AUSTIN — State senators advanced a bill that would require public school students to play on sports teams that correspond with their gender assigned at birth, rather than their gender identity.
The Senate Committee on Health and Human Services voted 5-3 to pass the Senate Bill 3 on Tuesday, sending it to the Senate floor for a full vote.
The bill is one of the governor’s priorities to pass during the third special legislative session of this year.
This is the fourth attempt by Republican lawmakers to pass this kind of legislation, after similar bills failed to make it over the finish line after stalling in the House during the regular session and previous two special sessions.
LGBTQ+ rights activists and the parents of transgender students have been fighting against the effort for months now and say they’re tired of having to repeatedly defend transgender rights in front of lawmakers.
"Transgender kids deserve a childhood, like any other kid," said 30-year-old Ash Hall, who uses "they/them" pronouns and identifies as non-binary and transgender.
Hall testified in front of the Senate Health and Human Services committee Tuesday to speak against the bill, saying it's an attack on transgender students.
“This bill is extremely invalidating for lots of trans youth whether they play sports or not, because the idea is that we are trying to make it harder to be transgender in Texas. That's the goal of a bill like this, is to give people the opportunity to question everyone's gender identities, and to find ways to exclude them from participating in everyday life," said Hall.
Hall says the bill is already causing harm to transgender children in Texas by perpetuating negative stereotypes and facilitating harassment.
Hall decided to testify Tuesday on behalf of many transgender students and their families who are now boycotting the hearings.
"In past hearings, senators have repeatedly misgendered some of our youngest community members, which is very traumatizing for them. [Lawmakers] have spoken over them, interrupted them, abruptly cut them off and stopped their testimony. Parents have been asked about the genitalia of their children, and so the entire process became inappropriate and traumatizing," said Hall.
Supporters of the bill say the goal is to protect the integrity of girls' and women’s sports.
“It's kind of the main reason why we have Title IX and why we have female sports period, just to make sure that women can be their best, trained their best and actually have a fair chance at winning," said Mary Castle, senior policy advisor with Texas Values.
But LGBTQ activists say the bill is part of a larger attack on transgender rights in Texas.
“There is an intentionality in the attack, and the goal and objective is always to dehumanize transgender people, and they're putting a target on the backs of transgender innocent children," said Ricardo Martinez, CEO of Equality Texas.
Hall says they hope lawmakers realize that transgender children just want to live their lives like other kids.
"Even though I would say most Texans may not know a transgender child, I do like to think that if they met one, they would treat that child with respect and dignity and make an attempt to understand them," said Hall. "And even if they couldn't, they'd still treat them with love. That gives me hope for the future. I genuinely believe that most Texans want to do right by all children."
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly named the bill as Senate Bill 2. This has been corrected on all platforms.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misidentified the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services. This has been corrected on all platforms.