Latest news with #OutLaw:AHalf-Century
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Texas House kills drag story time bill again
AUSTIN (KXAN) — For the second consecutive session, legislation targeting drag story time events died in the Texas House of Representatives. Senate Bill 18 missed a key deadline this week to be fully considered on the House floor, effectively ending its chances of becoming state law. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick identified the legislation as a priority this session after a similar measure died in the House in 2023. Before stalling in Texas Senate, 'homosexual conduct' bill made legislative history The bill called for stripping public funding for any library that hosted a children's reading event led by a drag performer. Supporters argued it was needed to protect kids from the confusion of seeing someone dressed in drag and concerns about them being exposed to inappropriate content. However, opponents accused lawmakers of using this to crack down further on the LGBTQ+ community and said it would do nothing to actually protect Texas children. The legislation passed the Texas Senate in February along a party line vote, and a House committee then took up the legislation in May and recommended it for consideration in the full chamber. Even though SB 18 made it onto the intent calendar Tuesday, the House took no action on it in the rush of the final few days of the session. Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, reintroduced the bill this year after the previous iteration of it met a similar fate in the lower chamber two years ago. The legislation advanced further than it did then because a House committee actually debated the bill, which never happened in 2023. KXAN reached out Thursday to Hughes' office for comment about SB 18 dying this session and asked whether he would file it again when lawmakers reconvene in 2027. This story will be updated whenever Hughes shares a response. Reporting about his previous proposal, Senate Bill 1601, was featured in a KXAN investigative project called 'OutLaw: A Half-Century Criminalizing LGBTQ+ Texans.' It looked in-depth at the historic number of bills filed in the 2023 session impacting the state's LGBTQ+ community. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Texas Senate revives library cuts for hosting drag story times
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Lawmakers are bringing back an effort to create consequences for any public library in Texas that hosts a children's reading event led by a drag performer, reviving legislation that failed to pass during the last legislative session. The Senate Committee on State Affairs will hold a hearing Thursday at 9 a.m. to consider Senate Bill 18, introduced by Republican Sen. Bryan Hughes of Mineola. The proposal's wording closely mirrors a similar piece of legislation he brought forward during the 2023 session. PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Texas almost stopped library drag story time. Will it try again? The new bill proposes that a 'municipal library may not receive state or other public funds if the library hosts an event at which a man presenting as a woman or a woman presenting as a man reads a book or a story to a minor for entertainment and the person being dressed as the opposite gender is a primary component of the entertainment.' Additionally, that funding freeze would take effect during the fiscal year that follows whenever the drag story time event happened. Hughes' previous proposal, Senate Bill 1601, sailed through the Texas Senate two years ago, garnering support from all the Republican lawmakers at that time. However, no committee in the House ever took up the bill, which led to the legislation dying in the 88th regular legislative session and not becoming law. During that session, state lawmakers put forward a historic number of bills impacting the LGBTQ+ community, which the KXAN Investigates team examined closely for the Catalyst project entitled 'OutLaw: A Half-Century Criminalizing LGBTQ+ Texans.' The debate at Thursday's committee hearing comes during the 60-day window where lawmakers can begin the session by only considering legislation related to Gov. Greg Abbott's emergency items. Those seven priorities he laid out earlier this month do not include anything related to drag story time events. However, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick named this as one of his Senate priority bills for this session, which explains why the state affairs committee may be taking up the legislation now. Every Republican senator has signed on now as a co-author of SB 18, raising the chances that it will once again gain approval and move quickly through the GOP-controlled chamber. However, just as it did two years ago, the legislation is likely to draw loud opposition among Democratic lawmakers as well as LGBTQ+ advocates in the state. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
