Update On Texas Senate Bill 723

I received this alert message yesterday morning and posted this action alert on the blog because the Reich Wing, Lone Star State Division tried to pull a fast one and slide Senate Bill 723 through the Senate Committee on Jurisprudence.

HB 3666 in the 2009 session clarified the list of acceptable identity documents that could be presented for use to obtain a marriage license.   One of those documents was a court ordered name and gender change.

This bill was penned in response to the ongoing Nikki Araguz case and the coverage its getting in the Houston area and in the blogosphere in which our trans sister is being sued for her widow's benefits by her late husband Thomas Araguz III's ex-wife Heather Delgado and his mother Simona Longoria.

The bill proposed by Sen. Tommy Williams (R-The Woodlands) seeks to remove a court ordered change of gender from the lengthy list of approved identifying documents a person in the Lone Star State can present to obtain a marriage license.

S.B. 723 amends Section 2.005(b), Family Code, by removing "or sex change" in reference to documents acceptable in proving an applicant's identity for obtaining a marriage license.

As proposed, S.B. 723 amends current law relating to the proof of an applicant's identity and age required for the issuance of a marriage license.


You can use a school ID or prison ID card to obtain a marriage license in Texas, but if Tommy Williams gets his way,  no more presenting those court orders of legal gender change.     We God fearing Texas loving Tea Klux Klan members can't have you transsexuals getting married in the Great State of Texas.  It'll make it harder for us to keep oppressing them homosexuals (sarcasm meter on maximum)

The update is that according to Cristan, we had five people show up to testify against this bill and no one testified in favor of it.   You can watch the March 22 hearing testimony starting at the 1:13:08 mark.  The phone lines to all the senators on that committee were lit up by our supporters.. 

SB 723 is still showing ' left pending in committee' status, but we will still have to keep an eye on it because the Texas legislative session runs until May 30.


Cristan also says thanks to everyone who called (and are still calling) the senators who make up the committee, came to the hearing on short notice and got the word out about SB 723 with literally no warning.

You're welcome.

Thanks to you Cristan for making that last minute drive to Austin to testify.   

MD 235 Gets Worse

The alleged trans rights bill (In) Equality Maryland is pimping will get a hearing in Annapolis on March 9.    The Maryland House of Delegates Health and Government Operations Committee will hold that hearing on HB 235 at 1 PM EST

(In) Equality Maryland and GINDA sponsor Del. Joseline Pena-Melnyk isn't budging on the Maryland trans community's request that the bill be strengthened by adding public accommodations language to it, and the trans community inside and outside Maryland isn't going to stop fighting it until it does or it's dead.

Now comes the news that the white trans toms supporting this bill want to name GINDA for the recently murdered African American transwoman Tyra Trent.

''When I looked at what this bill was about, which was housing and employment, and knowing what I had read about Tyra, she had had a history of trouble with the law and had been selling her body on the street to make ends meet,'' says Brackett. ''I can't wonder if we had a proper [law] protecting employment for transgender persons, her life might have been different.''
Oh really?

Or is it about the fact that since African American transpeople inside and outside the state are part of the group of trans folks leading the charge against this jacked up bill, you and you wallowing in privilege friends are engaging in this pathetically transparent attempt to rename the bill for Trent in order to give you and your vanilla flavored (In)Equality Maryland friends some PR cover?

Naw, Sharon.   Ain't gonna work.    You and your vanilla flavored trans sellouts didn't give a rats anus about the African American trans community in Maryland when you conspired with (In) Equality Maryland to craft this jacked up GINDA bill.

Now because you've encountered fierce resistance that you could have avoided with an honest dialogue with the African-American trans community before introducing this bill, you want to do your usual bit of using the deaths of Black transpeople for your nefarious purposes.

To quote Maya Wilkes, my fave character from the dearly departed show Girlfriends, "Oh HELL no!"

Until HB 235 fixes its fatal flaw, I would urge the Trent family to not allow their child's name and memory to be desecrated by being attached to an unjust bill that doesn't address and fix the problems that led to her death in the first place. .  

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