House Backs Bill to Define Gender in Law
Based on Reproductive Parts When Born
Capitol Inside
May 11, 2025
The Texas Government Code has a provision in Chapter 312 that requires the "liberal construction" of state laws for the sake of achieving the purpose for which they were passed and promoting justice as well. But a bill that received tentative approval in the Texas House on Saturday may be doing just the opposite with a proposed addition to Chapter 311 that's known as the Code Construction Act.
There would be no justice for Texans who are transgender in House Bill 229 - a measure that would force the state to effectively ignore their existence with strict gender definitions and a mandate for identifying people for data collection purposes by their biological reproductive system components at birth.
GOP State Rep. Ellen Troxclair of Lakeway billed HB 229 as a measure that's designed to protect the rights of women and girls while preserving the opportunities they have here. The House gave HB 229 a tentative nod on an 86-36 tally on Saturday night when more than a third of the Democrats were absent for the vote.
"If we can no longer define what a woman is, we cannot defend what women have won. We cannot protect what we cannot define," Troxclair told the House. "Without a clear definition, these protections are vulnerable. If anyone can claim the legal status of women based solely on identity, then the very concept of sex-based rights collapses."
Troxclair can say that she garnered bipartisan support for the proposal after four Hispanic Democrats - State Reps. Eddie Morales of Eagle Pass, Sergio Muñoz of Mission, Ramon Romero of Fort Worth and Richard Raymond of Laredo - sided with the Republicans who voted unanimously for HB 229. All four of the Democrats who backed the Troxclair bill are based in counties that President Donald Trump carried in November.
The House debated HB 229 after bestowing preliminary approval on a measure that would require insurance companies to expand coverage to include costs of reversing gender transitioning
or treating complications from sex reassignment procedures that had been covered.
State Rep. Jeff Leach - an Allen Republican who's sponsoring Senate Bill 1257 in the House - argued that the measure aimed to help transgender individuals who decide they want "to come home from the dance" and "detransition" back to their biological sex when they were born.
"This bill is meant to protect Texans, not to harm them," Leach said during an intense debate on SB 1257. "Texans who receive coverage for gender transition treatments should receive and should be given the same coverage to treat any effects resulting from those original transition treatments if they make the choice later in life to reverse them."
SB 1257 advanced on a second-reading vote of 82-37. The passage of the controversial Leach and Troxclair
measures in the Legislature's lower chamber will be a foregone conclusion when they're up for a final vote on the floor early this week.
more to come ...
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