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The Texas legislature got off to a very slow start. It took a record amount of time to get committee assignments in the Texas House. Nonetheless, bills, both good and bad, started to move in both chambers as the bill filing deadline drew near. A few pro-family pieces of legislation were filed just before the deadline had come. In general, bills filed at the deadline are a lot more difficult to get passed due to the time constraints of a part-time legislature.
The priority deadline bill for families was filed by Senator Hagenbuch, Senate Bill 2804. This is a very simple bill that will make it less enticing for businesses to host drag shows. Any entity that hosts one of these disgusting events will be officially defined as a “sexually oriented business” and be hit with an extra tax. As of right now, businesses that are hosting drag shows are flying under the radar and not facing any consequences for doing so. Not only are these businesses fully aware of exactly what these performances consist of, many of them have regular schedules of the events, not just pop-ups.
As far as the other pro-family legislation we have been working on, we have seen major victories. The Texas Senate has been quick to act on all of these priority bills ensuring their passage. Senate Bill 10 by Senator King puts the 10 Commandments in every Texas classroom. Senate Bill 11 by Senator Middleton ensures religious freedom is upheld in schools. Both of these bills have already flown through the Senate and are on their way to the Texas House.
Texas Senate Bill 18 by Hughes is a landmark piece of legislation that flew through the Texas Senate. This legislation would cut tax dollars from libraries that hosted drag story hours. Libraries survive on state funding so the cut would be too great for them to risk hosting one of these vile events. This was also the bill that the Cathedral of Hope in Dallas was in protest against. The Cathedral of Hope sponsored a drag show off-site against Senate Bill 18. At this drag show one of the drag queens threatened to kill Trump supporters as well as threatening to fight Texas Governor Greg Abbott. The transgender mafia showed up to the Capital to protest this bill but our Senators held strong and passed this priority legislation.
Texas Family Project has made numerous trips down to the Austin swamp to testify in favor of some of these key pieces of legislation. We believe it is our duty to show up and will continue to do so in order to put pressure on legislators to act. The troubles in the Texas House have been in the public eye now more than ever. This will force them to do the right thing even if they don’t want to.
Nonetheless, we strongly believe that meaningful legislation will get passed. Other priorities like school choice have faced some speed bumps but we believe a good ending to that story will occur. The Governor and Lt. Governor have made their priorities very clear and have proven that they will stop at nothing to accomplish them. Even President Trump has invited them to the White House to discuss what good will be done this session in Texas. We will continue to provide updates as to what is going on in the legislative session. Click HERE to sign up for our vote notices so you can be the first to know when bills are being voted on.