Day 119: RIP Bills, We Hardly Knew Ye

Today is the 119th day of the 82nd regular session of the Texas Legislature. The House reconvenes at 10 am, the Senate at 11 am.

The deadline for House bills to be voted out of committee is midnight tonight. Any bill that hasn't received a committee vote by then is officially dead, including:

• HB 130 by Carol Alvarado (D - Houston), which would create a statewide anti-bullying hotline.
• HB 170 by Richard Pena Raymond (D - Laredo) which would create a 300 foot anti-bullying "safe zone" around schools.
• HB 172 by Mark Veasey (D - Fort Worth) which would conduct a study on the effectiveness of the Texas Hate Crimes Statute
• HB 208 by Roberto Alonzo (D - Dallas) which would prohibit insurance discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity and expression.
  
• HB 224 by Mark Strama (D - Austin), a comprehensive anti-bullying bill, major elements of HB 224 are included in HB 1942, the compromise anti-bullying "super" bill that passed the House last week.
• HB 604 by Jessica Farrar (D - Houston) and HB 2156 by Garnet Coleman (D - Houston) which would repeal the unconstitutional prohibition against "homosexual conduct."
• HB 665 by Mike Villareal (D - San Antonio) which would prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity and expression.
  
• HB 944 by Dawnna Dukes (D - Austin), which would require School Health Advisory Councils to make recommendations on school district's anti-bullying curriculum (HB 944's Senate Companion SB 736 has made it through the Senate and is now waiting for consideration, so the concept's alive even if the bill isn't).
• HB 1909 by Coleman, the "Juliet and Juliet" bill, currently there is a protection against the charge of "indecency with a child" if the people involved are of the opposite sex, with-in three years of each others age and the conduct is consensual. HB 1909 would equalize that protection to include same-sex couples.
• HB 2227 by Coleman which would add "gender identity and expression" to the Texas' hate crimes statute.
  

Fortunately, with the death of the good comes the death of the bad:

• HB 2638 by Warren Chisum (R - Pampa) which would expand the powers of the Attorney General to interfere in same-sex divorce cases.
• HB 3098 by Lois Kolkhorst (R - Brenham) which would effectively ban opposite-sex marriage for people who have had their legally recognized sex changed.

Committee's may still vote on these bills before midnight tonight, but the next hurdle is on Thursday at midnight, the deadline for House bills to receive the first of two required votes by the whole House. There are literally hundreds of bills in line, waiting for their House vote, so even if any of these bills were voted out today it is unlikely they would make it to the floor on time.

Two bills important to the queer community squeaked out of committee last week:

• HB 1386 by Garnett Coleman which would create a state-wide system for preventing youth suicide
• HB 910 by Senfronia Thompson (D - Houston) which would allow people recognized by the state as unmarried to enter into gestational agreements with surrogate mothers.

Coleman's bill has little chance of making it to the floor before the Thursday deadline, but Thompson's bill may be able to use a "fast-track" method to pass. The House uses several different "calendars" to divide lists of bills up into groups of similar bills. One of these lists is the "Local and Consent Calendar," which is reserved for noncontroversial bills. In order to be placed on Local and Consent a bill can't have received a "no" votes in committee, which HB 910 did not. The House Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence committee therefor decided to send it to Local and Consent. The deadline for Local and Consent bills to receive the first of their two required House floor votes is Friday, May 20th. What's more, Thompson is chairwoman of the committee that creates the Local and Consent Calendar, so she has the power to place HB 910 up at the top of this list.

The downside of Local and Consent is that debate on any bill on the calendar is limited to 10 minutes. If a House member, any member, asks questions about a bill on Local and Consent for more than 10 minutes then the bill is knocked off this fast-track calendar and must be sent back to pass the long way. That means that if any one member of the House decides they don't want HB 910 to pass they can kill it, making Local and Consent a bit of a gamble.

Day 86: Did Davis, S or Didn't Davis, S?

Today is the 86th day of the 82nd regular session of the Texas legislature. The House reconvened at 10 am, the Senate at 11.

On Sunday I wrote that Rep. Sarah Davis (R-Houston) voted against the budget amendment by Rep. Christian which requires state universities that have a "gender and sexuality center" to also have a "family and traditional values center." I spoke today with a staffer in Davis' office who informed me that Davis, in fact, voted for the amendment and that the uncertified results posted on the Legislature's website were incorrect. The staffer said she was unsure why Davis supported the amendment. I've e-mailed Rep. Davis asking if she feels, as Rep. Christian does, that family and traditional values centers are necessary to provide parity for the resources provided by sexuality and gender centers and how she anticipates universities will find funding for this new mandate created by the legislature. I eagerly await her response.


Four important bills were heard in the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee yesterday: HB 1909, which addresses a loophole in the state's "indecency with a child" law that allows straight teenagers to make out with their boyfriends/girlfriends, but not queer ones; HB 2227, which adds "gender identity and expression" the the list of attributes bias against which permits the attachment of "hate crime" enhancements; and HB 604 and HB 2156 which remove Texas' unconstitutional law against "homosexual conduct." For a more detailed account of the hearing please read the article I wrote for the Dallas Voice.


