the Penal Code.

“So, to be clear, these kind of sexual performances in front of children are not currently covered by a law, and beyond that, we had a good discussion about vagueness about giving people notice. It is necessary for us to make sure the law is clear. And again, lest there be any confusion, this bill is about protecting minors. This bill says that minors should not be exposed to sexual performances.”

The Democrats disagreed and voted against it. The bill passed along party lines by a vote of 20-11.

SB 1601 penalizes municipal libraries that host “Drag Queen Story Hour” to minors by prohibiting them from receiving state or other public funding. The bill passed by a vote of 19 to 10, with two abstaining and Democrats voting against it.

Sen. Nathan Johnson, D-Dallas, explained in a statement given on the Senate floor why he and other Democrats voted against it. He said, “I want to be clear that a vote cast against this bill is not a vote cast for anything. We are not advocating for anything in any library or not in any library. Speaking personally, and probably for many of my colleagues, we’re concerned about the drafting of the bill. It’s overbroad, and we think it may have consequences far beyond addressing the behavior and practices that it’s intended to address.

“So, we are voting against it, and sadly, we tried to amend the bill yesterday with language taken directly from our closely related bill. The amendment was rejected. It would have strengthened the bill. It would have allowed it to achieve the purpose for which it was drafted initially without kind of leading to this expansive government, risky ambiguity that presently, in the bill.”

He said if the amendment had been accepted, the Democrats would have voted for it.

SB 14 prohibits procedures and treatments for gender transitioning or gender reassignment to be performed on minors suffering from gender dysphoria and prohibits public money or public assistance from being used to fund such procedures and treatments. An identical bill, HB 1686, was filed in the House by Rep. Tom Oliverson, R-Houston.

It amends the state Health and Safety Code to prohibit a child health plan, including healthcare providers and Medicaid, from providing coverage for services “intended to transition a child ’s biological sex as determined by the child’s sex organs, chromosomes, and endogenous profiles,” according to the bill language.

It prohibits surgeries from being performed that sterilize children, including castration, vasectomy, hysterectomy, oophorectomy, metoidioplasty, orchiectomy, penectomy, phalloplasty, vaginoplasty and a mastectomy. Providers are also prohibited from prescribing, administering, or dispensing prescription drugs that induce transient or permanent infertility, puberty suppression or blocking prescription drugs to stop or delay normal puberty, supraphysiologic doses of testosterone to females, or supraphysiologic doses of estrogen to males, according to the bill language. The bill also prohibits the removal of any otherwise healthy or non-diseased body part or tissue. The bill includes limited exceptions.

It also prohibits public money from funding directly or indirectly health care providers, medical schools, hospitals, physicians, or any other entities or individuals that provide these treatments, including Medicaid reimbursements. It also instructs the Attorney General’s Office to enforce the law.

It passed by a vote of 19 to 12.

Campbell’s bill was received by the House on April 5, and Hughes’ bill was received on April 6.