My SB 723 E-Mail To Senator Rodney Ellis

TransGriot Note:  My SB 723 E-mail to my Texas State Senator Rodney Ellis.  


Peeps get busy writing yours, especially if you live in Dallas and Senator Royce West's district.


Dear Senator Ellis,
As one of your trans constituents who also happens to be a proud African American Houstonian and Texan I am concerned about Sen. Tommy Williams blatant attack on mine and other trans Texans human rights.

SB 723 if passed has the potential of turning the Littleton v. Prange case into legislative intent for the entire state that will possibly be used to prevent Texas' courts or agencies from issuing corrected identifying documents like driver's licenses or birth certificates to trans citizens of the Lone Star State.

It could also be used to call their marriages into question like Christie Lee Littleton's was in 1999 and Nikki Araguz's is now.

It's already tough enough to be a trans person living in our state.  Passage of this bill would make it worse in terms of opening us up to discrimination triggered by mismatched identification that if Sen. Williams has his way, we'll have no way of changing.

I'm asking that you not only vote NO on this unjust bill, but that you and your Democratic colleagues stand together to kill SB 723.


Thank you,
Monica Roberts

SB 723 Update 2

According to Legislative Queery, which keeps an eye on the Texas legislature and all their shenanigans that affect the TBLG community of Texas,  there were 63 bills on yesterday's consent calendar that included the unjust SB 723.    The Senate got to 9 of them before adjourning for the day and the fun starts at 11 AM CDT.  

Meghan Stabler is standing by in Austin once again prepared to tweet the proceedings from Austin with the TXSB723 hashtag .    In the meantime in order to kill SB 723 we still need y'all calling and e-mailing the Texas Democratic senators and letting them know to stick together

This is why this unjust bill must die.

Here are those addresses and phone numbers.   Let them know the eyes of trans Texans are upon them.:

Mario Gallegos (512) 463-0106
mario.gallegos@senate.state.tx.us

Wendy Davis (512) 463-0110
wendy.davis@senate.state.tx.us

Rodney G. Ellis (512) 463-0113
rodney.ellis@senate.state.tx.us

Kirk Watson (512) 463-0114
kirk.watson@senate.state.tx.us

John Whitmire (512) 463-0115
john.whitmire@senate.state.tx.us

Carlos I. Uresti (512) 463-0119
carlos.uresti@senate.state.tx.us

Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa (512) 463-0120
juan.hinojosa@senate.state.tx.us

Judith Zaffirini (512) 463-0121
judith.zaffirini@senate.state.tx.us

Royce West (512) 463-0123
royce.west@senate.state.tx.us

Leticia R. Van de Putte (512) 463-0126
leticia.vandeputte@senate.state.tx.us

Eduardo A. (Eddie) Lucio, Jr. (512) 463-0127
eddie.lucio@senate.state.tx.us

José R. Rodríguez (512) 463-0129
Jose.rodriguez@senate.state.tx.us

SB 723 Update

The Texas Senate adjourned for the day without taking up the issue of SB 723.    We have been granted another day to send e-mails and call our Democratic state senators.   When you do so, ask them to hang together to oppose SB 723 which has passed out of committee and is on the Senate intent calendar.

And just in case you're wondering, the Texas legislative session doesn't end until May 30.
.

The GOP has a 19-12 edge in the chamber, and Republicans only need one of the Democrats to get the 2/3rds number of senators they need to bring up the bill.    We need them to stand up and say NO as a group.  

Here are the e-mail addresses and phone numbers for the Democratic Texas state Senators

 mario.gallegos@senate.state.tx.us     
wendy.davis@senate.state.tx.us
rodney.ellis@senate.state.tx.us
kirk.watson@senate.state.tx.us
john.whitmire@senate.state.tx.us
carlos.uresti@senate.state.tx.us
juan.hinojosa@senate.state.tx.us
judith.zaffirini@senate.state.tx.us
royce.west@senate.state.tx.us
leticia.vandeputte@senate.state.tx.us
eddie.lucio@senate.state.tx.us
Jose.rodriguez@senate.state.tx.us

 Mario Gallegos (512) 463-0106   
Wendy Davis (512) 463-0110
Rodney G. Ellis (512) 463-0113
Kirk Watson (512) 463-0114
John Whitmire (512) 463-0115
Carlos I. Uresti (512) 463-0119
Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa (512) 463-0120
Judith Zaffirini (512) 463-0121
Royce West (512) 463-0123
Leticia R. Van de Putte (512) 463-0126
Eduardo A. (Eddie) Lucio, Jr. (512) 463-0127
José R. Rodríguez (512) 463-0129 


Keep those calls and e-mails coming.   Let them know that we want them to oppose SB 723.    Allies and supporters, this is one of those times we need your help as well.

