Texas faces United Nations petition to investigate anti-LGBTQ+ laws

Several LGBTQ+ advocacy groups have filed a petition with the United Nations claiming that the state of Texas has violated international human rights law with its passage of seven anti-LGBTQ+ laws last year.

A letter of allegation – signed by GLAAD, the ACLU of Texas, Equality Texas, the Human Rights Campaign, and the University of Texas at Austin School of Law Human Rights Clinic – was submitted to 17 independent experts, working groups, and special rapporteurs at the U.N. The letter describes the actions taken by state officials last year that were hostile to the human rights of LGBTQ+ people.

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“In 2023, the Texas Legislature targeted the LGBTQIA+ community through hostile laws that have disrupted (or will disrupt) the ability of LGBTQIA+ persons to effectuate their rights,” the letter states. “Taken individually, the seven pieces of legislation discussed in this submission will disrupt the lives of LGBTQIA+ people of various ages and backgrounds. Put together, the Bills are a systemic attack on the fundamental rights, dignities, and identities of LGBTQIA+ persons that opens the gates for discrimination by both public and private actors.”

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“Considering the danger this represents, we humbly ask for you to make inquiries into this backsliding of human rights of LGBTQIA+ persons in the state of Texas, United States of America. Furthermore, the United States federal government has failed to adopt necessary and adequate measures to prevent these abuses. While some federal courts have placed injunctions on some of the Bills, the federal government has not adopted a proper response to the systemic attack on LGBTQIA+ persons living in the state of Texas.”

The letter draws attention to S.B. 14, which was signed by Gov. Greg Abbott (R) in June 2023, a bill that bans gender-affirming care for transgender minors and requires those already transitioning in the state to detransition. A federal court has already issued an injunction against the law.

The letter also pointed to S.B. 17, passed last year, which banned diversity programs at public universities and precludes references to gender identity and sexual orientation – as well as other identities – during staff training. The law has been used to eliminate LGBTQ+ spaces at public universities and, the letter states, to eliminate HIV testing programs.

Texas’s S.B. 15, signed in June 2023, banned transgender students from participating in school sports, and it’s also mentioned in the letter. The letter also mentions the state’s drag ban, S.B. 12; a bill allowing public schools to hire religious chaplains, S.B. 763; H.B. 900, a ban on “sexually explicit” materials in school libraries that is so vague critics say it can be used to ban any book mentioning sexuality at all, including the Bible; and H.B. 2127, which bans local governments from providing anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people that go beyond what state law already says.

The letter asks the U.N. to investigate each of the bills and to ask Texas officials how the bills protect LGBTQ+ people’s rights.

“Considering the danger this represents, we humbly ask for you to make inquiries into this backsliding of human rights of LGBTQIA+ persons in the state of Texas,” the letter states.

According to the ACLU, 84 anti-LGBTQ+ bills became law last year. The number of anti-LGBTQ+ bills filed this year already exceeds the number that had been filed at this point last year.