TX Women Leaders Rally in Austin

The clock is ticking toward the end of the Special Oppression Session on August 18, and while we have SB 3 and the other hate bills hung up in the House, we're still keeping the pressure up on the GOP majority.

I'll be in Houston raising hell at City Council later today, but my heart will be with the group of Texas women leaders countering the big whopper that Lying Lois Kolkhorst told last Thursday at the faux faith based hate rally and make it clear that Texas women oppose this unjust bill.

***

Texas women will stand together against discrimination—and together, we'll urge lawmakers to reject the dangerous proposed bathroom bills in the final two weeks of special session.

Some lawmakers claim this is a woman’s privacy issue. It is not. They claim this is a safety issue. It is not. Law enforcement officials from across the United States and right here in Texas have made clear that this is a solution in search of a problem. The leading sexual assault expert in our state says this bill will not protect women from sexual assault. Now, women are taking the lead. This is not about women’s safety or privacy.

We are mothers. We are business owners and business executives. We are teachers. We are active in our communities, in local government and in our schools. We are faith leaders and actively involved in our respected houses of worship. We are conservatives, liberals and independents. We represent the rich diversity of our state and we reject attempts to divide us and to score political points through fear and misinformation.

RSVP to let us know you can be there—and please spread the word to women in your network who you know oppose discrimination and agree Texas should be open for business to everyone.

If time permits, please plan to visit legislators while you are at the Capitol to express your opposition to the bathroom bill.
***

The Texas Women Leaders rally will take place starting at 11 AM on the south steps of the Texas Capitol, with the rain date location being the Capitol Extension Auditorium in E1.004.

Hope you ATX peeps will give them some love.

SB 3 Up For A Texas Senate Debate and Vote Today

The unjust SB 3 bill is being debated in the Texas Senate right now, and if they thought they would be able to blitz this vote through, they underestimated the fight in the Texas Senate Democrats with the exception of Sen. Eddie Lucio, Jr.

As this debate is raging on the floor of the Senate, there was a rally held on the south steps of the Capitol today in which police chiefs from across Texas oppose SB 3 because it is in their words unenforceable and harmful to our state's economy.

The debate is being livestreamed on the Texas Tribune website if you wish to watch the debate

Moni's Commentary On The SB 3 Hearing

As you TransGriot readers know I was in San Diego handling some business and taking a mental health break at Comic Con while the Senate State Affairs Committee hearings were happening in Austin on Friday.

With only 48 hours notice, we had even more people show up and comment than we did back in March in front of this same Republican dominated committee.

And I was sitting in my hotel room in the early AM Pacific time watching them online until I had to bounce for my SDCC business and a podcast interview.

By a 12 to 1 margin, the NO's and people standing up to oppose this unjust bill outnumbered the oppressors.  (738 against compared to only 59 people for the unjust bill).   There was also a rally help in which transgender Texans and our allies spoke out against this bill.

After ten hours of testimony on Friday. the transphobic bill authored by Lois 'I'm a transphobe' Kolkhorst was voted out of committee by the same 8-1 deja vu vote.  That reprehensible DINO Sen. Eddie Lucio, Jr  (DINO-Brownsville) once again joined the all white GOP oppressors, while Sen.Judith Zaffirini (D-Laredo), as she did back in March, voted NO.  

SB 91, Lois Kolkhorst's other anti-trans legislative abomination, was left 'pending' in committee.

Meanwhile SB 3 heads to the Senate floor for a possible vote later today.

I wasn't surprised at the Senate State Affairs Committee outcome.  It was always going to be an uphill battle in Potty Dan's overwhelmingly white male Senate legislative playground.   The Senate State Affairs committee is also overwhelmingly white and male like the Texas Senate is.

The GOP Texas Senate leadership is also blitzkrieging all the oppression legislation through, and there's not much the Democratic minority can do besides offer a lot of amendments to bills or filibuster them.

Our best shot for stopping it and saving Texas from North Carolina's fate is the Texas House, which is far more diverse and has more moderate business oriented Republicans instead of the teabaggers that pollute the Texas Senate.

We have already lost according to the testimony from convention groups in Houston, Dallas, Austin, El Paso, and San Antonio $66 million worth of convention business.  

Mayor Sylvester Turner in his letter expressing opposition to SB 3 stated that Houston has already lost a convention worth $11 million dollars, and stands to lose my mom's sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha) convention next year worth $15 million if SB 3 becomes law.

