MELISSA WHITLER | NBCU Fellow
Melissa@DallasVoice.com
The federal government is not the only one taking swings at the LGBTQ community. The ACLU is tracking 35 bills in Texas, and, according to Equality Texas’ 2025 Legislative Bill Tracker, 58 anti-LGBTQ bills have already been introduced in the house and senate as of Jan. 29.
Many of these were pre-filed before the session began and have yet to move to committee. The proposed bills overwhelmingly focus on defining biological sex, prohibiting diversity, equity and inclusion, restricting gender-affirming care, and forcing people to use bathrooms and other separated spaces according to their sex assigned at birth.
One of the main priorities for the Texas legislature this session seems to be strictly defining sex and gender. HB229 and SB84 propose specific legal definitions: “male” and “man” are defined as individuals with a biological reproductive system developed to fertilize ova, while “female” and “woman” are defined as individuals with a biological reproductive system developed to produce ova. This would require government entities to identify individuals strictly as either male or female, with no alternative options.
The legislature is also seeking to establish a person’s gender at their birth. HB980 would require birth certificates in Texas to include a person’s biological sex, specifically defining sex based on the presence or absence of a Y chromosome.
HB477 and SB406 define biological sex as determined by sex organs, chromosomes, or endogenous profile, and would mandate sex be included on birth certificates. The bills specifically restrict changes to a minor’s biological sex on a birth certificate, allowing amendments only for correcting clerical errors, completing originally missing biological sex information or addressing cases of initially ambiguous sex determination.
HB239, HB2062 and SB240 are part of what is being called the Texas Women’s Privacy Act, which would require private spaces in government
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