Before stalling in Texas Senate, 'homosexual conduct' bill made legislative history

Project Summary:

In 2023, a fifth of the country’s state-level bills impacting the LGBTQ+ community were filed in Texas, according to a Human Rights Campaign analysis. In 2025, Equality Texas reported a new record number of such bills filed at the State Capitol, surpassing 200 – up from 141 the session before. KXAN’s team of journalists – many LGBTQ+ staff members with unique, developed and inside perspectives providing nuance to our fair, rigorous and balanced reporting standards – produced multimedia stories like this one for the “OutLaw” project, taking an in-depth look at what this trend could mean for Texas’ future.

AUSTIN (KXAN) — A proposal aimed at repealing Texas’ unconstitutional ban on “homosexual conduct” has stalled at the end of the legislative session in the Senate, waiting weeks for a committee referral following full House passage and missing key deadlines. Still, the historic progress of House Bill 1738 has its author already promising to file it again next session in 2027.

HB 1738 was filed after KXAN’s OutLaw investigation explored the origins and legal challenges surrounding a state statute enacted in 1973 to criminalize “deviate sexual intercourse with another individual of the same sex.” The U.S. Supreme Court declared the law unconstitutional in 2003, but state lawmakers never removed the language from Texas’ penal code.

A KXAN analysis revealed at least 60 bills filed since the 1980s attempting unsuccessfully to repeal the law. That includes HB 1738, which advanced further than any of its predecessors in the legislative process.

While the law is technically unenforceable, critics say leaving it in limbo opens the possibility of its misuse by police who do not understand its legal status and lawmakers crafting other policies that could impact the LGBTQ+ community. KXAN has documented such instances in its previous coverage.

The only group to deliver public testimony against HB 1738 this session was the conservative activist group, Texas Values. Its policy director, Jonathan Covey, told a House committee, in doing so, Texas Values wants to send a “message that (homosexual conduct) is not acceptable.”

Rep. Venton Jones, D-Dallas, lays out HB 1738 on second reading on the Texas House floor (Courtesy: Texas House of Representatives)

Following House approval, the bill’s author, Rep. Venton Jones, D-Dallas, said in a post on X the measure has no place in Texas statute. He filed a similar measure as a freshman lawmaker last session and was hopeful, this time, the Senate would continue his momentum to finish what was “long overdue” and remove the “discriminatory law” from the books.

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Sens. Jose Menendez, D-San Antonio, and Molly Cook, D-Houston, were named in Jones’ post as sponsors in the upper chamber. Both filed similar proposals this session to repeal the law, but they failed to move forward.

In a statement to KXAN, Cook praised Jones’ leadership in moving the legislation through the House.

“I am proud to have filed the Senate companion bill (SB 2723) because every person in Texas deserves equal protection and respect under the law,” she said. “There is nothing criminal about being queer or questioning. There is nothing shameful about love. We will keep fighting until every LGBTQ+ Texan can live with safety, dignity, and pride in the state we call home.”

On Friday, as the legislature headed into its final few days of the session, Jones told KXAN he is “incredibly proud of the significant strides we made in our efforts to finally repeal” the law and that he plans to file the bill again in 2027.

“This achievement is a testament to the dedication of my colleagues and the tireless work of numerous former members who have championed this issue for decades,” he added. “I am committed to continuing this legacy and seeing this through to completion in the next session.”

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