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Salgu Wissmath for The Texas Tribune

“Texas House votes to strictly define man and woman, excluding trans people from state records” was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.

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Dozens of trans people and their allies gathered in the outdoor Capitol rotunda Friday, chanting at the top of their lungs.

They will not erase us.

The next day, the Texas House of Representatives preliminarily passed a bill that aims to do just that.

House Bill 229 strictly defines men and women based on the reproductive organs they were born with, and orders state records to reflect this binary. The bill, titled the “Women’s Bill of Rights,” lays out the “biological truth for anybody who is confused,” said author Rep. Ellen Troxclair, an Austin Republican.

The bill passed on second reading 86-36 after an at times tense debate, and is expected to be finally approved this week before going to the Senate, which has already passed several bills with a similar focus.

Surrounded by a cadre of Republican women, Troxclair said the goal of the bill was to ensure women’s rights aren’t “eroded by activists” as more people come out as trans and nonbinary. Democrats argued against the bill for almost three hours with Rep. Jessica González, D-Dallas, saying “it is harmful, it is dangerous, and it is really freaking insulting.”

If this bill becomes law, more than 120,000 trans Texans would be forced to be defined in state records by the sex they were assigned at birth, rather than the gender they identify as, even if they’ve already legally changed their birth certificates and driver’s licenses.

Saturday’s debate rehashed a deep fracture over sex and gender that has animated the Texas Legislature, and much of the country, for the last five sessions. In previous years, legislators focused on tangible questions of bathroom access, youth sports and gender-affirming care for minors.

This year, the proposals that have gained the most traction reflect a more fundamental question: what is a woman?

For conservative lawmakers, the answer is simple, and best defined by reproductive organs. For trans people and their allies, the answer is simple, and best left to an individual’s assertion of their gender identity.

Only one of those groups controls the Texas Capitol.

“We’re a state that believes in truth, and we’re a state that honors the hard-won achievements of women, the women who fought for the right to vote, to compete in sports and to be safe in public spaces, to be treated equally under the law,” Troxclair said on the floor. “But if we can no longer define what a woman is, we cannot defend what women have won. We cannot protect what we cannot define.”

In the bill, a woman is defined as “an individual whose biological reproductive system is developed to produce ova,” and a man is “an individual whose biological reproductive system is developed to fertilize the ova of a female.” Democrats criticized this as overly simplistic, excluding trans people, but also intersex people and those who can’t conceive children.

“Any biologist knows there are variations in sex chromosomes, hormone levels and other traits … where an individual’s biological characteristics don’t align with typical male or female categorization,” said Rep. Jon Rosenthal, a Democrat from Houston. “The real question is, do you believe that all people have the basic rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of their own personal happiness?”

This bill aligns with an executive order from Gov. Greg Abbott, who declared in January that Texas only recognizes two sexes, male and female, and a non-binding legal opinion from Attorney General Ken Paxton, who said state agencies should not honor court opinions to change someone’s sex listed on official documents.

At the Capitol rally on Friday, Lambda Legal senior attorney Shelly Skeen said revoking these changed documents, and preventing people from changing them in the future, “affects every aspect of our daily lives.” Having a birth certificate or drivers’ license that reflects a different sex than their physical presentation, or that doesn’t align with their passport or other documents, could leave trans people in a legal limbo and potentially open them up to violence, she said.

It could impact the state facilities, like prisons, they are sorted into, the bathrooms and locker rooms they are supposed to use and the discrimination protections they are entitled to, Skeen said. Unlike other bills, like the so-called “bathroom bill,” this legislation does not have civil or criminal penalties for using a facility that doesn’t align with one’s sex.

Troxclair did accept one amendment, by El Paso Democrat Rep. Mary González, to clarify how intersex people, who are born with both sets of reproductive organs, fit into these definitions.

The chamber also preliminarily approved Senate Bill 1257, which would require health insurers that cover gender-affirming care to also cover any adverse consequences and costs of detransitioning. The bill, authored by Sen. Bryan Hughes and sponsored by Rep. Jeff Leach, passed 82-37.

Leach said he brought this bill on behalf of people who were left with hundreds of thousands of dollars of medical bills because their health insurance wouldn’t cover the costs of detransitioning.

“The illustration that I think best describes this is, if you take somebody to the dance and they want to go home, then you have to take them home,” Leach said during the debate on Saturday.

The bill says that any insurance company that covers gender-affirming care must cover all detransition-related costs for its members, even if that person wasn’t on the health insurance plan at the time they transitioned. Democrats filed more than half a dozen amendments to narrow the scope of the bill, critiquing the bill as a health insurance mandate. None of the amendments passed.

Last session, Texas lawmakers outlawed gender-affirming care for minors. Trans advocates worry that raising the cost of covering gender-affirming care will result in health insurers not covering the treatments for adults, either.

“If you can make it painful enough for providers and insurers, health care is gone,” said Emmett Schelling, the executive director of the Transgender Education Network of Texas. “It doesn’t just feed into gender-affirming care. It bleeds into health care that we all need, that we all deserve.”

Speaking on the floor Saturday, Rep. Ann Johnson, a Houston Democrat, said the Legislature was telling insurance companies not to cover gender-affirming care.

“The reality is this bill, however you couch it, is about eliminating the existence of trans individuals in Texas,” Johnson said. “Stop pretending that you’re for freedom. Stop pretending that this is about the kids.”

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This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/10/texas-house-trans-bills-advance/.

The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.

Construction is underway on two artificial turf fields at the future Gig Harbor Sports Complex, another step forward in a massive project to address the demand from youth sports for lit turf fields in Gig Harbor.

