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Trans Texans are Under Attack (Again), But Advocates Aren’t Giving In

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www.texasobserver.org – Joelle DiPaolo – 2025-02-11 09:56:00

When Emmett Schelling first moved to Texas, it wasn’t to become an advocate. It was for a corporate job. 

He began volunteering with the Transgender Education Network of Texas (TENT) at a time when a so-called “bathroom bill,” which would have mandated people use the bathroom of their biological sex, was still just an idea.

When the bathroom bill became a fully formed piece of legislation that consumed the 2017 session, its existence made Schelling acutely aware of who he was as a transgender man. It also put him on notice that the Legislature could—and would—try to legislate who he could be. The bathroom bill did not pass that year. But since then, the number of anti-LGBTQ bills filed by state legislators increased from two dozen in 2017 to over 100 in 2023. 

As the 2025 legislative session ramps up, advocates warn that Republican lawmakers are poised to renew their assault against transgender Texans with dozens of new bills aimed at wiping away their existence.

“Trans people are fighting for our lives,” said Schelling, who is now the executive director of TENT. “We are fighting for the literal freedom to exist, and we are fighting for people to recognize the same sanctity of our lives as they do when they’re looking at any human being.” 

Last session, the Legislature passed Senate Bill 15, which expanded the 2021 ban on trans girls participating on women’s teams in K-12 sports to include higher education. The Legislature also passed Senate Bill 14, which banned minors from receiving gender-affirming care like puberty blockers, making Texas the largest state to enact such a law. The GOP-controlled Lege also passed a bill outlawing public drag shows, though a federal judge declared the law to be unconstitutional. 

Trans advocates expect a similar onslaught this session. 

Indeed, in his State of the State address earlier this month, Governor Greg Abbott continued to press the issue.  “No boys in girls’ sports. The State of Texas recognizes only two genders – male and female,” Abbott said. “Any educator who tells students that boys can be girls should be fired on the spot.”

So far, 52 anti-trans bills have been filed, according to the Trans Legislation Tracker. 

Republican legislators have filed numerous bills targeting trans kids in schools, such as House Bill 1655, which would prohibit public school employees from helping a child “socially transition” by using their correct name and pronouns. The bill calls for a school to lose funding for any violation. House Bill 344 would prohibit instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in K-12 schools. House Bill 1123 would require students to compete in interscholastic athletic competitions on the basis of their biological sex.

Legislators have also continued their crusade to limit access to or altogether outlaw transgender healthcare. That includes measures like House Bill 847 that would prohibit using taxpayer money for gender-affirming care such as hormone replacement therapy or surgery. There’s also legislation like Senator Bob Hall’s Senate Bill 115 that advocates warn is meant to make the financial costs of providing gender-affirming care prohibitive for doctors and health insurers. (A version of Hall’s bill passed the Senate last session.)

Republicans are also pushing measures, like House Bill 477, to require a person’s biological sex to be included on their birth certificate, and legislation defining male and female, based on reproductive organs, as the only two genders. Representative Steve Toth, a right-wing Republican from The Woodlands first revived the 2017 bathroom bill last session (though it never got a hearing) and has filed it again this year.

Even as they’re being inundated with new anti-trans bills at the state level and a flood of anti-LGBTQ+ policies from the new Trump administration, advocates in Texas are playing a mix of offense and defense. Last legislative session, TENT worked with community and partner organizations to file over 100 proactive bills that would improve the well-being of all Texans, Schelling said. One such bill was Senate Bill 110, which would have prohibited discrimination in places of public accommodation. Though none gained legislative traction, the organizations have once again enlisted allied lawmakers to file a number of bills on their agenda for this session, Schelling said. 

“[These bills] focus in on community, focus in on economic issues, focus in on the things that day in, day out affect [people’s] lives, including trans people,” Schelling said. “These policies are for everyone, to try to benefit everyone, to try to benefit the state.” 

Advocates are also working to mitigate the effects of harmful laws passed during the last session and to proactively help trans Texans with education campaigns, legal resources, and community support. 

Hotline calls to organizations like the Trevor Project, a nonprofit organization aimed at preventing suicide in LGBTQ+ youth, increased by 700 percent after the election of President Trump because of the promise of anti-trans politics to follow. Anti-trans laws led to a 72 percent increase in suicide attempts in trans and nonbinary youth, a 2024 study by Trevor Project researchers found.  

