SB 723 Showdown

Hope you peeps have been calling and e-mailing Texas Democratic senators reminding them to imitate the ones in Wisconsin and hang together to stop SB 723.    It's a naked attempt to codify the jacked up Littleton decision into Texas law and needs to be stopped.

Have been advised by Meghan Stabler that she will be in the Senate Chambers today tweeting the events surrounding this bill.   She'll be using the hashtag TXSB723

She also had this to say as well.

Texas Senate Bill 723 is placed on the Senate “Intent Schedule” for Monday April 18th.  That means SB 723 ‘may’ come up for a floor vote sometime after 11am. If SB 723 gets a favorable vote it will enshrine Littleton vs Prange (1999) logic - you are what the doctor put on your birth certificate - into Texas State law. This will lay the foundation for the State of Texas to cease to recognize the transitioned status of transgender people. As you can read in my letter to the Texas Democratic Senators, what this will do is set up ‘legislative intent’ and we must avoid this.

Per Cristan Williams, “We only need 12 Democrats to vote against the bill. If we can hold all 12, the bill will die. This isn't a hard thing to do. They will vote against it if they know that a lot of folks want them to. All you need to do is simply speak up.”

12 Democrats stand in the way and they need to know that you want SB 723 to die.  Email them... Just cut and paste their email address into your email:

mario.gallegos@senate.state.tx.us
wendy.davis@senate.state.tx.us
rodney.ellis@senate.state.tx.us
kirk.watson@senate.state.tx.us
john.whitmire@senate.state.tx.us
carlos.uresti@senate.state.tx.us
juan.hinojosa@senate.state.tx.us
judith.zaffirini@senate.state.tx.us
royce.west@senate.state.tx.us
leticia.vandeputte@senate.state.tx.us
eddie.lucio@senate.state.tx.us
Jose.rodriguez@senate.state.tx.us

Tell them that you want them to vote AGAINST Senate Bill 723!

And if all you can do is spread the word and encourage others to speak up... PLEASE... please do it.

If you are on twitter, follow tag TXSB723 for updates should SB 723 come to the floor.

My Letter,

Dear Senator and fellow Democrat,

My name is Meghan Stabler and I am a resident of Texas. I am deeply concerned about SB 723 and it's implication on my personal life, liberty and freedom to marry.

I am a member of the National Democratic LGBT Council, an alumni of President Obama's National LGBT Policy Committee and a Board of Director of Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBT Civil Rights organization. As mentioned I am a resident of Texas, having moved here from New York 9 years ago. I am also a technology executive for one of the top 4 software companies in the world. I am also a post-operative Transsexual woman. This means that I have therapeutically, hormonally, and surgically altered my body to correct a birth defect. You can read more about me here... http://dot429.com/blogs/3449/posts/466

What SB 723 does is to remove only one item, 'a court order as proof of a "sex change"' from the list of documents that can be used to prove my gender to gain a marriage license. While I can acknowledge that there are other documents such as my Drivers License that I can use instead, the amendment could send a clear signal of "legislative intent" to a court should marriages be disputed in the future. This in turn means that other documents, such as my Drivers License, could be removed in the future or denied as evidence.

This is a heinous signal to the transgender population of Texas, it begins a signal fire that we are less than others and not worthy of love.

I humbly respect and ask that you vote against this bill and let it die in the legislature.

Sincerely,

Meghan Stabler

So to all the Texas transpeople and our cis and GLB allies who have responded in our hour of need to help us out, thank you.   We'll find out just how much of a difference you made in a few hours.