Spring Branch ISD will vote on a resolution where they deem President Joe Biden’s change to Title IX as ‘unlawful’ while asking state lawmakers for more funding.

Show off your pride with the Houston Dash! Their third annual "Dash Bash Pride Kickoff" is June 13 at Pearl Bar, the only lesbian bar in the city. It's just one of several events the Dash is hosting this month. Chief Marketing Officer for the team SJ Luedtke and mascot Diesel stopped by all the details!

The draft of the policy centers around four topics: parent authority, safeguarding biological females and males, and preferred pronouns.

To avoid the heat this year, Houston Pride Parade organizers decided to reroute the daytime festivities. They are asking people to go support restaurants and bars in the Montrose area before heading to the parade downtown which starts Saturday at 7 p.m. on Smith and Milam.

The Tribune analyzed more than two dozen anti-drag protests. Opponents frequently characterized the drag events as catering to children, even when businesses advertised them as adults-only or provided warnings about the potential for explicit material.

In 2021, Texas passed a law barring transgender student athletes from playing on K-12 school sports teams that align with their gender.

At the start of his second term leading the lower chamber, Dade Phelan talked to reporters about several legislative issues that will be decided this year.

Lawmakers begin work today for their biennial legislative session. They’ll debate over the state budget, school issues, border security and property taxes, among other issues.

The legislation closely mirrors a Florida bill passed last year, dubbed by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” law, which detractors say would further isolate LGBTQ students and open teachers and school districts to legal risks.

Republicans are backing legislation targeting gender-affirming care for children, classroom lessons about sexuality and drag shows.

State Rep. Tony Tinderholt, R-Arlington, hired Jake Neidert, 22, last month as his office’s legislative director amid a wave of anti-LGBTQ violence and rhetoric and ahead of an impending legislative session that is expected to focus heavily on anti-trans bills.

Texas allows religious groups that are part of the state’s child welfare network to refuse to assist LGBTQ couples seeking to foster or adopt. That could put critical federal funding at risk.

LGBTQ Texans say lawmakers and right-wing figures are misrepresenting what happens at all-ages performances to propagate hate and violence against queer people.

Texas policies targeting access to health care for transgender youth forced one family to leave the state.

Frisco ISD’s new bathroom policy and Keller ISD’s ban on books that reference gender fluidity violate federal rules prohibiting sex-based discrimination, the ACLU said.

The bill would provide federal recognition and interstate portability of same-sex marriages, but it stops short of guaranteeing a right to such marriages.

Thousands of bills are expected to be filed for the legislative session that begins in January. Lawmakers are expected to have a budget surplus when they return to Austin.

The Texas Tribune spoke with LGBTQ voters, the parents of queer youth and advocates from across the state about what’s at stake for them this November.

Texas Department of Family and Protective Services leaders instructed employees to avoid written communications about the cases and barred low-level employees from handling the investigations, according to internal agency communications.

Gov. Greg Abbott directed the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate parents who provide their children with gender-affirming care, driving one such family to leave home.

In interviews, Black Texans expressed frustration over uneven progress, restrictions on teaching about racism in public schools and limitations on their political representation and voting access.

The law was made unenforceable by the Supreme Court in 2003, but Justice Clarence Thomas recently suggested that the court should reconsider it.

Gay Republicans who have fought for acceptance within the Texas GOP over the past three decades told The Texas Tribune progress has been excruciatingly slow. Many of them have left the party, even as the number of Log Cabin Republicans in Texas continues to grow.

LGBTQ students want the university to take “substantive action” against the computer science professor for his tweet, which included misinformation about how the monkeypox virus spreads.

Experts told The Texas Tribune that Thomas’ opinion signals an openness from the court to reconsidering other settled legal precedents related to rights the court has ruled are protected by the constitution.

Some LGBTQ Texans are trying to navigate plans to commemorate the catalyst of their civil rights movement with concerns about safety after 31 members of a Texas-based hate group were charged with conspiracy to riot at a Pride event in Idaho.

The executive order calls on the U.S. Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services to increase access to gender-affirming health care and develop ways to counter state efforts aimed at limiting such treatments for transgender minors.

The state has been investigating whether parents who provide access to gender-affirming health care are committing child abuse. The temporary restraining order is part of a lawsuit filed on behalf of three families and members of PFLAG, an LGBTQ advocacy group.