SB 723 Showdown

Hope you peeps have been calling and e-mailing Texas Democratic senators reminding them to imitate the ones in Wisconsin and hang together to stop SB 723.    It's a naked attempt to codify the jacked up Littleton decision into Texas law and needs to be stopped.

Have been advised by Meghan Stabler that she will be in the Senate Chambers today tweeting the events surrounding this bill.   She'll be using the hashtag TXSB723

She also had this to say as well.

Texas Senate Bill 723 is placed on the Senate “Intent Schedule” for Monday April 18th.  That means SB 723 ‘may’ come up for a floor vote sometime after 11am. If SB 723 gets a favorable vote it will enshrine Littleton vs Prange (1999) logic - you are what the doctor put on your birth certificate - into Texas State law. This will lay the foundation for the State of Texas to cease to recognize the transitioned status of transgender people. As you can read in my letter to the Texas Democratic Senators, what this will do is set up ‘legislative intent’ and we must avoid this.

Per Cristan Williams, “We only need 12 Democrats to vote against the bill. If we can hold all 12, the bill will die. This isn't a hard thing to do. They will vote against it if they know that a lot of folks want them to. All you need to do is simply speak up.”

12 Democrats stand in the way and they need to know that you want SB 723 to die.  Email them... Just cut and paste their email address into your email:

mario.gallegos@senate.state.tx.us
wendy.davis@senate.state.tx.us
rodney.ellis@senate.state.tx.us
kirk.watson@senate.state.tx.us
john.whitmire@senate.state.tx.us
carlos.uresti@senate.state.tx.us
juan.hinojosa@senate.state.tx.us
judith.zaffirini@senate.state.tx.us
royce.west@senate.state.tx.us
leticia.vandeputte@senate.state.tx.us
eddie.lucio@senate.state.tx.us
Jose.rodriguez@senate.state.tx.us

Tell them that you want them to vote AGAINST Senate Bill 723!

And if all you can do is spread the word and encourage others to speak up... PLEASE... please do it.

If you are on twitter, follow tag TXSB723 for updates should SB 723 come to the floor.

My Letter,

Dear Senator and fellow Democrat,

My name is Meghan Stabler and I am a resident of Texas. I am deeply concerned about SB 723 and it's implication on my personal life, liberty and freedom to marry.

I am a member of the National Democratic LGBT Council, an alumni of President Obama's National LGBT Policy Committee and a Board of Director of Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBT Civil Rights organization. As mentioned I am a resident of Texas, having moved here from New York 9 years ago. I am also a technology executive for one of the top 4 software companies in the world. I am also a post-operative Transsexual woman. This means that I have therapeutically, hormonally, and surgically altered my body to correct a birth defect. You can read more about me here... http://dot429.com/blogs/3449/posts/466

What SB 723 does is to remove only one item, 'a court order as proof of a "sex change"' from the list of documents that can be used to prove my gender to gain a marriage license. While I can acknowledge that there are other documents such as my Drivers License that I can use instead, the amendment could send a clear signal of "legislative intent" to a court should marriages be disputed in the future. This in turn means that other documents, such as my Drivers License, could be removed in the future or denied as evidence.

This is a heinous signal to the transgender population of Texas, it begins a signal fire that we are less than others and not worthy of love.

I humbly respect and ask that you vote against this bill and let it die in the legislature.

Sincerely,

Meghan Stabler

So to all the Texas transpeople and our cis and GLB allies who have responded in our hour of need to help us out, thank you.   We'll find out just how much of a difference you made in a few hours.