‘Homosexual conduct’ bill advances further than past attempts, as end-of-session deadlines approach

‘Homosexual conduct’ bill advances further than past attempts, as end-of-session deadlines approach

May 26, 2025 / Forbes LA /


Project Summary:

In 2023, a fifth of the country’s state-level bills impacting the LGBTQ+ community were filed in Texas, according to a Human Rights Campaign analysis. In 2025, Equality Texas reported a new record number of such bills filed at the State Capitol, surpassing 200 – up from 141 the session before. KXAN’s team of journalists – many LGBTQ+ staff members with unique, developed and inside perspectives providing nuance to our fair, rigorous and balanced reporting standards – produced multimedia stories like this one for the “OutLaw” project, taking an in-depth look at what this trend could mean for Texas’ future.

AUSTIN (KXAN) — A bill filed after KXAN’s OutLaw investigation faced a steep challenge this legislative session but has progressed further than any of its predecessors. House Bill 1738 would repeal Texas’ unconstitutional ban on “homosexual conduct.”

The House narrowly passed the bill in recent days, and it now awaits a Senate committee assignment as crucial deadlines approach at the end of the session.

“This law has been unenforceable for over 20 years but still sits on our books as a symbol of state-sanctioned discrimination,” the bill’s author, Rep. Venton Jones, D-Dallas, said in a post on X following the House vote. “I authored HB 1738 because this isn’t just about one law — it’s about restoring core constitutional principles: the right to privacy, freedom from government overreach, equal protection under the law.”

The U.S. Supreme Court declared the law unconstitutional in 2003, but Texas lawmakers never removed the language from statute. KXAN’s legislative analysis shows at least 60 previous attempts to do just that since the 1980s.

The most consistent group against such proposals has been the conservative activist organization Texas Values, which has registered or testified 17 times against nine of the bills – far more than any other group. Texas Values Director of Policy Jonathan Covey, the only individual who testified against HB 1738 in an April House committee hearing, told lawmakers his organization wanted to send a “message that (homosexual conduct) is not acceptable conduct.”

“The position of our organization is that we don’t want to pull something out (of statute) that’s going to make it seem like homosexuality is more acceptable,” Covey said.

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Still listed in the Texas Penal Code as a Class C misdemeanor, the measure defines “homosexual conduct” as engaging in “deviate sexual intercourse with another individual of the same sex.” It contains only a brief notation indicating it is unenforceable due to the Court’s Lawrence v. Texas decision, which rendered sodomy laws in more than a dozen states including Texas unenforceable.

HB 1738 has had some bipartisan support. Among the handful of Republicans who voted with Democrats during House passage, two are listed among Jones’ four co-authors: former House Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, and Rep. Brian Harrison, R-Midlothian.



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I am an editor for Forbes Washington DC, focusing on business and entrepreneurship. I love uncovering emerging trends and crafting stories that inspire and inform readers about innovative ventures and industry insights.

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