Texas could ban instruction on sexual orientation, gender identity at all grade levels

The Texas Senate passed its version Tuesday of House Bill 890, which now includes a provision that schools may not provide "instruction, guidance, activities, or programming regarding sexual orientation or gender identity to students enrolled in prekindergarten through 12th grade."

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Texas is another step closer to barring students at all grade levels from receiving any instruction that mentions sexual orientation and gender identity. If it ultimately becomes law, the legislation would expand upon similar proposals in other states where critics labeled those bills as "don't say gay."

The Texas Senate passed its version Tuesday of House Bill 890, which now includes a provision that schools may not provide "instruction, guidance, activities, or programming regarding sexual orientation or gender identity to students enrolled in prekindergarten through 12th grade." The original legislation, introduced by Republican Rep. Keith Bell of Kaufman, dealt more narrowly with how school districts should outline the process to hear complaints. However, senators made significant changes to the language during their debate so that it now includes limiting instruction topics as well as creating what supporters call a "parental bill of rights."

The legislation now reads that "a parent has the right to direct the moral and religious training of the parent's child, make decisions concerning the child's education, and consent to medical, psychiatric, and psychological treatment of the child without obstruction or interference from this state, any political subdivision of this state, a school district or open-enrollment charter school, or any other governmental entity." It also includes specific directions for school districts that they must share information with parents each year "about parental rights and options, including the right to withhold consent for or exempt the parent's child from certain activities and instruction."

During the initial floor debate Monday, Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, laid out all these changes, saying, "This bill takes a stand by enshrining parental rights and ensuring that Texas parents are the chief decision makers in their child's education."

The Texas House of Representatives will now need to agree to the revisions made to the legislation or iron out differences between the two chambers' versions in a conference committee before it could possibly head to the governor's desk. It seems likely Gov. Greg Abbott would sign it into law because he mentioned support for passing a "parental bill of rights" when he put out his list of emergency items at the beginning of this legislative session. It's unclear, though, when the House could potentially take up this legislation again before the regular session ends on May 29.

How this bill compares to Florida's legislation

The way the bill is worded now would slightly exceed recent efforts in Florida to ban mentions of sexual orientation and gender identity in classroom instruction.

Florida's law, which Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed last year, recently grew to cover lessons from kindergarten through 12th grade after a decision by the Florida Board of Education in April. The law originally banned such lessons from kindergarten through third grade.

As previously mentioned, the Texas legislation currently under consideration would make that rule go further and apply to all grades, including pre-K.

LGBTQ+ advocates in Texas criticized how the Senate rewrote the legislation to include this classroom instruction language and called for lawmakers to oppose the changes. Throughout this session, though, the GOP-controlled legislature pushed forward a number of bills that would restrict LGBTQ+ rights in the state. For instance Senate Bill 14, which would ban transgender minors from receiving puberty-blocking medication, hormone therapy or surgery to aid in their transition, is now awaiting the governor's signature and could become state law.