Groups like the Trans Legal Aid Clinic of Texas are focused on providing legal guidance to trans people regarding new state and federal laws. The legal clinic  has provided trans Texans a “roadmap” for how to change gender markers and names on their government documents like driver’s licenses and passports. Board Chair Pete Makopoulos-Senftleber joined the clinic in 2019 to help other trans people navigate this tricky bureaucracy.

This summer, the Department of Public Safety and Department of State Health Services blocked trans people from updating gender markers on their driver’s licenses and birth certificates respectively. Because of these directives, the clinic had to “throw the roadmap out the window,” Makopoulos-Senftleber said. Last fall, the clinic created a fund to help trans and nonbinary Texans obtain a passport—and partnered with the Montrose Center, a hub for the LGBTQ+ community in Houston, to cover the cost of 500 passports. 

Though the clinic’s mission hasn’t changed, it’s been more of a struggle to help people understand what documents they can update. “[We’re] constantly having to keep our fingers on the pulse of this patchwork of horrible legislative patterns and policy directives,” Makopoulos-Senftleber said. “The fear and panic cause people to spiral.”

On January 20, President Trump signed an executive order declaring federal government documents should allow only two genders, male and female, based on biological sex. This would include passports, which began offering an “X” gender option in 2022. 

The full extent of the executive order’s impact remains unclear, but rhetoric alone can contribute to fear and confusion, said Paul Castillo, deputy legal director for Lambda Legal.

“This is the exact sort of playbook that the Governor, the Attorney General, and the Legislature have used for their political purposes and to impact the lives of trans and nonbinary folks,” Castillo said. “They understand that simply making a statement does have impacts on the health and wellbeing of trans folks.” 

Attacks on every level, Makopoulos-Senftleber said, make it increasingly difficult to provide critical support to the trans community. 

“[We need to] understand the vast complexity of challenges that trans individuals and trans organizations are having to confront,” Makopoulos-Senftleber said. “[It’s the] political and social climate across the country as a whole that’s making our work harder, and the struggle of trans, nonbinary individuals that much harder every day.” 

Avery Belyeu, head of the Montrose Center, which offers counseling services and support groups, said it’s vitally important for trans people to take care of themselves and seek support.

“I expect our community to be experiencing fear and anxiety,” Belyeu said. “We’re the side of the LGBTQ+ nonprofit world that’s focused on joy, that’s focused on care, that’s focused on resilience.” As a trans woman, Belyeu said she takes special pride in having resources that specifically support the trans community. 

Lex Loro, interim executive director of The Pride Center San Antonio, said she hopes trans people in the San Antonio area know there’s places they can go for support. “Seeing these headlines and hearing this news is really scary, and it can be even scarier if you do not feel connected to community and if you feel isolated,” Loro said. “That is why we really, really want to let people know that the Pride Center exists.” 

Loro said members of the Pride Center will be involved in advocacy work, such as showing up at the Capitol for TENT’s advocacy day in March. But they also stressed the importance of community bonding, especially in San Antonio, which doesn’t have the resources of a city with a more developed queer community like Houston. 

“We’re not going anywhere, and we’re going to continue to find solutions to support queer people,” Loro said. 

Schelling, the director of TENT, said he encourages people to connect with trans-led organizations on both the local and state level as each has its own role in the advocacy space. 

“A lot of it is just understanding the sphere of influence that each of us has in our own way,” Schelling said. “There’s so much movement, there’s so many attacks on every level, and so that’s where I really lean in and say, ‘What organizing is happening by the trans people in your community?’” 

Supporting trans-led organizations that are leading this work is key, Schelling said. 

“We have voices, we have thoughts,” Schelling said. “We should be the ones who are actually talking about what these issues are and how they’re directly impacting us. We don’t need hand-holders or spokespeople to get in the way of that.” 

Though the Legislature, and the political climate as a whole, is hostile towards trans people right now, Schelling said he believes things will get better eventually. Until then, he’ll continue to fight. 

“We will continue to claim the freedom and the liberty of being authentically who we are in this world,” Schelling said. “It’s just important to remind communities that we have indeed been in worse places in time, and we have survived that, and we have continued to exist, and we will still continue to exist through the attacks coming from the State of Texas.” 