Texas House Speaker  Joe Straus (R-San Antonio) has made it clear he's not in favor of the bill. His city also stands to lose an estimated $40 million in convention business should SB 3 pass.

The House is not playing the Senate's speedball game.   They are only working on the must pass sunset legislation, and taking their sweet time doing so as the clock mercifully and inexorably ticks down to the end of this 30 day Special Oppression Session.

And there isn't a damned thing Gov. Abbott or Potty Dan can do about it.

So stay tuned, we only lost a legislative battle.  The war to stop SB 3 from passing ain't over yet.    

And win this fight we must for our trans kids.

The Texas Special Oppression Session Starts Today

Well peeps, this is the day we've been dreading across the Lone Star State in terms of the start of the Special Oppression Session called by Governor Greg Abbott (R) after being bullied into it by Lt Governor Dan Patrick (R) and the Texas Oppression Freedom Caucus.

The Special Oppression Session is slated to last 30 days, and the initial call on June 9 is to have some must pass sunset legislation pass that reauthorizes several Texas governmental organizations, including the Texas Medical Board that licenses doctors across the Lone Star State.

As to what to expect in this special session, the legislative process is the same except for two key differences.  There's less time than in a 140 day regular session, and if a bill is filled that doesn't fit the governor's call, it is out of bound and can't be considered.

Bills could be filed 30 days before the special session started.

Just as in the regular sessions, bills have to be sent to a House committee, passed out of that committee, go to the Calendars Committee to be scheduled to the floor for a vote, then if it passes the process is repeated in the Senate. for it to be placed on the Senate Intent Calendar for a floor vote.

Once that sunset legislation passes. the governor added an additional 19 items that he wanted to see hit his desk including the anti-trans bills we killed in the regular session, but they can only be heard once the sunset bill passes. .  

HB 46 and HB 50 are the anti-trans bills filed that we'll be focusing our trans community attention on.along with SB 23, so keep lighting those GOP trans oppressors office phones up and urge your Texas state senator or House rep to oppose these unjust bills.

The resistance to this oppression starts on the south steps of the Pink Dome with an 11:00 AM rally calling out the unjust bills that the Texas GOP wishes to pass.

We have 30 days to kill these bills.   Let's get busy doing so

 

TX Anti-Trans Hate Bills 46 and 50 Filed

Trans Texans and our allies now know what unjust bill numbers we have to fight when the Texas GOP Special Oppression Session cranks up July 18.

Rep. Ron Simmons (R-Carrollton) filed  on yesterday two unjust trans oppressive bills aimed at Texas trans children and Texas trans adults, HB 46 and HB 50

HB 46 is aimed at Texas trans adults, and would prohibit all political subdivisions, including municipalities, school districts, state colleges and universities from adopting and enforcing any ordinances or policies that protect transgender people in bathrooms or changing facilities.

HB 50 is aimed at Texas trans kids.  It is similar to the odious HB 46, but focuses on school districts by prohibiting them from adopting and enforcing policies that protect transgender students  in batrooms or changing facilities.

Simmons was the author of the failed HB 2899 that Gov Greg Abbott (R) liked but died in the House State Affairs committee during the regular session.

Hundreds of trans Texans (including this blogger) and our allies showed up in Austin to express our disgust and outrage over this attempt to criminalize the lives of transgender Texans.

Guess Ron and the Texas Republican Party didn't learn their lesson from the recently concluded regular session that the vast majority of Texans oppose their unjust right wing crap.

We'll also be watching SB 23, a bill proposed and filed yesterday by Sen. Bob Hall (R-Edgewood) that would prohibit cities, counties and other political subdivisions from passing non discriminations laws  on a basis not written in state law, and wipe out the already existing non discrimination laws in Austin, Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, Plano and San Antonio.

What is it about you conservafools and your obsession with oppressing people you don't like?

Looks like we'll be busy fighting oppression for the 30 days of this upcoming Special Oppression session, so you know what to do.

Light those phones up in their offices and don't relent until all those unjust bills are dead.

Dallas Cowboys Chances Of Hosting 2018 NFL Draft In Possible Jeopardy If TX Trans Hate Bill Passes

If the Texas GOP transphobes are successful during the upcoming Special Oppression Session in passing HB 2899, their Trans Hate Bill, one of the first casualties of that legislation may be the Dallas Cowboys chances of hosting the 2018 NFL Draft.

