Both chambers of the Texas Legislature have passed a bill banning students from forming LGBTQ+-focused clubs like GSAs in schools and have sent it to the governor’s desk.

Democratic lawmakers denounced the bill, S.B. 12.

“The real monsters are not kids trying to figure out who they are,” said state Rep. Gene Wu (D). “The monsters are not the teachers who love them and encourage them and support them. They are not the books that provide them with some amount of comfort and information. The real monsters are here.”

“This bill is hate,” said out state Rep. Erin Zwiener (D). “This is one of the most nakedly hateful bills we have had on the floor of this House.”

Republicans, though, claimed that LGBTQ+-supportive clubs are “sexualizing” children.

“We’re not going to allow gay clubs, and we’re not going to allow straight clubs,” said state Rep. Jeff Leach (R). “We shouldn’t be sexualizing our kids in public schools, period. And we shouldn’t have clubs based on sex.”

S.B. 12 bills itself as a “Bill of Parental Rights” and also restricts diversity initiatives in public schools and requires more parental notification when it comes to mental and physical health in schools.

It’s unclear how S.B. 12 will survive legal challenges because the federal Equal Access Act requires federally funded public secondary schools to provide equal access to extracurricular student clubs. While that law was passed in 1984 because Christian activists worried that schools might stop Bible clubs from meeting, it has long been used by GSAs to protect their right to meet on school campuses.

GSAs – Gay-Straight Alliances or Gender-Sexuality Alliances – have been targeted by conservatives ever since they were first formed in the 1980s. 

In the late 1990s, when Salt Lake City tried to shut down a local school’s GSA, and, when they were told they were legally required to give all clubs equal access to school resources, the school board decided to cancel all extracurricular clubs just to stop the GSA, which eventually led to a federal lawsuit. A federal judge ruled that the school district had violated the Equal Access Act and students’ First Amendment rights, which resulted in the district allowing the GSA to meet again.

S.B. 12 is one of five anti-LGBTQ+ bills that the Texas Legislature is considering this session. H.B. 229 defines men and women based on gamete size and requires state documents to only list a person’s sex assigned at birth. It has been passed by both chambers of the Texas Legislature. Trans rights advocates said that this could out people against their will, exposing them to the possibility of discrimination.

S.B. 1257 requires insurance companies to cover “detransition” care, which is gender-affirming care for people who are transitioning back to living as the gender associated with their sex assigned at birth. Detransitioners have been central in recent years to conservatives’ understanding of transgender people and take an outsized role in their minds; studies have shown that few trans people detransition and that, in most cases, detransitioning is temporary.

The Texas Legislature also passed that bill.

H.B. 1106 redefines “abuse” and “neglect” to say that misgendering a child or not using their current name is not a form of child abuse. Democrats denounced the bill, saying that parental rejection is often used to abuse children and that the bill would take away protections from LGBTQ+ youth.

“This bill tells LGBTQIA+ kids across Texas that their pain doesn’t count — that being dismissed, misnamed, or denied support isn’t just tolerated, it’s protected by law,” said Texas Freedom Network Political Director Rocío Fierro-Pérez in a statement. “H.B. 1106 dresses up rejection as a right. But the truth is, when lawmakers carve out space for families to ignore who their kids are, they’re creating a shield for cruelty. Wrapped in the language of ‘parental rights,’ H.B. 1106 invites rejection and erasure into the home and labels it as care. When lawmakers vote to strip away recognition and affirmation from young people who need it most, they are endorsing harm.”

This bill has been passed by the Texas House of Representatives. 

S.B. 1188 requires all medical records to include a person’s sex assigned at birth.

“Health care is a human right, and to be able to have a doctor who respects who you are should be mandatory,” said out state Rep. Jolanda Jones (D). “This bill, as it’s currently written, if it doesn’t allow me to put in my medical records who I am, will negatively affect the doctor-patient relationship.”

This bill was passed by the Texas House of Representatives, but it hasn’t passed the Texas Senate.