Texas law still technically bans gay sex, and Democrats in the state have filed two bills to change that in the upcoming legislative session, the Hill reports.
The law has not been enforceable since the Supreme Court’s landmark 2003 decision in Lawrence v. Texas, but it remains on the books as a misdemeanor with a $500 fine and defines gay sex as “deviate sexual intercourse with another individual of the same sex.”
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Democrats have long fought to repeal the ban, but the Republican-dominated legislature did not choose to bring any of their proposals to a vote until last session (though it did not make it to a floor vote before the session ended).
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State Rep. Joe Moody (D) and state Sen. José Menéndez (D) filed the bills on the first day they were allowed to do so for the upcoming legislative session. In addition to repealing the ban, the bills call for Texas law to no longer require education materials for minors to state that “homosexuality is not an acceptable lifestyle.” This sentiment is also echoed in the Texas GOP’s official platform, which states that “homosexuality is an abnormal lifestyle choice” and also states opposition to “all efforts to validate transgender identity.”
Among the bills filed were also several targeting the LGBTQ+ community, including a trans bathroom ban and one seeking to end all legal recognition of trans identities.
Texas has been at the center of the GOP’s crusade against LGBTQ+ rights – and especially trans rights – over the past several years. Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) have been particularly vicious in their efforts to rip rights away from trans kids and brand gender-affirming parents as abusers.
In April, Paxton announced he was suing the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) over new Title IX guidelines that make discrimination against LGBTQ+ students in education illegal, vying for the right to discriminate against vulnerable kids.
In 2022, Paxton called LGBTQ+ people “sexual propagandists and predators” while denouncing a school’s Pride Week.
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