Democrat joins GOP lawmakers in reviving transgender sports bill.
LGBTQ rights groups are blasting the Houston Democrat
AUSTIN — Legislation banning transgender girls from playing on girls’ scholastic sports teams was revived in the Texas House on Friday morning, just days after it appeared blocked.
On Friday morning, the House Public Education Committee reconvened and voted 8-5 to advance the bill to the floor of the House for further consideration. That vote came just four days after the same committee had only six votes to move it forward — one short of the required seven.
But this time, state Reps. Harold Dutton, D-Houston, and Dan Huberty, R-Kingwood, who did not support the bill on Tuesday, joined with six Republicans in voting for it. Dutton explained his flip was a “consequence” to unrelated legislation that stalled the night before related to a state takeover of the Houston Independent School District.
“I don’t know how big this problem is, and I wish I did because I’d be in a better position to make this vote,” Dutton said. “But I can tell you this, the bill that was killed last night affected far more children than this bill ever will. So as a consequence, the chair moves that Senate Bill 29 as substituted be reported favorably to the full House.”
Dutton was evidently reacting to a point of order raised by fellow Houston Democrat Alma Allen.
The University Interscholastic League already has rules in place that dictate a student’s sports teams are determined based on a child’s birth certificate. But lawmakers in Texas and elsewhere in the nation have pointed to cases in other states of transgender girls competing in girls’ sports leagues as they call for the UIL rules to be cemented in state law. Critics say the legislation is unnecessary and
will further isolate transgender children who already face discrimination and bullying.
LGBTQ rights groups blasted Dutton publicly for his maneuver on Friday to bring the bill back up.
“It is an incomprehensible betrayal to see a Democrat, who heard desperate testimony from children and parents, take this incredibly harmful action out of sheer vindictiveness toward his Democratic colleagues,” said Ricardo Martinez, CEO of Equality Texas. “Transgender children are not any politician’s pawns, and we will continue to fight for them.”
Dutton, first elected in 1984, has been a key player in the drama around the bill in the Texas House. Almost three weeks ago, he announced that the transgender sports bill didn’t have enough votes to advance.
“That bill is probably not going to make it out of committee,” Dutton said in April.
But then on Tuesday, he brought it up for a vote, when it failed to pass as he and Huberty voted against it.
Dutton used his power as chairman to bring the legislation back up Friday and helped send it to the full House.
The bill still has a long way to go. The House version of SB 29 now includes an amendment that calls for it to expire in 2027. Because of that change, if the bill is approved by the House later this month, it would return to the Senate for at least one more vote before it could be sent to Gov. Greg Abbott for his consideration.
NCAA events at risk
The Senate passed SB 29 in mid-April by an 18-13 vote along party lines despite public warnings from the NCAA that it is watching the legislation closely. The NCAA allows transgender women to compete in women’s sports, but with conditions that include testosterone suppression treatments for the athlete.
In its statement then, the NCAA affirmed its support for transgender athletes and warned it would monitor anti-transgender legislation and place future NCAA championship locations in states “free of discrimination.”
The NCAA has major financial commitments in the state. The men’s basketball Final Four is scheduled to be in Houston in 2023 and San Antonio in 2025. Dallas hosts the women’s Final Four in 2023, and the College Football Championship is set for Houston in 2024.
State Rep. James Talarico, D-Round Rock, was among the Democrats on the House Public Education Committee that pushed back as Dutton moved to revive the bill. He noted that Texas hasn’t had any problems with transgender children playing sports.
“We’re doing this because Republican primary voters want this to happen,” Talarico said.
The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, said the bill is necessary for the safety of girls who could be competing against children who were born as males.
Dutton has been pushing legislation to clear the way for Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath to strip power from all nine elected HISD trustees and replace them with a stateappointed board — an effort mired in an ongoing legal battle that has stretched more than a year.
Dutton has been a harsh critic of HISD’s leadership in recent years. He argued that administrators and school board members neglected campuses on the city’s northeast side, home to some of the region’s most impoverished children.
In a 2-1 decision, the Texas Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that HISD had not legally triggered a 2015 state law designed to punish school districts with any campus receiving five consecutive failing grades under the Texas academic accountability system.
HISD’s Wheatley High School received its seventh straight failing grade in 2019, but largely due to a technicality in the 2015 law, the judges ruled that HISD was not subject to sanctions tied to Wheatley’s poor performance.
The proposed legislation, authored Dutton and Sen. Paul Bettencourt, RHouston, would fix those legal technicalities and allbut-ensure the HISD board’s ouster if it withstood legal challenges. The bills also would clarify the Texas education commissioner’s powers to launch investigations into potential wrongdoing in public school districts and limit the power of school districts to appeal sanctions to the courts.
Supporters of the bills argue that they are cleaning up prior laws that enhance accountability in public schools, while opponents respond that the legislation disenfranchises local voters and gives the education commissioner too much authority.
The Senate version passed 20-11 earlier this week, with all 18 Republicans and two Democrats in support.
Mistake in analysis
However, the House version was referred back to committee late Thursday night on a point of order raised by Allen due to a “materially misleading” mistake in its legislative analysis.
The House Public Education Committee voted against advancing the Senate version of the bill Friday morning, with state Rep. J.M. Lozano, R-Portland, casting a decisive vote against moving the legislation. Lozano previously voted in early April to advance the House version of the bill out of committee, helping deliver a 7-6 vote in favor at the time.
Later in the afternoon, however, committee members took a second vote on the Senate version. This time, the bill received the necessary seven votes to advance after state Rep. Steve Allison, R-San Antonio, flipped from opposing to supporting the legislation.