AUSTIN — Schools in Texas could be fined if a teacher refers to students by their gender identity or preferred pronouns instead of biological sex under a bill heard Tuesday.
Public school boards would be required to adopt a ban preventing any employee from “assisting” a student’s social transition, an outward representation of a person’s gender identity that could manifest as a new name, different pronouns or changes in clothing or hairstyles, according to the bill.
The measure would allow the attorney general to sue the school district for civil damages. The courts would determine how much to award.
Rep. Nathan “Nate” Schatzline, R-Fort Worth, said his proposal would stop teachers from “hiding information from parents … perpetuating mental illness and leading children down a path that could lead to irreversible harm.”
“We must make it unmistakably clear: Schools are not places for secret agendas or social experiments on our kids,” Schatzline said during a House Public Education Committee hearing.
Gender-affirming care affirms confusion, Schatzline said, and when teachers withhold information from parents, it’s “deception” and “anti-parental rights.”
Some lawmakers suggested the term “assist” is too vague, and they disputed the characterization of House Bill 1655 as parental rights legislation.
Rep. John Bryant, D-Dallas, asked if it would be a violation for a teacher to honor the request of a parent who wants their child to be addressed by their gender identity.
“The teacher should — without a doubt — speak the truth inside of a classroom and should not perpetuate a lie,” Schatzline responded.
“Wait a minute — this bill says the teacher’s in trouble if they ‘assist,’” Bryant said. “So you’re all for parents, their opinion being primary, unless those opinions differ with your ideology?”
After a brief exchange over whether there are more than two sexes, Bryant said his point is that parents’ opinion only matters to Schatzline if they agree with him on transgender policy.
“Let’s don’t talk a whole bunch about how important and sacred it is to listen to the parents if you’re not going to really listen to the parents,” Bryant said.
Schatzline said teachers should not be engaged in conversations with students about gender identity and sexual orientation. That’s a conversation for parents to have with their children at home, he said.
“Look, this is just simply giving the facts to a child,” Schatzline said. “If a child goes home and a parent wants to say that they are not the biological sex that they were born into, that’s the parent’s right to do so. We do not believe that teachers or counselors should be forced into doing that at the same time inside the classroom.”
A married couple from Denton County who the bill testified that they learned over email a quarter into the school year that teachers had been calling their adopted teenage daughter Apollo.
The couple said their daughter, who is not transitioning, has special needs and doesn’t understand what it means to be transgender. She just liked the name Apollo and wanted to be called that at school, they said, but the school should’ve notified them.
Other ers of the legislation told lawmakers it’s harmful for teachers to guide children through social transitioning without parents’ knowledge or consent.
“Parent permission is required for aspirin, field trips and to have a child’s photo in a yearbook,” said Christie Slape, a legislative committee co-chair with the organization Moms for Liberty-Texas. “It should also require consent in order to transition a child’s gender.”
Opponents warned the bill would make teaching more difficult and harm LGBTQ children by worsening their mental health and subjecting them to higher rates of bullying, suicidal ideation, anxiety, depression, homelessness and dropping out.
“I don’t know how to tell you this, but students do not see teachers as cool. They are not asking them for advice about hairstyles or fashion,” said Brooke Miller, who has a doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin, where she studied the role of authenticity in informal science education.
“We can’t always get them to turn in their homework, much less get them to change genders,” Miller said. “All this bill really does is get in the way of classroom management.”
Autumn Lauener, vice president of the Texas Transgender Nondiscrimination Scholars, said she’ll never forget how her eighth grade English teacher let her write her preferred name atop her assignments without questioning it during a difficult time in her life.
“When young people are consistently denied recognition, it takes a toll on their mental health, their sense of safety and their ability to thrive in the classroom,” Lauener said. “You cannot expect a child to succeed in an environment that is hostile towards them.”
Mandy Giles, founder of Parents of Trans Youth, said her legal name is Amanda. Her teachers would always call her Mandy when she asked. People would extend that same courtesy to lawmakers, she added.
“They’d do it — without question,” Giles said. “And you’d probably be pretty offended if someone just said, ‘No, I’m not going to do that.’ Or worse, ‘I’d like to, but if I did, my employer would lose a huge amount of money and I’d probably be fired.’”
“Why would the act of a teacher showing simple respect to a student put their district’s state funding in jeopardy unless the point of this bill is to discriminate against transgender students?” she asked.