After 50 years of hosting the NFL Draft in New York, the NFL decided to start moving it around again to different cities.  Chicago hosted it in 2015 and 2016, and it was Philadelphia's turn to do so back in April.

There were 22 teams and cities including Canton, OH interested in hosting the 2018 NFL Draft, which is scheduled to happen April 26-28.

Sixteen of them sent representatives to observe the draft happenings in Philadelphia and get a fell for how the event is run, with several subsequently putting in bids with the league for the event/

But Dallas is considered the frontrunner when the NFL makes its decision in August.

The Cowboys made their pitch to the NFL back in April to host the draft at two sites.  AT&T Stadium for the first two days and at The Star, their new $1.5 billion corporate headquarters and practice facility currently being built in suburban Frisco, TX for the last day of it.  

But the Cowboys are now casting a nervous eye down I-35 south toward Austin as the July 18 Special Oppression Session date gets closer.  


The NFL made it clear in comments it made during the regular session a few months ago that if Texas passed the anti-trans SB 6, it would impact the state's two NFL franchises in the Cowboys and the Houston Texans ability to host future Super Bowls or other league events.

That prompted a retaliatory salvo aimed at the NFL from a pissed off Gov. Abbott (R), so as of now the NFL and the Cowboys have been silent about their thoughts as the calendar draws closer to the start date of the special session.

But we'll see in a few weeks if the Texas Republican Party is willing and stupid enough to piss off the NFL and Jerry Jones to pass HB 2899 and if they go there, what the NFL (and Jerry Jones) will do in response.

I would rather have the opportunity to check out some of the NFL Draft related activities during next year's BTAC, but whether that happens depends on what the Texas GOP majority does..

2017 Texas Lege Liberal To Conservative Analysis

Since we're less than 30 days from the start of our Texas Lege Special Oppression Session, time to start doing our homework and preparation for when we finally get to the Pink Dome and see the folks who are really on our side and who are a waste of our valuable time to talk to.

The Texas Tribune recently compiled a left to right political analysis of the Texas House and Texas Senate to find who are our most liberal and conservative legislators in both parties.

It's an analysis that will come in quite handy if you're planning to lobby under the Pink Dome this summer during the upcoming Special Oppression Session that starts July18.

It'll help you peeps who haven't been paying close attention to who these peeps are or where their politics fall.   It also give some of you planning to run for the state House or Senate the ammo you need or confirmation enough of their political orientation to run against some of those Texas legislative and senate peeps in 2018.

So let's start with the Texas Senate.

In our 31 member senate that has a 20-11 GOP majority, the most liberal member was state Sen. Sylvia Garcia (D-Houston), and the most conservafool, oops conservative was Sen. Van Taylor (R-Plano)

The most conservative Democratic senator was drum roll please, Sen Eddie Lucio, Jr (DINO-Brownsville)  and the least conservative Republican one was Kel Seliger (R-Amarillo)

Moving on to the Texas House

In our 150 member Texas House that has a 94-56 GOP Majority, Rep. Lina Ortega (D-El Paso is the most liberal House member, and the most conservative House member is a tie between Briscoe Cain (R-Deer Park), Jonathan Stickland (R-Bedford) and not surprising (Matt Rinaldi (R-Irving)

All three are members of the twelve member Texas Oppression Freedom Caucus that caused so much trouble in the latter days of the 2017 regular session.

The most conservative Democratic House legislators was a tie between Rep Joe Pickett (D-El Paso) and Ryan Guillen (D-Rio Grande City) and the least conservative state rep was Rep. Sarah Davis (R-Houston)

Davis still pissed off a lot of people in her liberal leaning district with that affirmative SB 4  vote

And it also illustrates why the Republican caucus had some entertaining and contentious intra-party squabbles during that last session, because in effect, they are basically split into two groups, the Centrist Conservatives and the Tea Klux Klan-Movement Conservatives.  

So hope this post was helpful in getting you to understand where the legislative and senate players stand ideologically in advance of July 18.
 

