All Citizens of Texas who attend Burning Flipside or similar events,
The Texas Legislature is considering many bills this session that would be damaging to members of our community and thus to the event. They are also considering several bills that could make it difficult, if not impossible to hold any burn event in Texas.
Among these bills are HB 643, HB 708, HB 1266, and SB 476. Each of these bills would require any business where someone performed “exhibiting a gender identity different from the performer’s birth (including by makeup or clothing) as sexually oriented businesses in the eyes of the law.”
This law is so onerous and so ill-conceived that it could impact not only burn events, but bars, dance clubs, and even community theatre.
For our participants who live in Texas and want to see burn events continue, we hope you’ll reach out to your state Representatives/Senators and attend committee hearings if you are able to register your opposition to these bills. Not only are they a danger to the event they are harmful to the community the event represents.
We are grateful for organizations like Equality Texas for their work in tracking legislation. You can visit Equality Texas‘ Legislative Bill Tracker to find out which bills to watch, and go to the Texas Legislature Online Bill Lookup page to look up the bills by number to read the text for yourself.
Note that Equality Texas also lists bills that support the LGBTQ+ community. Supportive bills don’t get as much love as they should. Please keep them in mind as you’re registering your opinions that you can also register in support of good bills.