The former president criticized Democrats, who control Congress and the White House, on a number of issues. He also praised Texas Republicans he’s endorsed in this month’s primary runoff.

The high court also raised questions about why the state opened these investigations in the first place, noting that the child welfare agency is not bound by directives from the governor.

In this video, see what abortion rights supporters in Texas say about the impact of a likely U.S. Supreme Court decision that would overturn Roe v. Wade.

Other investigators don’t want to follow an order they believe harms families but worry about the impact of a mass employee exodus on the state’s most vulnerable children.

Republicans say they don’t want young kids learning about sex. Educators say that’s already the standard.

The Florida law prohibits teachers from teaching sexual orientation or gender identity to kids below the fourth grade.

Paxton equated the week of LGBTQ-inclusive activities with sex education in a letter to the district. Austin ISD says it’s about acceptance.

Hospitals across the state have already started restricting critical treatment as health care providers fear legal consequences and worry they could lose their medical licenses. Meanwhile, teenagers are already leaving the state to get care or avoiding medical care altogether.

The temporary injunction was issued as part of a lawsuit brought on behalf of parents being investigated by child welfare workers for letting their transgender teenager access gender-affirming health care.

Jeff Younger sees himself as the “tip of the spear” in an effort that led the state to investigate parents of transgender children for child abuse.

The Department of Family and Protective Services has been under federal court monitoring for over a decade for violating the civil rights of kids in foster care. Now, the short-staffed agency has to investigate parents who provide their children with gender-affirming care.

The letter, published as a full-page ad in The Dallas Morning News, was also signed by Salesforce, Johnson & Johnson, Dow and Capital One. The companies said they do business, create jobs and serve customers in Texas and are committed to creating safe communities for LGBTQ people.

The issue is no longer contained to just the party’s fringes — and it is unlikely to go away any time soon as the national fervor grows, Gov. Greg Abbott’s directive faces legal challenges and it factors prominently into a slew of GOP primary runoffs.

The appeals court’s decision allows a lower court to hold a hearing on whether Gov. Greg Abbott’s directive to investigate certain gender-affirming care as child abuse can stand.

Citing potential criminal penalties, Texas Children’s Hospital will no longer provide hormone therapy to transgender patients.

Most of the titles focus on LGBTQ, race or identity issues. Though Granbury ISD said most of the books have been returned, the ACLU called on the district to affirm its commitment to inclusivity.

School districts have said they will abide by the law, but it’s still unclear how they will determine whether a student’s birth certificate was issued near the time of birth.

Recent high-profile incidents and lawsuits have led some districts to make their dress code policies more gender- and race-neutral.

While Texas’ controversial abortion law strictly refers to women in its phrasing, it also limits access to the procedure for transgender and nonbinary people who are able to become pregnant.

A coming-of-age memoir by a California writer has been seized upon by politicians who want greater control over the kinds of books available in Texas schools.

A Navy ship named for slain gay rights leader Harvey Milk has been launched in San Diego Bay.

A LGBT advocacy group in China that has spearheaded many of the country’s legal cases pushing for greater rights is halting its advocacy work for the foreseeable future.

In 2017, conservative lawmakers failed to pass legislation targeting transgender Texans. Things were different this year.

House Bill 25 will require student athletes who compete in interscholastic competition to play on sports teams that correspond with the sex listed on their birth certificate at or near their time of birth.

Gov. Greg Abbott’s office says there’s no plan for a fourth special session at this time. If this was the final special session of the year, what did we learn from it?

Under House Bill 25, K-12 student athletes would be prohibited from competing on school sports teams aligned with their gender identity. The bill will now head to the Senate, where it is expected to pass.

A House committee approved the bill despite emotional testimony from parents of transgender Texas children. This is the fourth legislative session this year in which lawmakers targeted LGBTQ kids.

The Texas Senate has passed a bill restricting transgender youth from playing on sports teams consistent with their gender identity four separate times in 2021.

A federal document also says that misusing a person’s preferred pronouns could be considered harassment in some instances. Texas Republican officials have tried to pass state laws targeting transgender people’s access to bathrooms and school sports teams.

On top of redistricting, Abbott wants lawmakers to take up bills on restrictions for transgender student athletes and the allocation of billions of dollars in federal COVID-19 relief funds.

Lawmakers will return to Austin at least one more time this year to redraw the state's political maps. Only Gov. Greg Abbott knows when that will be and if there will be additional special sessions beyond that.