Rep. Senfronia Thompson Calls Out The TX GOP Transphobic Discrimination

“White. Colored. I was living through that era…bathrooms divided us then, and it divides us now. America has long recognized that separate but equal is not equal at all.” “I can also tell you that separate restrooms for transgender kids, which is what we will be discussing for this bill, are also based on fear and not fact.”
-TX State Rep. Senfronia Thompson (D-Houston)

On this May 21 date that will live in Texas political infamy as 'Discrimination Sunday', the Texas GOP decided to satisfy their inner bigotry and pass a bill (HB 2078) laws to discriminate against Texas trans kids.   They also passed another bill that would allow taxpayer funded adoption agencies to refuse to place children with TBLGQ, non-Christian or unmarried people because of religious objections

Rep. Senfronia Thompson has been in the Texas House since she was elected to represent Texas House District 141 since 1972 and is the longest serving African-American woman in the Texas Legislature.

As she did in 2005 in her 'Hellfire Flames of Bigotry' speech in which she called out the passage of the unconstitutional Texas anti-gay marriage amendment to our state constitution, 'Ms. T' was once again standing tall against injustice when she took to the Texas House floor to remind her colleagues that separate is not equal, and discrimination aimed at trans people is just as ugly as when it was done to her and other Black Texans.

Too bad the Texas GOP isn't getting that message through their pointed hoods.

And with us headed once again into a tax money squandering special oppression session,  I wanted y'all to see and hear the words of one of the people and Democrats who have had our backs during this Texas legislation oppression session.

   .

Texas Special Oppression Session To Start July 18

Not satisfied with the fact they didn't get all their legislative oppression done during the recently concluded 85th Texas Legislative session that ended on Memorial Day, Gov. Greg Abbott just called for legislators to come back to Austin starting on July 18 for another 30 days and $800,000 wasted taxpayer dollars.

While he caved to Lt Governor Dan 'Potty Man' Patrick, he also made it clear he wasn't happy about the gamesmanship that was played in order for Patrick to get the special session he craved.

Well Governor Abbott, ,you could have called the special session and limited it only to the sunset legislation if you were that unhappy about the stunts that Patrick and his Texas Conservafool Freedom Caucus buddies played in the House. .

Instead you rewarded their shenanigans and probably ensured they will play those games in the future.

The first bill to be taken up on the call will be the sunset legislation to keep key state regulatory agencies from shuttering their doors, but once that legislation is passed, Gov. Abbott then outlined 19 items that he will allow the legislature to take up, including oppressing Texas transgender people.

In addition to oppressing trans people, some of the other items are school finance reform, creating automatic rollback elections when local property taxes rise by a certain amount, more abortion regulations, voter fraud, school choice for special needs students and property tax reform.

And it means that once again,  me and the rest of the Texas trans community and our liberal progressive allies are going to have to roll to the ATX once again this summer to fight Texas GOP legislative tyranny aimed at our trans kids..

It's a fight that we not only must win, we're determined to win.

It's The 85th Texas Legislature Sine Die Day

It's is mercifully Day 140 of the 85th Texas Legislative session and the last day of it.   The clock is ticking toward 12:01 PM as we stand on guard in liberal progressive Texas for any GOP led legislative attacks on our human rights and our humanity.

And surprise surprise, I'm here in the ATX for the last day of the session

It has definitely not been an easy session for those of us who fight for the human rights of TBLGQ Texans.   The last time we had anti-LGBTQ bills passed in Texas was 2005, and we'd just come off a 2015 session in which we were successful in killing 24 anti-TBLGQ bills including four anti-trans ones.

The anti-LGBTQ Forces of Intolerance were determined this year to pass some anti-TBLGQ hate legislation this year and we were just as determined to kill them.

We were successful in killing the big anti-LGBTQ bills in SB 6 and HB 2899, but unfortunately some good bills for our community fied during this session as well.   We also saw some horrible ones like SB 4 pass

There is chatter that we may be going into a special session, but right now, just need this one to end with the quickness.

And if Governor Abbott is stupid enough to do Dan Patrick's bidding and call it, me and the trans community will be there ti be in his face again to flush any anti-trans bill they propose.

Texas GOP Messes With Texas Trans Kids

Pissed off because their big unjust anti-trans discriminatory bills in SB 6 and HB 2899 were bottled up and died in committee,  the Texas GOP majority on Sunday, facing a looming threat of a special session, decided to switch tactics and attack Texas trans kids.

The Texas GOP House decided to attach an anti-trans amendment to SB 2078, which was supposed to be focused on Texas school districts 'multihazard emergency operations plans' and by a 91-50 party line vote amended it to require transgender students to use a single stall restroom, locker room, and changing facility at their school if they didn't want to use one based on their birth gender.

