Capitol Inside
October 14, 2021

Texas House Republicans delivered another blow in a culture war on Thursday night when they gave a tentative nod to a measure that would prevent transgender girls from participating in high school sports.

The House backed the legislation on a 76-54 vote that capped off an emotion-charged debate that spanned more than 10 hours. Democrats accounted for all of the opposition while State Rep. Ryan Guillen of Rio Grande City was the only minority party member to vote against the plan in House Bill 25.

Democrats decried HB 25 as a measure that was designed to discriminate against children who already are prime targets for bullying and hatred - contending that the rate of suicide among transgender youth would soar as a result of the publicity from the legislation alone.

House Democrats portrayed HB 25 as a reincarnation of the bathroom bill that Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and Senate Republicans sought without success to pressure the House into passing in regular and special session in 2017. Patrick and his Senate allies argued that the measure was necessary to protect the safety of women in public restrooms. But House GOP leaders knew the issue had been fabricated and killed the bathroom bill without forcing members to vote on it.

The last two Republican speakers had blocked the attacks on transgenders that Patrick initiated with the bathroom bill. But current GOP Speaker Dade Phelan - after allowing the transgender sports prohibition to die in a separate special session last month - cleared the way for its passage on Thursday.

With GOP State Rep. Valoree Swanson of Spring leading the charge, House Republican fell into line obligatorily without apologies this time around amid the assertion that they were protecting the safety of girls by allowing boys who are bigger and stronger to compete against them.

Swanson and other Republicans acknowledged that they had no actual evidence of the problem that HB 25 seeks to alleviate. The Republicans had no proof of the dangers that they envisioned with the bathroom bill. Patrick and Senate Republicans effectively admitted that the bathroom measure hadn't been needed when they failed to resurrect it in subsequent sessions in 2019 and 2021.

The fight on the transgender athlete ban got under way with intrigue when Democratic State Rep. Mary Gonzales of Clint raised the specter of ghost voting by Republicans who weren't on the floor when they were registered as no votes an amendment that she proposed in a move that would have gutted the bill.

The Republicans had killed the Gonzales amendment on a 68-46 vote. But there were 130 representatives on the floor minutes later for the next amendment vote. The Republicans torpedoed almost 20 amendments that Democrats served up.

more to come ...