Texas lawmakers on Saturday approved legislation that would ban schools from recognizing or sponsoring student-led clubs based on sexual orientation or gender identity, targeting LGBTQ student groups at the beginning of Pride Month.
In an emotional debate on the House floor, lawmakers approved a conference committee report on parental rights legislation that would require students to obtain parental permission to join such clubs.
“Our bill does put a ban in that would prevent a, let’s say a 4th grader or an 8th grader from joining a club that is sexual in nature,” Rep. Jeff Leach (R) told colleagues. “We’re not going to allow gay clubs and we’re not going to allow straight clubs. We shouldn’t be sexualizing our kids in public school, period. And we shouldn’t have clubs based on sex.”
The measure also requires schools to adopt parental engagement policies, and bans the practice of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at K-12 schools.
Democrats and civil rights groups decried the measure, which they said would set back efforts to welcome and accept gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students. Clubs like gay-straight alliances and Pride groups, they said, are meant to give students who are more likely to be bullied a safe space.
“You are allowing clubs that align with your moral worldview and banning ones that do not. That is making a political choice, and it is enforcing that political choice on our young people,” said Rep. Erin Zwiener (D). “Future generations are watching us here.”
House Minority Leader Gene Wu (D) accused Republicans of being “stuck in the last millennium.”
“The real monsters are not kids trying to figure out who they are. The monsters are not the teachers who love them and encourage them and support them. They are not the books that provide them with some amount of comfort and information. The real monsters, the real monsters are in here,” Wu said.
The measure won House approval on a party-line vote. A spokesman for Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has said he will sign it once it reaches his desk.
The measure is just one of hundreds introduced in legislatures across the country this year that would place new limits on the rights of LGBTQ people, including 89 in Texas alone. Many of those bills are nearing final passage as the legislature races to wrap up their work in Austin.