Texas Advances Bill to Force Transgender People to Detransition

The blood of transgender people will be on Abbott's hands

The Texas House advanced HB 229 on Saturday, which defines men and women based on the reproductive organs they were born with, and orders state records to reflect this binary. The bill, titled the “Women’s Bill of Rights,” lays out the “biological truth for anybody who is confused,” said author Rep. Ellen Troxclair, an Austin Republican.

The House and the Senate passed HB 1257, which requires medical insurers to cover the cost of detransitioning, I.E., conversion therapy.

HB 229 is expected to pass its third and final reading next week and then be sent to the Senate, which has introduced bills with similar intent.

The Texas legislative session ends on June 2, and Gov. Abbott hasn't called a special session to pass the Senate bill, but if he does, this draconian assault on our humanity will be law on September 1, 2025.

Since neither the House nor Senate bill included a criminal penalty, House republicans introduced HB 3817, a bill to make identifying oneself as transgender to employers or police a state felony. While HB 3817 remains in committee, that most likely is by design. By my estimate, it will be brought to a floor vote at a later session as it will give Texas AG Paxton a means to jail gender variant people, something he craves to do.

When this bill becomes law, Texas Tribune Reports, trans Texans would be forced to be defined in state records by the sex they were assigned at birth, rather than the gender they identify as, even if they’ve already legally changed their birth certificates and driver’s licenses, or had gender affirming surgeries.

So, how did we get here?

As you may recall, Texas AG Ken Paxton issued an opinion on March 14, 2025, instructing state agencies to retroactively revert gender markers on drivers' licenses, state IDs, and birth certificates to that of the individual's sex at birth.

The 19-page opinion was issued after DPS stopped accepting Court-Ordered Gender Updates for Driver's Licenses and in response to a letter sent by then Texas DPS Director Steven McCraw to Paxton asking if the DPS had the authority to ignore court orders and revert driver licenses to the sex they were before they were changed.

Former Texas DPS Director Steven McCraw was correct in questioning the legality of Paxton's directive. That's why the bills you see now are making their way through the legislature.

Ending transgender people in Texas has long been a top priority of Governor Abbott. When Trump published his executive order stating that there are only two sexes, Abbott officially put the state on notice of his terrible intentions.

These bills have no rational reason to exist and will destroy thousands of lives. Trans people who remain in Texas will no longer be able to drive their cars, work, or pay rent, unless they comply. It is a commonly stated position among trans people who aren't able to leave Texas that they would die before detransitioning. I am among that number.

Updated 5/15/2025.

The US Supreme Court just Delivered a Beatdown to Transgender Military Members

When asked by the Trump administration to put an emergency injunction on a case in which the military had been barred from discharging a military member, the conservatives on the "Supreme Court" did one better. They allowed the government to proceed with discharging 13,000 transgender military members and banning new enlistments while trump lawyers fought the court case.

This despite absolutely no evidence to support Trump's assertions that transgender people are unfit to serve.

For the Supreme Court, this isn't about justice, it's about payback. It's about bigotry and hatred. It's the Supreme Court agreeing with trump that transgender people are worthless, immoral, and that we do not deserve rights. It's the "supreme court" giving the transgender community advanced notice that every time a court case makes it's docket to expect another beatdown.

How did we get to this horrible situation? The New York Times breaks it down:

On March 27, 2025 the US District Court for Western District of Washington issued a nationwide preliminary injunction blocking implementation of the transgender military ban.

The U. S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit refused to block Judge Settle’s ruling while it considered the administration’s appeal.

The administration then sought emergency relief from the Supreme Court, saying that “the district court’s injunction cannot be squared with the substantial deference that the department’s professional military judgments are owed.”

At a minimum, the government said the Supreme Court should limit Judge Settle’s ruling to the plaintiffs in the case and lift the balance of the nationwide injunction.

The court opted for the broader approach, pausing the injunction entirely.

Justice Sotomayor, Justice Kagan, and Justice Jackson Justice Sotomayor, Justice Kagan, and Justice Jackson would have denied the application.