The legislative session ends on Monday, and the bills to save women’s sports and penalize doctors who perform cross-sex medical procedures on children did not pass into law.
Some Texas lawmakers worked overtime to try to prevent the transgender rights activists from influencing sports and medicine days before the legislative session ends. But that session ends on Monday, and the bills to save women's sports and penalize doctors who perform cross-sex medical procedures on children did not pass.
This failure has been deemed to be a win by LGBTQ activists, and Lt. Governor Dan Brown has asked for a special legislative session in order to get these bills passed.
Asking @GregAbbott_TX to call a June #SpecialSession today to pass #SB29 to save girls sports, #SB10 to end taxpayer funded lobbying and #SB12 to stop social media censorship. The TxHouse killed these conservative bills that majority of Texans in both parties support. #txlege
— Dan Patrick (@DanPatrick)
The bills officially died on Tuesday, when the cutoff for approving Senate bills arrived at midnight. Trans advocates in the legislature cheered. Causing particular glee among Texas Democrats was the failure of the bill that would have saved women's sports, preventing biological males from competing on girls' athletic teams.
"We woke up this morning determined to kill that bill," Democrat Rep. Julie Johnson said of the failure. "I'm really really pleased and so grateful that we were able to deliver this win for the children of Texas and their rights to live full and happy lives, free from discrimination."
The recent history of the legislation, is that the Texas Senate re-upped and passed Senate Bill 1311, a bill that would penalize physicians for performing any surgery that "sterilizes" children or who prescribes puberty blockers or other hormone therapies for children under 18-years-old. Cross-sex hormones or puberty blockers could have life-altering results on children but are increasing in popularity among the left.
According to the bill, offending physicians would have their medical license revoked and could not be covered under liability insurance. The Senate passed the bill in an 18-1 vote. It heads to the Texas House for consideration.
In mid-April, the Texas Senate passed Senate Bill 29. The bill would require the University Interscholastic League enforce guidelines that allow legislation aimed at keeping athletics fair for women and girls, by only allowing females to compete with females. It didn't advance in the House at the time but in early May, a Democrat, Rep. Harold Dutton, brought the bill up again supposedly out of spite towards his own party, which spiked one of his bills.
Local media sources like the Texas Tribune reported on these bills with an obvious pro-LGBT bias. A May 17 article includes a disclaimer with hotline numbers readers can phone for LGBT support.
National organizations are similar. The Human Rights Campaign reported about Senate Bill 29 last month and wrote this screed:
"Legislators across the country have failed to provide examples of issues in their states to attempt to justify these attacks on transgender youth, laying bare the reality that they are fueled by discrimination and not supported by fact. Collegiate and professional sports organizations have had trans-inclusive policies for years without incident—in Texas or anywhere else."
This is simply false. There are multiple, documented cases of females losing to biological males—against their wishes. High school runner CeCe Telfer, a biological male who races as a female, "won three titles in the Northeast-10 Championships for women's track, and received the Most Outstanding Track Athlete award."
Softball player Patrick Cordova-Goff "took one of 15 spots on his California high school women's varsity softball team." A lawsuit is percolating in federal court due to two transgender athletes besting biological girls in Connecticut's state track and field championships. Andraya Yearwood and Terry Miller beat their highly accomplished female peers to take first and second place in multiple events--to the chagrin of other female runners.
The issue is in fact, so common, 32 states have introduced legislation to protect women's sports in 2021 alone. Six states have new laws about this. Texas' legislative session concludes May 31. Because neither of these bills have advanced, women's sports, and vulnerable children, are at risk in Texas. Only Governor Greg Abbott has the authority to enact a special session and determine its agenda.
Libby’s Desk
Commentary and must-reads from Libby’s desk, straight to your inbox.
TPM Newsletter
The Post Millennial’s top stories, delivered to your inbox.
