Southern Queer Newsroom
In a formal session of the Texas House State Affairs Committee on Monday, legislators passed two bills out of committee that each had heated hearings on August 22. Senate Bill 8 would institute heavy fines on publicly-owned and operated buildings like schools and courthouses for allowing transgender people to use the bathroom they identify with. House Bill 7 is an attempt to ban drugs that induce abortions from being transported into the state.
The hearing on SB 8 Friday caused anger to boil over multiple times, and supporters of the bill regularly described being transgender as a "disease" and against "common sense." Opponents, largely trans people representing themselves, pleaded for lawmakers to respect their basic rights to dignity and privacy. Both bills were held pending after their Friday hearings.
At 7 PM on Monday, each bill was brought back up for consideration, meaning the far more boring process of substitutes, amendments, and votes were the game of the day. HB 7 was first, and it passed out of committee 8-4, a party line vote. Three representatives—Yvonne Davis (D-111), Dade Phelan (R-21), and Senfronia Thompson (D-141)—were not present for the meeting.
SB 8 was the next vote taken. Rep. Raymond offered an amendment to the bill (its text is not known at time of writing) that was defeated 4-8, again on a party line vote. The vote on passing SB 8 out of committee was 9-3, with Rep. Raymond voting with Republicans to advance the legislation.
Both bills have been scheduled for a full House vote Thursday afternoon.
In response to SB 8's advancement, Equality Texas called for a protest inside the Texas Capitol at 1 PM Central time to "assemble a chorus of voices against this legislation." SQN will be watching debate on SB 8 live tomorrow on the Texas House website.