As the session continues to escalate towards it's eventual conclusion the harried schedule is driving staffers and legislative gadflies to acts of abject silliness. In addition to LQ's 'Which member of the Texas House has the most awesome mustache' contest; this site, assigning doppelgangers to Texas legislators, is making the rounds.

Day 84: Hearings set for Hate Crimes, "Homosexual Conduct" bills

Today is the 84th day of the 82nd regular session of the Texas Legislature. The House reconvenes at 1 pm, the Senate at 1:30.

Tomorrow, the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee will hear House Bill 2227 by Rep. Garnet Coleman (D-Houston). The bill would add gender identity and expression to the list of characteristics covered by the state’s hate crime law. Currently, Texas law allows prosecutors to seek tougher penalties for crimes motivated by bias against certain characteristics (or percieved characteristics) of the victim. These characteristics include the race, color, disability, religion, national origin or ancestry, age, gender, and “sexual preference” of the victim, but not the gender identity or expression. Because gender identity and expression is not currently included prosecutors are unable to pursue hate crimes charges if the victim is targeted for being transgender or for behaving in a way that the perpetrator considers gender inappropriate (such as a man being “sissy” or a woman being “butch”).

Coleman has offered this bill in previous sessions, but it never makes it out of committee. Inevitably representatives from far right-wing organizations like the Texas Eagle Forum or the Liberty Institute testify against the bill, claiming that it creates "special rights" for some people that are not enjoyed by others. This opposition seems to miss that, with the exception of "disability," the attributes listed in the current statute are universal. Everybody has a race, everybody has a nation of orgin and everybody has a sexual orientation (even if that orientation is "asexual"). The idea that the hate crimes law create "special rights" is ludicrous. It protects all people from being targeted due to immutable characteristics.

Gender identity and expression belongs in this list. Everyone has a gender identity (even if that identity is non-gendered), and everybody has a gender expression. Additionally, like the other attributes listed GI&E has historically been a reason individuals have been targeted for hate crimes. For the state of Texas to not include it is shameful.

During the same hearing the committee will also hear another one of Coleman’s bills: House Bill 2165, as as well as an identical piece of legislation, House Bill 604 by Rep. Jessica Farrar, D-Houston. The bills would remove the crime of “homosexual conduct” from the Texas Penal Code. The law prohibiting homosexual conduct was declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2003, making it unenforceable. Only the Texas Legislature has the power to remove the law from the books and lawmakers have, thus far, been unwilling to do so. Similar legislation has been filed every session since the Supreme Court ruling, but has always failed to pass.

Two weeks ago, Criminal Jurisprudence member Wayne Christian (R-Shelby, Nacogdoches, San Augustine, Sabine and Jasper Co) (who on Friday passed an amendment to the budget requiring "family and traditional values centers" for state universities that have gender and sexuality centers), told the Austin American-Statesman that having the law on the books “better reflects the views of a lot of citizens.” Christian’s statement is not surprising considering that last year the Republican Party of Texas (of which he is a member) voted to add renewing enforcement of the homosexual conduct law to its platform. Even Farrar, one of the bills’ author, is pessimistic about its chances, but said that it was important to file the legislation to encourage conversation on the topic: “If nobody files the bill, then nobody talks about [the bill]” she told the Statesmen. “That’s the value of filing bills that may be unpopular because over time you can change peoples’ minds and their hearts.”

Day 43: This is the Dead Bill, This is the Cactus Bill

Today is the 43rd day of the 82nd regular session of the Texas Legislature. The House will reconvene at 10 am, the Senate at 11.

The House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence meets today at 10:30, but will not be considering either HB 604 (repeal of the offense of homosexual conduct) or HB 172 (study of the effectiveness of the James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Act). This is how bills die slow deaths - if hearings are delayed (either because the chair does not wish to schedule a hearing or the bills sponsor is not prepared for a hearing at the time or, simply, that all concerned place higher priority on other legislation) they can get so far behind in the process that they can never catch up. That's what happened to last sessions version of the hate crimes study bill, it passed committee, but did so late in the game and never made it to the House floor.

In 77 days all bills will be required to have had their "second reading" on the House floor (this is the first opportunity for the entire House to discuss and vote on a bill), if that hasn't happened they die. Between now and then both of these bills will have to have a public hearing, been voted on by committee, the committee report submitted to calendars (the calendars committees set the schedule for the House floor) and then put on a schedule for second reading. The clock is ticking.

Please call the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee and encourage Chairman Pete Gallego to set these two bills for public hearing at the committee's meeting next week. The number is (512)463-0768.


I'll be sitting on the panel tonight for "Issues & Answers - Bullying" cosponsored by the Harris County Democratic Party and Houston Stonewall Young Democrats, joining me will be Houston Independent School District Trustee Juliet Stipeche and, via skype, State Representative Jessica Farrar. The panel starts at 6:30 pm at the HCDP Headquarters at 1445 North Loop West, Suite 110 in Houston.