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Austin police chief hopes to quell immigration concerns

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4 hours ago

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February 11, 2025

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www.kxan.com – Brianna Hollis – 2025-02-11 18:08:00

SUMMARY: Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis addressed concerns about federal immigration operations in Austin, revealing that there is significant fear in the community. Following recent “enhanced targeted operations” by ICE, she emphasized that the Austin Police Department (APD) does not inquire about individuals’ immigration status during arrests. Davis reassured that ICE primarily targets those with violent felony warrants. Amid growing anxiety within local Hispanic communities, she encourages open dialogue between federal officials and residents to alleviate fears. Additionally, increased cooperation between the Texas Department of Public Safety and federal agencies aims to deport undocumented individuals with active warrants in Texas.

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Gambling industry presses for Texas win over Senate opposition

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8 hours ago

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February 11, 2025

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feeds.texastribune.org – By Jasper Scherer – 2025-02-11 13:54:00

Casino and sports betting companies press for a win in Texas despite Senate opposition

By Jasper Scherer, The Texas Tribune

“Casino and sports betting companies press for a win in Texas despite Senate opposition” was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.

Sign up for The Brief, The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.

Undeterred by four years of sluggish progress and certain defeat at the Texas Capitol, the gambling industry is plodding ahead with its ambitious bid to legalize casinos and sports betting in a state with some of the most restrictive gaming laws in the country.

For the third straight session, the Las Vegas Sands casino empire has deployed a murderers’ row of high-powered lobbyists to coax the Republican-controlled Legislature into authorizing “destination resorts” with casino gambling in Texas’ largest cities.

Also part of the lobbying blitz is the Texas Sports Betting Alliance, a coalition of the state’s pro sports teams, racetracks and betting platforms — such as FanDuel and DraftKings — that is looking to extend its momentum from 2023, when a proposal to legalize online sports betting squeaked through the Texas House.

It was the furthest either chamber had gone toward loosening the state’s 169-year-old gambling restrictions. But it was also largely symbolic: Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican who runs the Texas Senate, immediately quashed the measure, citing his repeated claims that there is minimal support among the chamber’s GOP majority to expand gambling.

With the 74-year-old Patrick in office until January 2027 and vowing to seek another four-year term, supporters and opponents of gambling legalization have settled into a state of trench warfare in the House. It is a familiar playbook gaming industry leaders have used to legalize gambling in other states: patience and money, in large doses, until the breakthrough comes. In Texas, that means pursuing incremental wins until a base of support calcifies in the House, laying the groundwork for when the Senate is run by someone more sympathetic.

“The effort to bring destination resorts to Texas has received an overwhelming amount of support from Texans and lawmakers since it was first introduced, and the groundswell of momentum is only continuing to build,” Andy Abboud, Sands’ senior vice president of government relations, said in a statement. “Texans want to decide and vote on this issue, and we look forward to working with the legislature to give them that opportunity this session.”

Opponents include the Texas Republican Party, the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas, advocacy groups like Texans Against Gambling, and a litany of conservative activist organizations. While Patrick’s shared opposition virtually ensures nothing will make it out of the Legislature this session, the anti-gambling contingent still wants to prevent gaming interests from establishing a beachhead in the House.

“Sports gambling and casinos are economically regressive, scholarly studies show, because they produce nothing of external value,” the Texans Against Gambling group wrote on social media last week. “They do not spur long-term economic growth. Instead they hinder it. Keep Texas, Texas.”

The comment came days after Gov. Greg Abbott voiced guarded support for sports betting legalization, telling the Houston Chronicle, “I don’t have a problem” with such a proposal — echoing comments from 2023 when he told the USA TODAY Network he would not stand in the way.

Abbott’s comments generated a burst of excitement among sports betting advocates, paired with the release of a statewide poll from the University of Houston’s Hobby School of Public Affairs that found 60% of Texans support legalized sports betting, including 64% of Democrats and 59% of Republicans.

Still, sports betting legislation has yet to be filed in the House, and the author who carried the measure through the chamber two years ago, Republican Rep. Jeff Leach of Plano, told the Austin American-Statesman in December he did not plan to push his own legislation again unless the Senate moved first. Leach did not respond to a request for comment.

Karina Kling, a spokesperson for the Sports Betting Alliance, said the group expects legislation to be filed soon in the House. Lawmakers have until March 14, the 60th day of the session, to file most bills, including gambling measures.

The same University of Houston poll measured 73% support for legalizing “destination resort casinos” in Texas — a prospect for which Abbott has also signaled tentative support in recent years.

