Texas House Votes to Repeal State’s Gay Sex Ban
The measure marks progress for LGBTQ Texans, but it is questionable whether the Senate will act before the legislative session ends.
The Texas House of Representatives voted narrowly to repeal a state law criminalizing “deviate sexual intercourse with another individual of the same sex” despite the fact that it’s been technically unenforceable for over two decades.
On May 16, lawmakers voted 59-56 to repeal the state’s 1973 infamous anti-sodomy law, which was rendered unenforceable, along with all other state-level-sodomy bans, in a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Lawrence v. Texas.
Four members voted present, while 31 others had excused absences.
The bill passed on a preliminary vote on the day prior by a much larger 72-55 margin, reports the Texas Tribune.
The passage marks the furthest a repeal effort has ever gone in Texas. For years, Republicans had balked at removing the prohibition, which many saw as communicating a type of moral condemnation of homosexuality.
Over the years, however, more and more conservative figures — including U.S. Sen Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas — have said that they would vote to repeal the law.
There are still plenty of conservatives who believe the law should remain intact, including Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
It remains to be seen whether the Texas Senate will pass a similar bill in time before the legislative session ends on June 2. But the bill’s chief sponsor, State Rep. Venton Jones (D-Dallas), an openly gay man and the first known HIV-positive lawmaker, has been credited with cobbling together an uncommon coalition of Democrats and conservative Republicans who believe it is time to overturn the anti-sodomy statute.
“I’m asking you to vote on a law that strengthens the fundamental civil liberties and individual freedoms that all Texans deserve,” Jones said on May 15, while advocating for the bill on the floor of the Texas House of Representatives. “I’m asking you to vote for a law that upholds the principles that Texans should have the freedom and ability to make their own private decisions without unwarranted government interference.”
State Rep. Brian Harrison (R-Midlothian), one of the more bombastic conservatives in the chamber, also supported the repeal. “Criminalizing homosexuality is not the role of government, and I support repealing it,” he said in a statement.
Until the law is fully repealed, LGBTQ advocates have reason to be wary, given Paxton’s dedication to preserving the statute.
Any repeal of the anti-sodomy law would likely attract conservative criticism, and potentially even a primary challenge, which could gain traction among right-wing churches and religious groups who have historically donated to Republicans. Therefore, it’s not surprising that other prominent Texas Republicans, including U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and House Speaker Dade Phelan, have been silent about the prospect of repealing the anti-sodomy law.
While much of the conservative support for repealing the sodomy law rests on views of limited government and a “strict constitutionalist” view of legal matters, other Republicans, like Paxton, have supported the law on moral grounds.
As LGBTQ Nation notes, in the early 2000s, Paxton, as a state representative, supported jailing gay people for having sex on the grounds that he believed it was needed to protect “public health” — a veiled reference to the HIV epidemic and its prevalence among the LGBTQ community — and to “discourage sexual activity outside of marriage.”
Brad Pritchett, the interim CEO of Equality Texas, praised Jones for his work to repeal the law while also noting that those efforts have yet to be realized.
“When people hear the phrase ‘gay rights,’ I think that can be confusing, because this is literally all we want — the privacy to live our lives in peace,” Pritchett said in a statement. “While the law that the House voted to strike from the books has been illegal for over two decades, today’s victory is no small feat…. I hope other Texas lawmakers will have the courage to follow Venton Jones’ lead and work toward progress together.”
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