Texas is one of only six states currently mandating that homosexuality be explicitly demonized in public school classrooms; that is to say, that we as a state still have no promo homo laws on the books. These laws (Tex. Health & Safety Code § 85.007, and Tex. Health & Safety Code § 163.002) require that, in conversations about sexuality,  teachers emphasized that “homosexuality is not a lifestyle acceptable to the general public and that homosexual conduct is a criminal offense under Section 21.06, Penal Code.”

These laws are not only unjust, but also completely disregard the legal and social realities governing state law in Texas. According to a poll conducted by the University of Texas in 2017, 55% of Texans agree that gays and lesbians should have the right to marry, which would indicate that a majority of Texans might disagree with the assertion  that “homosexuality is not an lifestyle acceptable to the general public” (or at the very least, that the majority of Texans do not believe that our government should be in the business of deciding what is and isn’t socially acceptable). Additionally, part of the premise that these laws operate upon (namely, that homosexual conduct is a criminal offense), was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States in the 2003 case, Lawrence v. Texas. As such, these laws make no logical sense and promote a standard that is no longer backed by federal legal precedent.

With all of this in mind, it is imperative from not only an ethical, but also from a legal and political prospective, that these laws be repealed.