Texas Democrats revive effort to repeal state’s ban on gay sex

Texas lawmakers, during the state’s upcoming legislative session, will have the opportunity to formally decriminalize gay sex, still technically a misdemeanor under Texas law. 

Texas’s defunct ban on “homosexual conduct,” defined in the state’s penal code as “deviate sexual intercourse with another individual of the same sex,” has not been enforceable since 2003, when the Supreme Court ruled it and other state laws criminalizing sodomy between consenting adults unconstitutional. 

But language classifying gay sex as a Class C misdemeanor — punishable by a fine of up to $500 — while unenforceable remains enshrined in Texas law. 

Democrats in the state Legislature, which meets only in odd-numbered years, have for years pushed to officially repeal the ban but have struggled to secure sufficient bipartisan support. Republicans hold majorities in the state House and Senate and had never brought the proposal up for a vote before the last session. 

The state Republican Party’s platform calls homosexuality “an abnormal lifestyle choice,” though prominent Texas Republicans like Sen. Ted Cruz have said they believe the state should repeal the law. 

A Texas House committee voted for the first time in 2023 to advance legislation to strike the state’s 1973 ban on gay sex from its penal code and health and safety code, but the measure ultimately failed to move to the floor before the end of the session. 

On Tuesday, the first day state lawmakers were able to prefile legislation before the Legislature convenes on Jan. 14, Texas Democrats filed two bills — one in the House and one in the Senate — to officially repeal the ban. 

The bills, filed by state Rep. Joe Moody and Sen. José Menéndez, would repeal the state’s ban and remove language from Texas law that educational materials for minors must state that “homosexuality is not an acceptable lifestyle.” 

Texas lawmakers on Tuesday also filed a slate of bills targeting LGBTQ people, including measures to restrict instruction on gender and sexuality in schools, bar trans people from using facilities that match their gender identity and create a law recognizing only two genders — male and female — that would end the legal recognition of trans people in the state.