2025 Texas State Legislative Bills

House Bill 229 restores the meaning of key words on sex and gender to original dictionary definitions, ensuring consistency in interpretation of laws across jurisdictions as well as restoring the original legislative intent of the people’s representatives.  This is in no way prevents the definition of new terms or new laws to safeguard the rights and interests of newly identified protected classes or demographic categories. 

Without a clear definition for a protected class or a demographic category, the law cannot be applied objectively to protect that class or demographic group, and the law’s application then becomes subjective, and ultimately arbitrary and political.  For these reasons in defense of clarity in the law, fairness and objectivity in the application of the law, and the right of the people to self-government, the Texas Conservative Liberty Forum supports HB 229.

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Senate Vote: 20 Yeas 20, 11 Nays (no crossover)
House Vote: Yeas (incl 2 Ds), 56 Nays, 1 Present, 6 Absent

The Texas Conservative Liberty Forum asserts that absent a clear court adjudication in a specific case to the contrary, children belong first to their parents, and parents with full custodial rights over and primarily responsibility for their children, should never have their parental rights undermined or usurped by any government or public entity; nor may the state, nor any entity connected with it, hide information or deceive parents regarding facts concerning their own children. Separately, TCLF also maintains that the state may never use its power to force, coerce, require, or pressure any individual, let alone children entrusted to its care, to adopt specific political ideologies, religious doctrines, or other forms of ideologies, beyond encouraging basic good citizenship and respect for the laws of this land, and for the foundation of those laws as laid out in the U.S. Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.

Senate Bill 12 restores parental rights to know details of instruction and other actions in regard to their children in elementary and secondary schools, or by state government. SB 12 further prohibits the enforcement, instruction, or requiring oaths or statements of support, of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives in elementary and secondary public schools and government - DEI generally defined as initiatives that divide people based on listed demographic categories with the intent to give unfair or illegal discriminatory preference to one group over another, or advocacy of that ideology.  SB 12 broadly prohibits “promoting differential treatment of or providing special benefits to individuals on the basis of race, color, or ethnicity,” or “developing or implementing policies, procedures, trainings, activities, or programs” that single out race, color, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation. SB 12 also prohibits public school staff from participating in the “social” gender-transitioning of a student.  

In light of the abuse by many school officials of parents' trust in order to, without parents' knowledge or consent, indoctrinate captive minor students in ideologies opposed by most parents, or to engage in highly intrusive and consequential personal matters of minor students, and the efforts to also introduce and even enforce noxious ideologies that seek to overtly divide and pit citizens against each other based on race, sex, ethnicity, and “LGBT” identities, TCLF views this law as a necessary, if imperfect, correction. TCLF supports this law, though it does recommend future revisions to better safeguard First Amendment rights.

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Senate Vote: 20 Yeas, 11 Nays.
House Vote: 77 Yeas (incl 1 D), 40 Nays, 2 Present, not voting, 31 Absent.