The amended bill then passed a 92-49 second reading vote as trans kids and their parents observed the unjust proceedings from the House gallery.

The Texas Democrats put up a fight, with Rep Senfronia Thomson (D-Houston) pointing out along with other Dems during a tense House floor debate that this was nothing more than a replay of Jim Crow era segregation as the Republicans tried to pathetically claim it wasn't meant to target transgender students.

“White. Colored. I was living through that era ... bathrooms divided us then, and it divides us now,” said Rep. Thompson, the dean of the TX House, to her colleagues. “America has long recognized that separate but equal is not equal at all.”

Equality Texas CEO Chuck Smith said this in a statement concerning SB 2078 and another unjust bill in HB 3859:

“Tonight, the state of Texas voted to advance two bills that discriminate against LGBTQ Texans. SB 2078 allows for continued discrimination against transgender students with regard to restroom facilities and HB 3859 allows faith based child welfare providers to use taxpayer money to refuse to serve LBGTQ people. No amount of discrimination is acceptable. There is no middle ground. All discrimination is bad, full stop. Targeting some of the most vulnerable children in our state is abhorrent, shameful, and disgraceful. The Texas lawmakers of the 85th legislative session are on the wrong side of history. No matter how upset or scared our LGBTQ friends and families are feeling this evening, Equality Texas wants you to know that we stand with you; and we will fight to protect you.”

The unjust SB 2078 It still faces a third reading vote later today before it heads back to the Texas Senate for its approval before it goes to Governor Abbott's desk

Crucial 2017 Texas Legislative Deadline Day Passes

We can't relax yet since the 85th Texas Legislative session is still running until May 29, but for those of us watching odious bills like SB 6 and HB 2899 I have some good news for you.

In addition to today being the 120th day of the 140 day biannual Texas legislative session, yesterday was the deadline for bills that originate in one chamber to be passed and be taken up for consideration in the other legislative chamber.

Translation into English:  If your House bill for example, hasn't been voted out of committee or been voted on by the Texas House to send it to the Texas Senate, it is dead for this session.

That means the odious SB 6 and HB 2899, which are both stuck in the House State Affairs Committee that yours truly and over 389 friends from across the state testified against a few weeks ago into the wee hours of the morning, are dead for this session.

That also means that if they didn't get a hearing, or out of committee, some of the good bills that would positively impact us also died for this session like SB 1341, which would have made the name change process in Texas an administrative procedure and taken it out of our partisan judicial court system.

I am keeping an eye on another one of those positive bills, HB 192 authored by Rep Diego Bernal (D-San Antonio), which would add sexual orientation and gender identity as classes in the area of preventing housing discrimination aimed at TBLGQ Texans.  I testified in favor of passage of it and it surprisingly made it out of the Business & Industry Committee on a 4-3 vote when Rep. Jason Villalba (R-Dallas) voted YES.  

We still have to be on the alert for attempts by legislative haters to attach these unjust anti-trans bills as amendments to other bills already on the House calendar to be attached to them in order to pass them that way.

Attempts have already been made by the GOP House legislative transphobes to do precisely that, but so far have failed.   I hope that pattern continues as the clock inexorably ticks down and the days rapidly dwindle to the last day of the 85th Texas Legislative session on May 29.  

As far as getting bills on the House Calendar and through that committee to the House floor, the deadline to make that happen was May 8  

So exhale a little, but not completely until 12:01 AM CDT on May 30.  

Late Night In The ATX Fighting Trans Hate

It was a long day and a late night for all of us justice loving people who were there from across the state of Texas to register our opposition to the unjust HB 2899.

Registration didn't start for oral testimony until 10 AM, but when it did I was one of the first peeps at the computer set up in our hospitality room to sign up to have my say.  I was surprised because my name got called a little early in the evening to testify, but once again, being in Austin for the last few days thanks to a major assist from my BTAC fam in Maddox and Rebecca Jackson made that possible.

There were 389 people who registered to testify on HB 2899.  Of that number, the overwhelming majority of us were in opposition to its passage with only 18 people for it and 2 neutral.

And after a day that started for many of us a 7 AM CDT, the hearing finally got cranked up at 11:45 PM and went on until 4:40 AM.  

This committee was more diverse than the Senate one that couldn't hide their disdain for us a few weeks ago when we Texas trans folks, Mama and Papa Bears and our allies once again bumrushed our state capitol to express our opposition to the unjust SB 2899.

