Texas lawmakers file a record number of anti-trans bills in 2025

• Republicans say the bills — and having a strong anti-trans stance — are about protecting youth, while political experts say the issue polls well and mobilizes the GOP base.

The latest: The Senate on Tuesday will hear three anti-trans bills and a resolution for the state to officially recognize only two sexes.

• Senate Bill 240 would require certain public spaces and facilities to be used based on biological sex, allowing for civil penalties and private lawsuits. The proposal, along with its companion bills in the House, mirrors the failed 2017 bathroom bill — a push Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick supported then, as he does now.
• SB 1257 would require health benefit plans to cover possible reversals of gender transition treatments.
• And SB 619 would allow health care providers to refuse participation in services that conflict with their personal or religious beliefs.

By the numbers: The Trans Legislation Tracker is monitoring 127 anti-trans bills in the Lone Star State.

• The Transgender Education Network of Texas (TENT) is tracking more than 200, including overlapping issues such as bodily autonomy and abortion.

State of play: This year's slew of bills have a wide range of targets, including health care access; school sports; how schools handle students' gender transitions; drag performances; and gender definition and pronoun usage.

• SB 810 would protect public school employees from disciplinary actions if they use terms consistent with a student's biological sex rather than their gender identity.
• SB 406, passed by the Senate, would require birth certificates to list a person's biological sex and prohibit changes to this designation for minors, while SB 1696 would prohibit anyone from changing the sex listed on their birth certificate.
• HB 3817 would make it a crime to identify as a different gender than the one assigned at birth when speaking to the government or their employer.
• SB 18, passed in the Senate and one of Patrick's priorities, would aim to stop drag time story hour at libraries.

What they're saying: "No boys in girls' sports. The State of Texas recognizes only two genders – male and female," Gov. Greg Abbott said earlier this year.

The other side: "The bills that have been filed are really atrocious, and it comes on the heels of already the Texas Legislature passing legislation to dehumanize and demean and try to erase the existence of transgender Texans in 2023," Brian Klosterboer, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Texas, tells Axios.

• The number of anti-trans bills has increased dramatically in recent years, and "they were really just trying to enshrine anti-transgender discrimination into law to plant the seeds for more overt and discriminatory laws," Klosterboer adds.

Advocates say community resistance remains strong. "There isn't a hearing or bill movement that people aren't alerted about," says Andrea Segovia of the Transgender Education Network of Texas, noting that over 90% of anti-LGBTQ bills did not pass last session.

• Segovia adds that lawmakers may be reluctant to spend political capital on anti-trans bills with other priorities on the table.

Zoom out: President Trump has pushed anti-trans policies with his executive orders.

• In Texas, a patchwork of anti-trans moves is already underway — the Texas Department of Public Safety has stopped updating gender markers on driver's licenses, the attorney general is targeting drag events and health care providers, and the Texas Education Agency is reviewing claims of "social transitioning" at a Houston high school.

What we're watching: It remains to be seen how many of these bills will gain traction and whether GOP leadership puts political capital behind them.

• With six weeks to go in the session and a crowded agenda that includes school vouchers, tax cuts, immigration and a THC ban, these measures could lose steam before the session's end.