Latest news with #SenateBill1601
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 This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.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
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Drag story time bill heard for first time in Texas House committee
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Members of a Texas House committee debated legislation for the first time that would penalize public libraries for hosting a drag story time event for children. The chamber never took up similar legislation just two years ago, effectively killing it during the previous session, so Monday's hearing could revive an item identified as a priority by some Texas Republicans. The House Committee on State Affairs took no action Monday morning on Senate Bill 18, which would strip public funding for any library that hosts a kids' reading event led by a drag performer. The committee left it pending after hearing from several witnesses who mostly spoke in opposition to the proposal, though one member suggested Monday it's likely to pass the committee and potentially go to the House floor for an official vote. Rep. Lacey Hull, R-Spring Branch, introduced the bill at Monday's committee hearing, the next step in the legislative process after it landed in the House's lap following approval earlier this year in the Texas Senate. The legislation, authored by Republican Sen. Bryan Hughes of Mineola, passed along party lines in the upper chamber and 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. Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, first asked Hull whether this proposed law would require libraries to check the genitals of any speakers who read to children to confirm their sex so that they're not in violation. 'I believe that would be up to the library to decide that,' Hull responded, offering no further explanation. A total of 14 witnesses signed up Monday to speak publicly about the legislation, with only three of those people doing so in support of it. Megan Benton, who works with the conservative advocacy group Texas Values, said the bill is needed to protect children from the confusion of seeing someone dressed in drag and concerns about them being exposed to inappropriate content. 'If libraries allow events inappropriate for children, yet marketed to them, to take place, public libraries stop being a safe place for children,' Benton said. 'When men dress as women and vice versa in front of children, it creates confusion of their ever-growing minds.' The other 11 speakers who said they opposed the measure included Brigitte Bandit, an Austin-based drag performer who sometimes hosts reading events for kids and their families. She came to the Capitol in 2023 to decry the previous version of this legislation, Senate Bill 1601, which passed the Senate but failed to be considered in the House. At Monday's hearing, she wore a dress with the Texas flag and a list of the names of church leaders who she said had been accused of abusing children in the last year. 'Drag story times promote inclusivity, acceptance, kindness, empathy, compassion and literacy, which Texas lacks in,' Bandit said. 'Why are we attacking drag queens? These bills do nothing to protect children. If you truly cared about protecting children, maybe you'd do something about the many pastors who have been exposed for harming children, whose names I wear on the front of my dress.' The House state affairs committee could take up SB 18 again at a later date. If it's approved there, then that would set it up potentially for discussion and an eventual vote on the House floor before the session ends on June 2. 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.