Statewide backing for casinos has consistently outpaced that for sports betting, said Mark Jones, a Rice University political science professor who helped conduct the survey. Still, it was sports betting legislation that cleared the Texas House in 2023 with 101 votes, while the casino measure fell short with just 92 votes.

Texas’ gaming laws can be changed only by amending the state constitution, which requires two-thirds approval in both chambers — including the 150-member House — and support from a majority of voters on the statewide ballot. Rep. Charlie Geren, a Fort Worth Republican who carried the casino amendment in the lower chamber two years ago, did not respond to a request for comment about whether he planned to revive the effort again this session.

Jones said that for the handful of Republican lawmakers who voted for sports betting and against resort casinos, it likely came down to a belief that voters would have a more muted response to online sports betting, because it is not “physically present” in the same way as resort-style casinos and the “actual visuals of people engaged in gambling” there.

“I think, from a legislator’s perspective, for at least a subset, there was the belief that the blowback for voting for online sports betting is going to be more reduced than the blowback for voting for casinos,” Jones said.

Those who support online sports betting argue that many Texans are already betting illegally and spending millions of untaxed dollars that would otherwise generate revenue for the state. Legalizing and regulating the practice, they argue, would shield those users from risky, illicit markets.

The failed 2023 casino legislation would have authorized at least eight licenses for casino gambling at destination resorts across Texas, with preference for metro areas where horse-racing has already been authorized. Geren amended the bill to set aside 80% of casino tax revenue for teacher pay raises and cost-of-living adjustments for retired teachers.

But while supportive lawmakers touted the jobs and other economic benefits of casinos, opponents argued that casinos would lead to spikes in human trafficking, domestic violence and gambling addiction, bringing more trouble than it was worth. The measure was also bitterly opposed by the Eagle Pass-based Kickapoo Tribe, which is allowed under federal law to operate a casino offering bingo-based games, a notch below Las Vegas-style options like blackjack and roulette. Tribal leaders said the legislation would have wiped out their main source of revenue — guests from San Antonio — by diverting them to a new casino in the Alamo City.

Both sides of the gambling push in Texas — resort casinos and online sports betting — could face steeper odds this session, Jones said, with the ouster of several pro-gambling Republican incumbents who were replaced by hardline conservatives opposed to gaming measures.

And the House’s new leader, Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, opposed casino and sports betting legislation last session, while his predecessor, Rep. Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, had said he wanted to authorize “destination-style casinos that are high quality.”

Even if Burrows wanted to expand gambling, Jones said, the move would provide ammunition for his critics from the Texas GOP’s rightmost flank — most of whom oppose efforts to legalize casinos and online sports betting and are eager to challenge Burrows and his allies in next year’s primaries.

“The challenge will depend in part on the legislation that he passes and does not pass this session,” Jones said of Burrows. “So, strategically, it may not make a lot of sense for Burrows to bring online sports betting and casino gambling to the floor, because if he passes that legislation, that’s a potential liability in 2026.”

Thus far, the only gambling legalization measure has been filed by Sen. Carol Alvarado, a Houston Democrat who has penned similar legislation each session since she joined the Legislature in 2009. The proposal, like in past years, would impose a 15% tax on gross casino revenue and use it for public education, public safety and “responsible gaming” education for adults.

Though the measure is unlikely to go anywhere in the Patrick-led Senate, Alvarado said filing it gives her more excuses to evangelize about the tourism, conventions and other business that would flow in by way of the new high-end hotels.

“You do these things with the notion that we’re in for the long haul,” she said. “This is not a sprint, it’s a marathon.”

Disclosure: Rice University and University of Houston have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2025/02/11/texas-legislature-gambling-casinos-sports-betting/.

The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.

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ICE continues to make major arrests in Texas, including cartel, gang members | Texas

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9 hours ago

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February 11, 2025

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www.thecentersquare.com – By Bethany Blankley | The Center Square contributor – 2025-02-11 13:40:00

SUMMARY: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) have arrested multiple violent illegal border crossers, including members of the Gulf Cartel and Tren de Aragua gang, during recent operations. Notable arrests include a Cartel del Golfo member identified as a sicario leader and a Tren de Aragua member suspected of attempted murder. Additionally, various other foreign nationals with serious criminal backgrounds were apprehended, including an MS-13 gang member. HSI emphasizes their commitment to public safety and urges the public to report suspicious activities, as they target individuals who pose significant threats to communities.

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