You're Out: A Policy Analysis of TX HB 25

Abstract

Texas House Bill 25 (HB 25) was enrolled in October 2021 during the third legislative special session of the 87th Texas Legislature (Texas Legislature Online, 2021). The act mandates that youth who wish to participate in school sports must compete on the team which corresponds with the sex on their original birth certificate rather than the team which matches their gender identity or the gender they experience internally (HB 25, 2021). There are nearly 14,000 transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) youth living in Texas (Herman et al., 2017). This population experiences a much higher risk of many negative health outcomes compared to their cisgender peers (Johns et al., 2019). HB 25 is discriminatory and will negatively impact TGD youth in Texas. Additionally, HB 25 is one of many proposed pieces of anti-trans legislation that has been pursued by members of the Texas Legislature over the last year. In this policy analysis, I overview existing research on the importance of young people participating in sports, the harmful impact of sports bans on transgender and gender-diverse youth, the way that HB 25 fits into the broader landscape of anti-trans legislation in Texas, and what social workers can do to support transgender youth.