House State Affair Chair Rep. Byron Cook (R) was making sure that he ran the proceedings in an evenhanded and fair manner.

n between the time I was at the Capitol talking to numerous people, getting my lunchtime Slurpee and wings and contemplating how and what I would say to the committee,  I was getting do something I don't get a chance to do back home in Houston:. television interviews.

Thanks to Adela Uchida of KEYE-TV (the local CBS outlet) and KXAN-TV along with interviews in the Texas Observer and another local media print outlet, I was getting the message out there that this bill deserved to die and discrimination aimed at any Texan is unacceptable.

By the time I finally stepped to the podium somewhere around 12:55 AM, an Anna Julia Cooper quote was echoing in my head before I took a deep breath and handled my human rights business on behalf of my Black trans community and the orgs that I represent.

What that Cooper quote, you ask?

'Only the black woman can say 'when and where I enter, in the quiet, undisputed dignity of my womanhood, without violence and without suing or special patronage, then and there the whole Negro race enters with me'

I got to crash a little after 3 AM because they called my name early, but I went to sleep knowing there were more than 50+ people still waiting to testify and those folks waiting to speak their minds to the committee were overwhelmingly going to be doing so in opposition to the bill.

And once again, I got to rep my Texas and hometown Black trans community.

As for what happened when the testimony concluded, the committee left the unjust HB 2899 pending, which means they can either call it to a vote or just sit on it until May 29.

How about y'all just kill the unjust bill and call it a day?   

In The ATX Again To Lobby

The 85th Texas Legislative session doesn't end until May 29,  and that means until that sine die day our human rights and humanity will still be under attack by the Texas GOP majority in Austin literally until midnight CDT on that day.

So once again I'm up in Austin for a few days to support a good bill in HB 192 that prohibits housing discrimination in the Lone Star State on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, and fight the odious HB 2899, the bill born out of GOP frustrations that SB 6 is stuck in committee.

HB 192 gets a hearing today in the House Business and Industry Committee,  so let the member know you support that bill.

HB 2899, the latest anti-trans hate bill will get its hearing on Wednesday so I expect to spend a long day at the Capitol for that one.   We also need y'all calling the members of the House State Affairs Committee to express your opposition (politely)  to the bill.

But while I'm in the ATX, I'll catch up with friends and chosen family until I head back to Houston on Thursday.

The Terrific Ten TX Dem Senators Oppose SB 6

For those of you who were wondering where were the Texas Senate Democrats in opposition to SB 6 and its 21-10 passage in the Texas Senate on Tuesday and Wednesday to sen it to the Texas House, they were live and in full effect in opposing this bill.  Unfortunately we hand one DINO in Sen.  Eddie Lucio, Jr who joined the Texas GOP trans oppressors

But elections matter, and the GOP has a 20-11 edge in the Texas Senate.   You don't like that, vote the GOP oppressors out starting in 2018.   That DINO Lucio needs to primary challenged.

Ten senators rose in opposition to the Texas Transgender Oppression Act that Houston GLBT Caucus president Fran Watson has dubbed 'The Terrific Ten'

Here are their words in opposition to the unjust bill.


Sen. Sylvia Garcia



Sen. Judith Zaffirini 



Sen. Jose Menendez 




Sen Chuy Hinojosa 



Sen John Whitmire 

The 85th Texas Legislature Starts Today

The opening session of the 85th Texas Legislature under the Pink Dome kicks off today as you read this with a lot of ceremonial business happening such as the swearing in of new members.  We don't get to elect statewide offices until 2018, and us liberal progressive Texans will be anxiously waiting to do just that.

But first we have to get through this session that as people around the world know, Lt Governor Dan Patrick is trying to shovel through the unjust SB 6, the Texas Transgender Oppression Act.

In the Texas House, the election of the speaker will take place who is expected to be for his seventh term with Democratic minority help (thank God) moderate Rep. Joe Strauss (R-San Antonio).

Here are the numbers we'll be pondering for this session that will run 140 days until the end of May or the first week of June.  

The Republicans have a 20-11 majority in the Texas Senate that Patrick controls.

In the Texas House, it's 99-51 Republicans, just short of a supermajority..

Some of the issues they need to be focused on besides hating Texas trans people, guns and women's uteruses are our public school funding, the state's ailing foster care system, better mental heath access, making Texas colleges more affordable and special ed.