Day 11: Friday Call Day

Today is the 11th day of the 82nd regular session of the Texas Legislature. Both the House and Senate will reconvene on Monday at 1:30 pm. The Senate is expected to begin what is certain to be an impassioned debate on voter suppression legislation. The House may finally adopt rules.

Senate committee assignments are also expected which means bills should start being referred to committee. Of particular interest is SB 245 by Sen. Wendy Davis (D-Fort Worth) which proposes comprehensive and inclusive anti-bullying measures. We'll be watching that carefully and will let you know as soon as it's referred to committee.

Today is Friday, which means that most of the representatives and senators are back in their district offices in your cities and neighborhoods. Fridays are great days to call your local office and ask for support from the people elected to represent you. This is particularly important if you know that your elected officials are not supportive of the queer community.

To find the phone number for your representative and senator's district offices go HERE. Put in your address and press enter, then scroll down the page until you see the listing for state senator and state representative and find the phone numbers for their district office. Now put those numbers in your phone's address book so you don't have to keep looking them up!

For a suggested script for your phone call read Legislative Queery's post from Day 4.
You can call about any topic that's important to you. For lists of bills that have been filed this session check out the tabs at the top of this page.

I suggest calling your representative about HB 604 by Farrar, which would repeal the state's unconstitutional ban on "Homosexual Conduct". Ask them to "co-author HB 604". Equality Texas has an excellent fact sheet on the bill HERE.

Sen. Davis has been unabashed in her support for anti-bullying legislation. I want to thank her by reiterating my suggestion from last week to call your senator and ask them to "co-author SB 245". The Equality Texas fact sheet is HERE.

HB 604: Repeal the State Sodomy Law

HB 604 by Jessica Farrar (D-Houston) would remove the crime of "homosexual conduct" from Texas' Penal Code as well as several rules based on that law that require Texas school children to be taught that "Homosexuality is not a valid lifestyle choice".

You may recall that in 2004 the Supreme Court of the United States declared the Texas sodomy law (which is Penal Code 21.06) unconstitutional in Lawrence v. Texas. What many people do not realize is that the law, although now unenforceable, is still on the books. While it might seem a simple matter of housekeeping to remove it thus far most state lawmakers have seemed too afraid of being accused of being "pro-sodomy" to do anything about it.

Last session Rep. Garnet Coleman (D-Houston) filed this exact bill (word for word) (HB 3028). It was sent to the Criminal Jurisprudence Committee which referred it to a sub committee. When a committee has a large number of bills to consider the chair may, at their discretion, appoint sub committees - which usually look at groups of bills on similar topics and then make recommendations to the whole committee.

The Chair of the Criminal Jurisprudence committee last session was Pete Gallego who has a solid record of voting for the best interest of the LGBT community. Gallego referred HB 3028 to a subcommittee - who then did nothing with it.

It's tempting to blame the subcommittee (which did include virulent homophobes Wayne Christian and Debbie Riddle) and it's tempting to blame Gallego for referring it to subcommittee, but the real culprit is the calendar.

The legislature meets for 140 days every other year. In that 140 days all of the business of the state must be completed. Anything left undone on day 141 must wait another two years. In addition there are many deadlines along the way. One deadline is the 60th day of the session: the last day to file new bills - which in 2009 fell on March 14. HB 3028 was filed just four days before the deadline, on March 10. After a bill is filed it must be read on the House floor and referred to committee, because of the shear volume of bills this takes a few days. HB 3028 was read and referred on March 17.

But it's not like HB 3028 was the only bill the Criminal Jurisprudence committee had to consider. By this point in the session there were hundreds of bills waiting in the committee for the chair to refer to subcommittee. Chairman Gallego referred HB 3028 on March 30, which is actually pretty fast in legislative terms. By this time another major deadline was looming, the 120th day of the session on May 14, which was the last day for bills to be considered on the House floor.

Between the subcommittee and the House floor were several additional steps the bill would have to surmount to meet the May 14th deadline: hearing in subcommittee - report by subcommittee to committee - hearing in committee - vote in committee - committee report filed with "calendar" committee (which decides the order bills will be considered on the floor) - placement on the House schedule and then waiting in line behind every other bill for consideration on the floor of the House. With only 6 weeks to go before the deadline there was not much point in the subcommittee pursuing the bill, especially not with all the work on other bills that lay before them.

Which is why I'm happy to see that Farrar has taken over this bill and decided to file it today, on the 2nd day of the session. Getting a bill towards the front of the line is a huge step in getting it passed.

It's still by no means a sure thing, there are at least 37 incumbent members of the House who have historically voted against anything that is good for the queer community, and with 34 first-time representatives in the 82nd legislature it's hard to predict how bills will do. There is hope, however, that this year this tiny little bit of housekeeping may finally be accomplished.