The committee action came less than 24 hours after Dutton had taunted Patrick, threatening to hold his prized legislation back amid rumors that the Senate was stalling a bill to restore funding to the Legislature.

If passed, Texas' anti-transgender legislation will require student athletes to play on school sports teams that don't align with their gender identity.

Medical experts say gender affirming care for transgender children rarely, if ever, includes use of the surgeries Abbott cited in his letter to the head of the Texas Department of Family Protective Services.

Gender-affirming care, which leading health care organizations in Texas say is the best way to provide care to transgender children, is emerging as a top target of state Republicans and lies at the heart of brewing political and legal battles.

The move comes after bills to do so were unsuccessful during the regular legislative session — and after Abbott did not include them on his agenda for the ongoing special session.

Transgender students would be prevented from joining public school and university sports teams that correspond to their gender.

Gov. Greg Abbott added the legislation to the special session agenda after similar bills failed to pass during the regular session earlier this year.

The decision to openly consider recognizing an LGBTQ group while simultaneously affirming the university's belief that marriage is between a man and a woman raised concerns among supporters and opponents who say Baylor is trying to "have its cake and eat it, too."

Senate Bill 29 was on life support ahead of a midnight deadline for the House to pass all bills from the upper chamber.

The Democrats delayed and deflected as they tried to run out the clock on bills they oppose. Republicans strategized to push through bills they’d worked on all session.

Democrats supported Phelan for House speaker, reassured he would avoid controversial social issues that target LGBTQ Texans. They say they’re disappointed he is now signaling support for bill targeting transgender student athletes.

As the clock ticks on this year's legislative session, the House scheduled a Tuesday floor debate for a bill that would limit transgender children's sports team participation. Other GOP bills that would restrict or punish transition-related health care, like puberty blockers, missed a key Sunday deadline to advance.

As a powerful committee chairman, Dutton could have bottled up legislation that Democrats opposed. Instead, critics say, he’s pushed through Republican bills that Democrats find objectionable.

Days after the House failed to pass their own ban against gender confirmation medical care, the Senate pushed their own attempt forward.

House Bill 1399 would have banned gender confirmation surgery, hormone therapy and puberty suppression treatments for Texas' transgender children.

(Tiziana Fabi/Pool photo via AP)ROME – The Vatican declared Monday that the Catholic Church won't bless same-sex unions since God “cannot bless sin.”The Vatican’s orthodoxy office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, issued a formal response to a question about whether Catholic clergy have the authority to bless gay unions. Since gay unions aren't intended to be part of that plan, they can't be blessed by the church, the document said. Francis has endorsed providing gay couples with legal protections in same-sex unions, but that was in reference to the civil sphere, not within the church. At the time, Argentine lawmakers were considering approving gay marriage, which the Catholic Church opposes. AdSpeaking of families with gay children, he said: “You can’t kick someone out of a family, nor make their life miserable for this.

Aguilar told lawmakers that Poland appears to be moving away from European fundamental values and called the situation “extremely concerning." Poland has repeatedly been scrutinized in the EU parliament since the conservative nationalist Law and Justice took power in 2015. Jarosław Kaczyński, the leader of the ruling Law and Justice party, called it “a threat to the very foundations of our civilization." LGBT rights groups say they have also recorded a rising number of hate crimes against sexual minorities. “We see Poland crossing red line after red line,” said Sophia in ’t Veld, a Dutch parliament member.

WASHINGTON The Supreme Court ruled Monday that a landmark civil rights law protects gay and lesbian people from discrimination in employment, a resounding victory for LGBT rights from a conservative court. The court decided by a 6-3 vote that a key provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 known as Title VII that bars job discrimination because of sex, among other reasons, encompasses bias against gay and lesbian workers. A ruling on similar protections for transgender people is expected soon.

Poland's parliament speaker says the postponed presidential election will take place June 28. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski, File)WARSAW A senior European Union official on Monday criticized a campaign by Polish authorities against the LGBT rights movement during a close presidential election campaign, saying is is wrong to target minorities for political gain. European Commission Vice-President Vera Jourova, who is in charge of values and transparency, spoke two days after Polish President Andrzej Duda called the LGBT rights movement more dangerous than communism. LGBT rights have become a key campaign theme ahead of Poland's presidential election on June 28. Duda is the front-runner but his key challenger, Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, a vocal supporter of LGBT rights, has been gaining in opinion polls.