The Texas House of Representatives has passed a bill to repeal the state's law banning "homosexual conduct." The measure, House Bill 1738, faces steep odds against passage in the Senate, even though the original 1973 law has been unenforceable since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled so-called sodomy laws unconstitutional more than 20 years ago.
The bill came within a hairsbreadth of failure on its final reading. The vote initially registered as 56-55 in favor. Then the chamber went to vote verification, during which several of the members voting on both sides of the issue left the chamber, and their votes were temporarily discounted. Various members also reported that their voting equipment had malfunctioned and either failed to record their votes or did so incorrectly. The final count came to 59-56 in favor of repealing the 1973 law.
The Supreme Court ruled in 2003 that state laws criminalizing consensual sex between people of the same sex were unconstitutional. But the Texas law has survived on the books due to conservative resistance. State Rep. Venton Jones (D-Dallas), one of the first openly gay Black members of the Texas Legislature, wrote the bill to repeal it.
"Members, this is a matter of commonsense governance," Jones said Thursday during HB 1738’s second reading. "I'm not asking you to vote based on whether or not you agree with the Lawrence v. Texas ruling. Instead, I'm asking you to vote on a law that strengthens the fundamental civil liberties and individual freedoms that all Texans deserve. I'm asking for 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."
A handful of Republicans crossed the aisle to join forces with Democrats to pass the bill. They included state Rep. Brian Harrison (R-Midlothian), a conservative who prefaced his remarks Thursday by noting he is almost always on the opposite side of issues from Jones.
Harrison went on to cite support for repealing Texas' law prohibiting gay sex by such conservative stalwarts as U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Harrison framed his support for HB 1738 as a vote for limited government.
"I plan to do today exactly what Justice Clarence Thomas said that he would do if he were a member of the Texas Legislature, and I plan to vote yes for this bill," Harrison said.
HB 1738 now heads to the Texas Senate. Given the crush of House measures now heading to the upper chamber, the chances of the repeal bill advancing through committee and passing the full Senate are slim. Less than two weeks remain for the Senate to vote on all outstanding House bills.
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