Texas Republican introduces bill to make being transgender a felony

Joseph Wilkinson, New York Daily News on Mar 11, 2025

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A Republican representative in Texas has introduced a bill that would make being transgender a felony in the state.

The bill, authored by state Rep. Tom Oliverson, creates a new crime of “gender identity fraud” punishable by up to two years in state prison and a $10,000 fine.

Oliverson, who represents a section of Houston, has not publicly commented on the bill. It has not picked up any official support or co-sponsors in the Texas statehouse since it was filed on March 5.

“This fits right along with the agenda that we’ve been seeing pushed, for the past several sessions, specifically around policing of people’s gender and how they’re able to identify themselves,” Callie Butcher, founder of an LGBTQ law firm in Texas, told Houston Chronicle sister publication Chron.

Texas has spearheaded several efforts to persecute transgender people, which have then been copied in other states. In August 2024, the state banned transgender people from changing the listed gender on their driver’s licenses.

The state has also banned gender-affirming care for anyone under age 19, and another bill introduced in the current legislative session seeks to outlaw such care for all Texans.

Oliverson’s “gender identity fraud” bill would make it a crime to “knowingly (make) a false or misleading verbal or written statement to a governmental entity or (a) person’s employer by identifying the person’s biological sex as the opposite of the biological sex assigned to the person at birth.”

Since Texas representatives started introducing bills in late 2024, at least 50 have been filed to curtail the rights of transgender people in the state, according to the Transgender Education Network of Texas.

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