HRC called on the Texas Senate to stop a measure just passed by the Texas House of Representatives that could further ostracize and harm transgender students. House lawmakers today added the discriminatory amendment to an otherwise unrelated education bill -- the latest effort in a slate of more than a dozen unconscionable anti-LGBTQ bills being pursued by the Texas legislature. Policies such as this one, which make classifications on the basis of “biological sex,” are designed to alienate transgender students from their peers. Research shows that anti-transgender legislation can lead to increased instances of bullying of LGBTQ students and even an uptick in suicide. With this move, the legislature continues to waste taxpayers’ time and money while playing politics with people's lives by targeting LGBTQ people and, in particular, transgender children.

“This shameful amendment is yet another example of Texas lawmakers’ anti-LGBTQ agenda,” said JoDee Winterhof, senior vice president for policy and political affairs. “Transgender youth deserve the same dignity and respect as their peers, and this craven attempt to use children as a pawn for cheap political points is disturbing and unconscionable.”

Hundreds of businesses and several Texas chambers of commerce, celebrities and performers, tourism groups and events and sports organizations including the NBA, the NFL and the NCAA have spoken out against legislation targeting transgender people for discrimination.

HRC, Equality Texas, ACLU of Texas, Texas Freedom Network, the Transgender Education Network of Texas and others have been fighting harmful bills that attack the dignity of LGBTQ Texans.