Clock runs out on Texas transgender student athletes bill
A bill prohibiting transgender student athletes from participating on a sports team consistent with their gender identity is effectively dead after the clock struck midnight without lawmakers in the Texas House of Representatives taking a vote on the measure.
Tuesday was a critical deadline in the House as the final day for lawmakers to give initial approval to many Senate bills. The transgender student athletes bill was on the day’s calendar and given placement that allowed it to be taken up before numerous other proposals, but as the clock inched toward midnight the bill’s dimming chances of passage became increasingly clear. The Texas Legislature adjourns May 31.
Democrats gathered by the microphone at the front of the House chamber waived blue, pink and white flags representing the transgender community as business wrapped up for the night.
“It’s just an unnecessary, divisive bill that really harms, because even talking about the bill harms transgender youth in our state,” said Rep. Chris Turner of Grand Prairie, chair of the House Democratic Caucus. He wore a small pin of the flag on his suit lapel.
Texas House Democrats spent much of the day running out the clock, a tactic sometimes used to block measures found unfavorable. When the bill came up for a vote soon after 10 p.m., debate was pushed to 11:30 — just 30 minutes before the night’s deadline.
The bill’s author, Lubbock Republican Sen. Charles Perry, has said the policy is needed to provide a “fair and safe environment for women competitive athletes” as they participate in school athletics, a view shared by other supporters of the legislation. The legislation was among Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s priority for lawmakers.
Wednesday morning Patrick said he’d ask Gov. Greg Abbott to call a special session on the bill and others of importance to him.
“Asking (Gov. Abbott) to call a June #SpecialSession today to pass #SB29 to save girl sports, #SB10 to end taxpayer funded lobbying and #SB12 to stop social media censorship,” Patrick tweeted. “The TxHouse killed these conservative bills that the majority of Texans in both parties support.”
Abbott released a statement later in the day, where he said “some are trying to end the game before the time clock has run out.”
“There’s still time remaining for the House and Senate to work together to get important conservative legislation to my desk,” Abbott said. “Members in both chambers need to be spending every minute of every day to accomplish that mission.”
It would bar the University Interscholastic League from allowing “a student to compete in an interscholastic athletic competition sponsored or authorized by the district or school that is designated for the sex opposite to the student’s sex as correctly stated on … the student’s official birth certificate.” UIL, which governs public school sports in Texas, currently determines gender based on student’s birth certificate, according to its rules.
Senate Bill 29 initially failed to pass out of the House Education Committee, a hurdle needed to be brought to the floor for a vote. But Rep. Harold Dutton, a Houston Democrat who chairs the committee, brought it up for a second vote, and the bill passed.
Parents of transgender children in Texas have spoken out against the bill and others targeting transgender children throughout the session.
“SB 29 is just another way of attacking our children, discriminating them, placing a target on their back and giving other kids, other adults the opportunity to marginalize our children further,” said Rachel Gonzales of Dallas, who is the mother of an 11-year-old transgender daughter, during a Monday Zoom call shared by Equality Texas.
Angie Castro, mother of an 18-year-old transgender daughter who is from Mansfield, said her daughter never signed up for sports at school because she feared being singled out.
“That she was going to be outed and she was going to be disrespected and mistreated,” Castro said. “And this is exactly what this SB 29 does.”
This story was originally published May 26, 2021 at 12:01 AM.