We'll see what happens over the next 140 days, and I know I'll have a few trips to Austin planned to do some lobbying to kill some bad bills like SB 6 and help support some good legislation..

And as you probably guessed, I'll be keeping track of the progress or lack of it on SB 6 and other bills of importance to the Texas TBLGQ community and liberal progressive Texans.

Ding Dong, The Texas Anti-TBLG Bills Are DEAD!

It's Sine Die for the 84th Texas Legislature, and it's official!  All the 24 anti--TBLG bills filed, including the 4 anti-trans ones are dead as of 12:01 AM for this session!

Took a lot of cooperative intersectional work to make it happen, but the Texas TBLG community, our advocacy organizations, the hardworking people in them, our citizen lobbyists, and our allies pulled it off.

And many of y'all Texas bashers thought we couldn't do it.   But we did.

The 85th Texas Legislative session won't happen until 2017, so we can exhale and prepare for another battle to come.  We'll also be on guard for Gov Abbott calling special sessions between now and then as well.

Yeah, and if he does, Equality Texas, TENT and 'errbody' else has my number.

Last Day Of The 84th Texas Legislature

When this 84th Texas Legislature session started in January, the Texas TBLG community was facing the daunting prospect of 24 filed punitive anti-BTLG bills.  Four of those bills were aimed at criminalizing being transgender in the Lone Star State for our trans kids and adults.

People outside our state expected them to all pass seeing that we had a House with a 98-52 GOP edge, a 20-11 Republican advantage in the senate, and a new governor and lieutenant governor eager to placate the Tea Party wing.

But they misunderestimated our will to kill all of those bills, and especially the will of the Texas transgender community to make the Riddle and Pena anti-trans bills go away.

The LGBT pundits on the coasts also didn't note that we Texans had several huge advantages going into this battle.   The 2016 NCAA Men's Final Four and Super Bowl LI in 2017 are slated for Houston.  We had a unified effort from several statewide LGBT organizations that had been organizing since November the Texas GLBT community would be playing defense in this session.

While the GOP had the numbers, the Democratic minority in the House and Senate had the legislative experience and seniority, and masterfully used the Texas legislative rules and parliamentary procedure to stall and thwart the egregiously bad bills at critical points.

It was a team effort that took several lobby days scheduled throughout the session of which yours truly attended two of them, people calling their state legislators and senators, cooperation between several state organizations, partnerships with out Texas business community, and yeoman's work by our lobbyists in Austin.    It also didn't hurt that the disastrous publicity and economic damage to their economy that happened in the wake of Indiana passing their discriminatory RFRA got the Texas Lege's attention.  

Because of all that work and some fortuitous events, we go into the final hours of the 2015 session with those anti-TBLG bills dead for this session and the GOP oppressors being put in the position of passing a meaningless Texas senate resolution declaring marriage is between one man and one woman.


Short of any last minute attempts at amendments to bills further along in the legislative process, and the Texas legislative rules are strict about amendments this late in the session being attached to germane bills, we Texas LGBT folks will watch the clock strike midnight CDT for sine die and can mercifully exhale.

But TBLG Texans eyes will be nervously turned toward Austin all day until that moment.

Transgender Lobby Day In Austin Today

Heading back to my state capitol for an unprecedented for me third time this session to do what I can to help kill some bad anti-trans bills (HB 2801, HB 2802, HB 1748, HB 1749) and drum up support for the good bills like Rep. Garnet Coleman's HB 2058 

This effort is so important that I'm delaying my trip to Dallas for the BTAC Conference by 24 hours so I can participate.  Last night there was a caucus held in Austin to discuss issues of importance to the Texas transgender community.

In a few hours we hit the Capitol to lobby against the unjust bills by the Discrimination Duo of Pena and Riddle, and for Rep. Coleman's bill that will streamline the process for changing gender markers.

All of the bills in question are in the State Affairs Committee, and for those of you who can't make it to Austin, you can still be agents of your own trans liberation and make calls to your state legislators.

TransGriot Update:  Was trying to fit this Austin lobby trip in before I left for Dallas, and thought the shuttle was leaving from the Montrose Center at 6 AM.    I arrived at the Montrose Center at 5:40 AM.  When I didn't see anyone arrive by 6:30 AM headed to Austin left and returned home.   The shuttle left at 7 AM while I was enroute back home.

Oh well, little upset I'm not in Austin, but did my part to ensure I could be there to represent my community.