Legislation seeking to decriminalize homeosexual conduct in state code passed an initial vote in the Texas House on Thursday night with a degree of bipartisan support.
Rep. Venton Jones (D-Dallas), a self-identified gay man, carried House Bill (HB) 1738 successfully through the lower chamber with bipartisan joint author support from Rep. Brian Harrison (R-Midlothian) and former Speaker Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont) — eliminating a section of Texas penal code that reads, “A person commits an offense if he engages in deviate sexual intercourse with another individual of the same sex … a Class C misdemeanor.”
