"A bill that we shouldn't have to pass in 2025"

Everything is happening so fast in these final weeks of the session, which ends on June 2, but much of it is stuff we all saw coming and dreaded, so what’s there really to say about it all except express utter disgust.

This experiment to witness the Texas legislature as fully as I possibly could hasn’t been great for my sense of hope for this country, which has been dwindling since around 2015 when I started writing poetry about politics and news as a way to creatively bear witness to the very hard events we’re living through. Wow, that’s 10 years, folks. Losing faith for 10 years straight. There was no reprieve in 2020 because it was clear that Trump was going to keep dominating our thoughts, our culture, our news. He’s never going to leave us alone until he dies.

Even when he does, he has molded Republican legislators into his image so much so that we’ll never be rid of him. Never. This is the political infrastructure under which I am going to die, and I’ve still got a long way to go, I think.

I am not hopeful for this country. I feel betrayed by my home.

I start with really terrible news from today. House Bill 1106 passed through the House, and it’s not a bill I even knew about.

House Bill 1106 reads as follows: relating to the definitions of child abuse and neglect. BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: SECTION 1. Section 261.001, Family Code, is amended by adding Subdivision (1-a) and amending Subdivision (4) to read as follows: (1-a) "Abuse" does not include the refusal by a person responsible for a child's care, custody, or welfare to affirm:

• (A) a child's perception of the child's gender, including a refusal to use a child's preferred name or pronouns, regardless of whether the child's name has been legally changed; or
• (B) a child's expressed sexual orientation.

Rep. Venton Jones — a Black, gay Democrat from Dallas — gave moving testimony against this bill, including talking about his own attempt at suicide in the sixth grade. You can view all of this bill debate around the 1 hour, 40 minute mark of the day’s votes. The speeches are intense. The defenses are inexcusable. I have very little else to say. I truly hate the people who voted this — every Republican representative and TWO DEMOCRATS FROM SOUTH TEXAS. Absolutely disgusted.

In other news:

HB 229, Rep. Ellen Troxclair’s "Women's Bill of Rights" passed the House last weekend.

"A bill that we shouldn't have to pass in 2025," said Troxclair.

I mean, no one was asking you to. You could have done literally anything useful for women, Ellen.

If this bill becomes law, more than 120,000 trans Texans would be forced to be defined in state records by the sex they were assigned at birth, rather than the gender they identify as, even if they’ve already legally changed their birth certificates and driver’s licenses.

They also passed Senate Bill 1257, which would require health insurers that cover gender-affirming care also cover any adverse consequences and costs of detransitioning.

Speaking on the floor Saturday, Rep. Ann Johnson, a Houston Democrat, said the Legislature was telling insurance companies not to cover gender-affirming care.

"The reality is this bill, however you couch it, is about eliminating the existence of trans individuals in Texas,” Johnson said. “Stop pretending that you're for freedom. Stop pretending that this is about the kids."

Yesterday, the House passed a bill to change child marriage law in Texas, but not without a lot of Republican weirdos voting against it, without any real discussion about why they were against it.

Child marriages in Texas could end this year, as state lawmakers debate a proposal that would close a loophole from a 2017 law that allows certain 16- and 17-year-olds to wed.

House Bill 168 by state Rep. Jon Rosenthal, a Houston Democrat, would also nullify all existing marriage licenses involving minors, including those who move into the state after being married elsewhere.

“My first concern was with a handful of marriages that we have in this state over the last few years where 40- to 50-year-old men are marrying 16 to 17 year old girls,” Rosenthal said. “While it was only a couple or a few cases a year, I just saw that as horribly egregious.”

There are so many bills being passed right now that I cannot report all of them here, nor could any news outlet, to be honest. So here are some headlines for you to click through.

Texas Legislature fights to protect bats from being entombed and killed slowly

It’s crunch time for Texas House bills as three key deadlines hit this week

Bill that would make vaccine exemptions easier to obtain clears Texas House — You can thank bill author Lacey Hull from Houston for that.

Harrison the Huckster (GET HIM)

Brian Harrison is one of about a couple dozen or so ultraconservative Republicans who form a loud but relatively ineffective insurgent faction in the House. Of the group, Harrison is the loudest and most ineffective, so much so that even his most sympathetic compatriots have declined to join in his performative shows of outrage and have even publicly bristled at his attention-seeking tactics.

Texas bill increasing punishments for abortion pill distribution sparks Senate debate

Last week, the Texas Senate approved SB 2880. The bill says anyone who distributes abortion-inducing drugs — including through the mail — can be sued for up to $100,000.

It expands the wrongful-death statute and gives people up to six years to file a lawsuit after an abortion takes place.

There are also protections written in the bill that say the law cannot be challenged as unconstitutional in state court. This provision led to a debate on the senate floor.

Bills in Texas Legislature could shut down existing wind, solar farms

Meanwhile, as Texas is hitting record temperatures usually only seen in July/August in mid-May, here’s the energy mix that’s giving us all power:

There will be no good news to end this one. I can’t when I’m this angry.