How Texas’ Blue Takeover Could Soon Begin Impacting Texans’ Lives

“We do think that the governor, the attorney general, state agencies, they’re all going to have a role to play in stopping the harm and the terrorization that trans Texans have gone through from the government,” Hall says. 

One change they predict the newly elected officials could make is overturning a state law that requires patients’ biological sex to be used on their medical records.

“Instead of everybody being forced to go by their name assigned at birth or their gender assigned at birth, for example, we’re hoping doctors will have more leeway to treat trans and intersex patients with dignity and respect,” Hall says. 

Johnson has said, for instance, that he will not devote resources to enforcing a Texas law restricting transgender people’s access to bathrooms. 

Though same-sex marriage is legal in all states, Hall adds that Texas’ Constitution includes language saying the practice is banned, while an “anti-sodomy” provision also still exists within the state’s Penal Code. Hall contends these texts, which are unenforceable due to landmark Supreme Court rulings, could soon be removed.