Ruling on School-Sponsored Sex Club Ban
Could Render Captions on Bills Irrelevant
Capitol Inside
May 31, 2025
The Texas House may have set a precedent that could unleash a can of massive worms when GOP leaders overruled a point of order on a Senate bill that cleared the lower chamber for the last time on Saturday night after the sponsor sold it as a ban on sex clubs that are sponsored by public schools around the state. .
The House ratified a conference committee report on Senate Bill 12 on a party-line vote of 77=40 after three hours of tense sparring amid accusations from Democrats who portrayed the measure as the latest in a recent string of cheap shots targeting the LGBTQ and trans comminuting for the sake of scoring political points.
Republican State Rep. Jeff Leach of Allen billed SB 12 as the Texas Parents Bill of Rights in a pitch tonight as the House sponsor of the legislation. Leach characterized SB 12 as a multi-dimensional proposal that would put parents at the head of the table in the decision-making process at public schools. Leach said SB 12 covered a wide range of others subjects as well from recruiting at historically Black universities, underutilized businesses and prohibitions on diversity, equity and inclusion in public education.
But Leach sparked tensions among Democrats when he revealed that the conference committee on SB 12 adopted original Senate language that would force students to obtain their parents' permission to join extracurricular groups at public schools that would be banned from sponsoring sex clubs. Leach said the bill was needed to combat the sexualization of children in public schools and included a ban on the social transitioning of students with active help from teachers and other educators.
The fate of SB 12 was never in significant doubt in the House as a top 12 priority for Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who's controlled the regular session agenda and exerted unprecedented influence in the House. But the measure appeared to be in potential peril for nearly an hour early Saturday evening after Democratic State Rep. Rafael Anchia of Dallas raised a point of order in a bid to kill the bill on the grounds that it failed give sufficient notice of the subject matter.
State Rep. Brooks Landgraf - an Odessa Republican subbing in for Speaker Dustin Burrows - announced that the Anchia parliamentary objection wasn't valid because the caption contained the all-encompassing theme of the legislation.
The caption for SB 12 reads: "Relating to parental rights in public education, including the imposition of certain requirements and prohibitions regarding instruction and diversity, equity, and inclusion duties."
But the debate revolved almost exclusively around the eye-popping revelation on school-sanctioned sex clubs and the new ban on pride clubs and other student groups based on sexual preference including organizations for kids who are straight. The caption gave no hint of a prohibition on LGBTQ groups.
The Landgraf ruling that defused Anchia's point of order has epic Pandora's Box potential as a product of consequences that the Republicans failed to consider before voting in lockstep with Patrick with the nod for the conference deal on SB 12.
The decision could be a recipe for troubles by giving House members a green light to try to immunize themselves from fatal point of orders by packing different subjects under the same vague umbrella heading of parents rights.
more to come ...
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