Legislative Updates-- 80th Session UPDATE ON FOSTER CARE There is a hearing coming up this Thursday in the Health & Human Services Committee (chair: Rep. Patrick Rose) on Child Protective Services. The topic of hearing is very open – we expect that privatization issues will dominate. Patrick Rose voted for HJR6 and foster care ban last session—he’s a young ‘Craddick’ Democrat that has expressed remorse for his votes on our issues. In last week’s Austin American-Statesman, Rep. Warren Chisum was quoted as supporting a ‘preference’ for heterosexual couples in foster care placements. We responded very quickly and generated good press on the issue. Right now we are gearing up to fight an outright ban—this insidious proposal could still be very damaging to the community and more difficult to oppose than an outright ban. We have met with local organizations including the National Association of Social Workers, Texas Freedom Network, PFAW, and Atticus Circle to form a coalition to address different avenues that this bill could come up, including the sunset process, or as an appropriations rider to direct CPS to establish a preference system (so we combing those bills as they pass through with help of Dawnna Dukes office). We have a reasonable expectation that an amendment will be attached to a Child Protective Service bill that is sure to come up in light of last session’s privatization debacle. Also, last session House leadership pushed hard for the amendment to ban lgb foster parents—we still have Speaker Craddick presiding over the House (despite the best efforts of many advocacy organizations in Texas), and he has not altered his stance. The most likely avenue for it to come up is as a rider on a bigger bill (though we are monitoring other avenues), and our ‘floor strategy’ will rely heavily on the grassroots advocacy of our membership state-wide—we must communicate with our legislators as well as hold them accountable for their votes. LEGISLATIVE AGENDA HB 1017 - Relating to student clubs in the public schools For a complete list of all the bills Equality Texas is tracking, visit: http://www.equalitytexas.org/issues/legislation/ Another big issue we’re working on is enforcement of the Hate Crimes Act. State Rep. Coleman has introduced legislation to amend the Act to include gender identity and expression (HB 1289) and State Rep. Naishtat has introduced legislation to include homeless people under the Hate Crimes Act (HB 1360). There are concerns about opening up the definition of a hate crime because it makes ‘sexual preference’ vulnerable to challenge; there are Reps that could attempt to remove it entirely from the bill. This is similar to the concern surrounding an attempt to remove Penal statute 21.06 (the statute criminalizing sodomy that was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in Lawrence v. Texas) from the books because it brings the sodomy statute under scrutiny.
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