Progress in Texas as School Boards Move to Protect LGBT Students

While any pro-LGBT legislation has had a difficult time making it through the Texas legislature, since 2012 more than three-quarters of school districts in the state have taken steps to protect students against harassment based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

"Based on a recommendation from the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB), these 900-plus districts -- out of more than 1,200 in the state -- list sexual orientation and gender identity under examples of prohibited gender-based harassment," The Texas Observer reports in an article published Monday.

The recommendation, which was based on guidance from the U.S. Department of Justice, has met with positive reception from local school boards, said Carolyn Counce, TASB's director of policy service.

"We provide explanatory materials when we release our recommendations," Counce told the Observer. "We encourage them to examine those materials and make sure that they do match the district's practice. I don't recall any negative feedback from our members at all. We try to provide materials that protect districts, to the extent we can, from litigation, and keep them aligned with legal requirements."

Districts adopting the antiharassment language include the Keller Independent School District, in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area, where the board canceled a vote on broader LGBT protections last month, after meeting with resistance from conservatives, the Observer notes.

As an example of statewide resistance, the Observer cites the Texas House of Representatives' 97-49 vote this year to table legislation that would have required the Texas Education Agency to document discriminatory or harassing actions based on sexual orientation and gender identity as well as various other characteristics.

The education agency added sexual orientation to its ethics code in 2010, meaning certified educators in Texas must not discriminate against students or colleagues on this basis. This year Republican Rep. Drew Springer introduced but then withdrew a bill to remove that language from the code. "Apparently confusing sexual orientation with gender identity, Springer recently boasted that the amendment would have somehow prohibited transgender girls from using girls' restrooms," the Observer notes.

With homophobic and transphobic attitudes so prevalent in the legislature, LGBT rights advocates see the actions of local school boards as a necessary step. "In the real world, enumerated lists are understood and utilized effectively, but with the current makeup of the legislature, it's very difficult," Daniel Williams, legislative specialist for Equality Texas, told the publication. "At the end of the day, the question is, 'Are we protecting children?' And the adoption of these policies by more districts protects more children, and that's a good thing."