Phase 1A of the Gig Harbor Sports Complex will add two synthetic turf fields, field lighting and 100 parking stalls next to the existing Tom Taylor Family YMCA, according to the YMCA of Pierce and Kitsap Counties website and a 2021 press release.

A multi-year fundraising campaign for the project is nearing the finish line: Donations stood at $6.9 million Thursday, only about $100,000 short of the $7 million target, according to YMCA spokesperson Jyot Sandhu. That total includes about $1 million expected from the state capital budget, which awaits the governor’s signature by May 17, and $2.3 million from the city of Gig Harbor.

The YMCA is still asking for donations, and is offering inscribed bricks to recognize donors of $250, $500 and $1,000 amounts, according to the YMCA website.

The groundbreaking ceremony at the Tom Taylor YMCA was at 1 p.m. on May 2.

Sports fields funded with YMCA, city and state contributions

The minimum cost for the fields was originally estimated at $3.85 million, to be funded mostly by the YMCA except for a $350,000 grant from the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office, according to the original lease agreement between the city and YMCA signed in May 2021. An amended lease signed and approved by the city council in March of this year indicated that the estimated minimum cost had grown to $7 million, and the city committed to providing $2.3 million of that total.

$2 million of the city’s contributions would come from the Hospital Benefit Zone fund, the updated lease said.

City Clerk Josh Stecker wrote in an email Friday that the Hospital Benefit Zone fund is drawn from sales tax revenues, and “is not an additional sales tax levied by the city” but “a portion of the state’s 6.5% sales tax that is set aside specifically for this fund.”

Only capital projects within a certain distance of St. Anthony’s Hospital are eligible for money from the Hospital Benefit Zone fund, city Parks Manager Jennifer Haro wrote in an email Monday.

Asked via phone Friday about the city’s decision to help fund Phase 1A, Mayor Mary Barber said there were several factors, including the COVID-19 pandemic.

The pandemic “changed fundraising,” Barber said. “We did need to pivot and make some adjustments, and the city believed so strongly in the project that we were willing to commit that funding.”

The fundraising campaign took longer than expected, pushing back the project timeline, The News Tribune reported.

The YMCA is scheduled to have the fields complete this December after the city extended the deadline by another year, according to Jessie Palmer, senior executive of financial development for the YMCA of Pierce and Kitsap Counties. Each field will be 360 feet by 210 feet, which allows them to accommodate sports including soccer, youth football, lacrosse and Little League baseball at the T-ball level, Palmer said in an interview on April 29.

Meeting demand for youth athletic fields

“These fields are not just an investment in our youth, but in our local economy too, with the potential to bring in future tournaments and visitors to support nearby businesses,” Barber said in a YMCA press release. “This public-private partnership that we initiated with the YMCA over a decade ago is a great example of how we can come together to create more places for kids to play, grow, and thrive.”

The YMCA press release noted that there are over 9,000 youth who participate in field sports in Gig Harbor and surrounding areas.

“Local sports groups have had to limit the number of participants and put kids on waitlists because there are not additional fields to accommodate the demand,” the release said. “The synthetic turf fields will also help ensure fewer cancellations due to poor weather or muddy or unsafe field conditions. Additionally, well-lit fields will keep events safely running year-round, even during dark winter hours.”

A timeline on the Gig Harbor Peninsula Youth Sports Coalition website tracking the community’s journey toward establishing the sports complex says that Gig Harbor has faced a lack of sports fields for decades. Several land acquisitions and many public meetings and open house events helped push the project forward, according to the timeline.

The fields will also allow the YMCA to offer more of its own programming, like summer day camp activities that they previously had to host in the parking lot with tents and roll-up artificial turf mats, according to Palmer.

The city of Gig Harbor donated the land for the two fields, after paying $3.5 million in 2017 to purchase it along with land to build an adjacent park, according to city Parks Manager Haro. The city council approved a master plan in 2018 directing the design, permitting and construction for the sports complex; and has committed a total of $10.5 million for the complex so far as a whole, according to the city website.

City park amenities nearly complete

A city newsletter on April 23 said that construction is set to finish in late May on another phase of the larger sports complex: a park next to the YMCA-operated turf fields. The city’s budget for that phase was $5.2 million in the 2023-2024 budget, per the city website.

Phase 1B will add a variety of recreational amenities to the sports complex, including a restrooms/concession building, picnic shelters, event lawn, bocce ball courts, pickleball courts and more parking, per the city website. It will also feature a ship play structure, Native American canoes on the playground and a performance stage and lawn, according to a measure recently reviewed by the city council to decide on a name.

After receiving 24 suggestions from the public, the city council landed on the name Doris Heritage Park, according to a city resolution on April 28. The name honors a Gig Harbor athlete who broke two world records and won dozens of national and world titles for distance running, including at the Olympics, according to her bio in the National Track & Field Hall of Fame. Doris Heritage attended Peninsula High School — at a time when girls weren’t allowed to run on the track — and finished her career as a running coach for four decades at Seattle Pacific University, the resolution says.

Phases 2 and 3 still in design stage

There’s also a second and third phase projected for the project, though no funding has been allocated yet for the design, permitting or construction of those phases, according to city Parks Manager Haro. She also wrote that the city doesn’t have any agreements in place to partner with other organizations on the phases.

The city paid $125,000 for a feasibility study of Phases 2 and 3. Estimated costs for those phases stand at $28 million, Haro wrote in her email. The city council approved that feasibility study from consultant BCRA in March 2024.

Phase 2 will convert the Peninsula Light Fields currently leased by Gig Harbor Little League to artificial turf, and Phase 3 will develop additional turf fields on undeveloped land south of the existing Tom Taylor YMCA, according to the city website.