HB1738 decriminalizing homosexuality. Passed house, off to the Senate. Dallas (Vichy) Voice uses term "sodomy."
Who voted for it and who voted against it. Christian zealots upset.
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Links saved in the Internet Archive where possible. The Texas Legislature pages won’t save to the Internet Archive. There is some block.
News articles on this.
I will have a special review of the Dallas Voice headline at the end of this post.
https://dallasvoice.com/breaking-news-texas-house-votes-to-decriminalize-sodomy/
https://www.kxan.com/investigations/house-approves-bill-to-remove-texas-homosexual-conduct-ban/
Questions about Deadlines for legislation
There was a claim that HB1738 was effectively dead, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. But, I want to review this to make sure that the timeline is understood. it is passed and has gone to the Texas Senate.
Houston Public Media, May 12, 2025, “It’s crunch time for Texas House bills as three key deadlines hit this week.”
Subtitle:
Any House bills or joint resolutions that haven’t passed out of committee by Monday, made it to a calendar by Tuesday or gotten their second reading on the House floor by Thursday are effectively dead for the state’s biennial legislative session. [Boldface added.]
This is the bills history from the Texas Legislature. I see a 2nd reading.
https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=HB1738
Note that it passed by only 6 to 5 out of committee. This is the record for the Criminal Jurisprudence Committee.
It still needs to be voted on the 2nd time in the House before it goes to the Senate. I don’t know what deadlines there are in the Senate.
Criminal Jurisprudence committe vote.
It was 6 to 5 in favor with zero abstaining.
https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/89R/minutes/html/C2202025050600001.HTM
The Text is as follows. (Boldface added.)
HB 1738
The chair laid out HB 1738 as pending business.
Representative Jones, Jolanda moved that HB 1738, without amendments, be reported favorably to the full house with the recommendation that it do pass and be printed. The motion prevailed by the following record vote:
Ayes: Representatives Wu; Bowers; Cook; Jones, Jolanda; Moody; Rodríguez Ramos (6).
Nays: Representatives Smithee; Little; Louderback; Money; Virdell (5).
Present, Not Voting: None (0).
Absent: None (0).
https://house.texas.gov/committees/committee/220
Biographical info on the five persons voting nay.
https://house.texas.gov/members/4530 John T. Smithee No biography on his page.
https://www.votejohnsmithee.com/
Campaign website
John has long served as an adult Sunday School Teacher at First Baptist Church Amarillo.
Has X account, but doesn’t post anything. I also checked his other social media.
https://house.texas.gov/members/4615 Mitch Little No biography
https://mitchlittlefortexas.com/
Campaign website
They are active members of Sojourn Church in Carrollton.
As a Christian, husband, father, business owner and community leader, Mitch is invested in the future and is determined to help shape it.
Didn’t post anything on any of his social media.
https://house.texas.gov/members/4620 Aj Louderback. No biography
https://ajlouderback.com/ Campaign website
They are members and attend Parkway Church in Victoria.
Campaign website doesn’t list any social media accounts.
https://house.texas.gov/members/4670 Brent Money. No biography
https://www.brentmoney.com/ Campaign website
He commented on HB1783 on X. You can see he is a Christian fanatic and a danger to civil society.
https://x.com/brentmoney/status/1923136706942767438
Sexual immorality degrades the individuals involved and the society he/she is a part of. The idea that “what consenting adults do in private is their own business” is a humanistic lie from the very pit of hell, and too many Christians and churches have accepted and repeated it.
https://house.texas.gov/members/4775 Wes Virdell No biography
https://virdellfortexas.com/ Campaign website.
Campaign website doesn’t list any social media accounts.
1st Vote in the House
Legislative history of the Bill
https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=HB1738 A bill is read three times in its passage. So it is off to the Senate.
First vote in the house. Vote was 72 for HB1738 and 55 against. 5 present not voting.
Video of Texas House 5/15/2024. It is 14 hours long. One bill is brought up after another for a vote. So each bill is just a few minutes.
HB1783 brought up at 6:49:10.
Speakers, first TX House Rep. Venton Jones, second TX House Rep. Bob Harrison,
https://www.house.texas.gov/videos/22132
https://journals.house.texas.gov/hjrnl/89r/pdf/89RDAY65FINAL.PDF#page=128
Second vote was 59 for HB17398 and 56 against it, 4 present not voting.
Video of Texas House 5/16/2024. It is 14 hours long. One bill is brought up after another for a vote. So each bill is just a few minutes.
HB1738 is brought up at 1:31:40.
1st Speaker Venton Jones. Passed by one vote.
Verification requested. Lengthy procedure. Names are temporarily struck because they aren’t in the chamber. Seems there is some sort of issue, since the video then is silent on HB1738 for some time. Then without comment, the TX house moves on to another bill.
At 1:48:14 the verification reflects 59 votes for HB1738 and 56 against.
Make sure those who claim to be supporters of Gays, stick around for vote verification. Maybe this is something that happens all the time, but I think that someone asked for vote verification for a reason. Maybe to make sure everyone is on record, or maybe to try to defeat the bill. I don’t know.
https://www.house.texas.gov/videos/22133
AND A LOT OF PEOPLE ABSENT. Notice that the Yeahs went down from 72 to 59.
Interestingly, Virdell, who is a Criminal Jurisprudence Committee member, voted against the bill in committee, missed both votes in the House on the Bill.
Cook who voted for it out of the Criminial Jurisprudence Committee, voted against it in the both House votes.
All the represenatives for District 100-105, 107-115 voted for HP1783.
Jared Patterson in District 106 voted against HB1783.
https://house.texas.gov/members/3655
Rep. Patterson and his family reside in Frisco and are members of Frisco First Baptist Church. [Boldface added.]
Map of his district.
https://wrm.capitol.texas.gov/fyiwebdocs/PDF/house/dist106/m1.pdf
I will have eventually background information on all of the people who voted against the bill and have it here.
In the above vote totals you can see some of our local anti-Gay idiots voting against HB1738, such as Shaheen.
Shelley Luther is a member of a homophobic Cowboy church.
Jeff Leach is active in campaigning against drag shows and is a member of homophobic Prestonwood Baptist Church.
Nate Schatzline is with Mercy Culture church.
I am going to get the background of each Texas House member who voted against HB1783.
Oppositon campaigning
Reaching email limit. come back for more information.
The opposition seems to have been led by Texas Values which had testified against the bill in committee.
https://x.com/txvalues/status/1923057208910373248
The above X post didn’t get hearts, or comments or reposted.
Local DFW anti-Gay campaigner Carlos Turcios was upset with HP1738 passing the Texas House.
https://x.com/Carlos__Turcios/status/1923149914499903642
Notice that it got reposted 1,500 times.
https://x.com/Carlos__Turcios/status/1923500962519408712
https://x.com/Carlos__Turcios/status/1923552683052400869
Here he is trying to make it about “grooming.” As if it has something to do with children.
Stupid Dallas Voice
All the other media used the term “homosexual conduct.” The homophobes use the term “sodomy” which come out of the Christian Bible. Use of the term drags decriminalization into the Bible and its theology.
Except our local stupid Dallas Voice.
https://dallasvoice.com/updated-texas-house-votes-to-decriminalize-sodomy/
if it is a victory 🧨🧨🎉🎊