Texas Senate Advances Bathroom Bill Targeting Trans People

Protesters rally in favor of transgender rights at the Texas Capitol, on July 21, 2017. Credit: Marjorie Kamys Cotera for The Texas Tribune

Texas Senate Republicans advanced a bill Wednesday banning transgender people from single sex multiple occupancy spaces in emergency shelters, county hospitals, libraries, and restrooms in state and city county-owned buildings.

Senate bill SB 240, inexplicitly dubbed the "Texas Women's Privacy Act", closely resembles the state's first attempt to pass a bathroom bill in 2017, which was opposed by mayors, police chiefs, and teachers' unions.

The difference between then and now has nothing to do with transgender people and everything to do with the radicalization of the legislative branch and the resulting animus the Texas GOP has towards the transgender community.

When State Sen. Nathan Johnson (D-Dallas) questioned the bill's author, State Sen Mayes Middleton (R-Galveston) about the need for the bill Middleton could not provide an answer.

"Do you have any evidence that men are committing crimes in women's restrooms?" Johnson asked Middleton.

Middleton retorted, "We know it's fundamentally not right to have a man go into a woman's restroom."

"That's not my question. You've said it a bunch of times. My question is, do you have any data?" Johnson asked.

Middleton did not.

SB240 is insidious legislation that makes no mention of transgender people, ergo the phrasing of Sen. Nathan Johnson's question.

@cbsaustin

Revived 'bathroom bill' and several other anti-trans bills await debate at Texas Capitol

♬ original sound - CBS Austin

The Senate bill only needs one more vote, then it will be sent to the House, that has an identical bill HB 239, with nearly every republican representative as a co-signer. 

Pentagon Resuming Transgender Affirming Medical Care

The Pentagon is resuming transgender medical care according to a memo that Politico aquired.

Planet Trans was able to independently verify this unexpected good news.

The memo says the Defense Department is returning to the Biden-era medical policy for transgender service members due to a court order that struck down Hegseth’s restrictions as unconstitutional. The administration is appealing the move, but a federal appeals court in California denied the department’s effort to halt the policy while its challenge is pending.

As a result, the administration is barred from removing transgender service members or restricting their medical care, a priority of President Donald Trump and Hegseth. The administration insisted its restrictions were geared toward people experiencing medical challenges related to “gender dysphoria,” but two federal judges said in March that the policy was a thinly veiled ban on transgender people that violated the Constitution.

On Thursday the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to allow the ban to be enforced while lower court cases play out.