Monsters Write The Laws In Texas

When power serves only to hurt the vulnerable, it’s actually violence.

We’ve officially hit the final weekend of the Texas legislative session. Sunday marks the 139th day of the 140-day grind, and lawmakers are scrambling to take final action on the last surviving bills. This weekend is all about wrapping up unfinished business, mainly deciding whether to approve or reject conference committee reports, which are the negotiated compromises between the House and Senate on bills that didn’t make it through cleanly. If the two chambers can’t agree, those bills die.

Today (Sunday), both chambers have one job, and that’s to adopt final versions of bills or let them die on the floor. There’s no more amending, no more debating details, just a straight-up or down vote on what’s been negotiated behind closed doors.

And then comes Monday. Sine Die. That’s Latin for “without a day,” meaning the Legislature adjourns with no set date to return (unless the governor calls a special session). On Sine Die, no real lawmaking happens. The only things allowed are technical corrections, last-minute fixes to typos or clerical mistakes in bills that have already passed. It’s mostly a ceremony and speeches. The real work ends tonight.

SB12 was already bad. The conference committee made it worse.

While most of Texas was focused on the end-of-session chaos, Republican lawmakers quietly rammed through an even harsher version of SB12. This bill started as a “parental rights” bill, but by the time the final version came out of conference, it had ballooned into a full-blown anti-DEI, anti-LGBTQ+, anti-public school micromanagement manifesto. Democrats blasted it as dangerous government overreach.

Watch this exchange between Erin Zwiener and Jeff Leach:

Zwiener took the mic and made it personal and powerful. She began by recounting her family’s legal history. Her grandfather, once a top attorney for the State of Texas, defended Texas A&M in front of the U.S. Supreme Court when it denied recognition to a gay student group. She acknowledged the moment with unflinching honesty to make a point. Just because something is legal doesn’t make it right. Future generations are watching.

Leach dodged at first, dismissing the relevance of her story, and even made a joke about his dad driving a hot dog.

Leach equating the mere existence of LGBTQ+ students with sexualization laid bare the entire motive behind SB12. Zwiener didn’t let it slide. She pushed back, pointing out the absurdity and cruelty of pretending that being queer = being inappropriate, while straight identities go unquestioned.

This wasn’t about protecting children. It was about erasing identities.

The changes to SB12 under the conference committee report will:

• Expand the DEI ban.

• Mandatory instructional disclosure.

• Invasive parental surveillance.

• Solidified, “Don’t Say Gay,” language.

Republicans are the real monsters.

Gene Wu took the mic and delivered one of the most searing speeches of the session, a gut-punch of truth aimed squarely at the heart of Republican cruelty.

Wu didn’t sugarcoat it. He spoke directly to the young people watching from home. He called out the sheer absurdity of 2025 lawmakers who still believe that kids become gay because they read a book, or that being transgender is something contagious.

“There’s one party, one group of people, who like making monsters out of others,” he said, “to tell the world: this is why society is collapsing. Not because of low wages or failing schools, but because of drag queens. Because of gay kids. Because of books.”

He reminded the chamber of Alan Turing, the father of modern computing and the man who helped crack the Nazi enigma code. After saving millions of lives, Turing was persecuted by his own country for being gay. He died by suicide. And yet here we are, Wu said, still targeting people for who they are.

“The real monsters,” he said, his voice cracking, “are not the kids trying to figure out who they are... the real monsters are in here.”

There was no rebuttal. No defense. Just silence from the other side of the aisle.

Republicans still voted for the bill, and so did the so-called Democrat Richard Raymond.

If Gene Wu brought fire, Nicole Collier brought heartbreak.

Her voice, calm but unshakable, cut through the procedural theater with the weight of lived experience. She stood not just as a legislator, but as a Black woman, speaking for every student being told by the state of Texas that their identity makes them unfit for public space.

“An LGBTQ person can’t change who they are,” she said. “Any more than I can change that I’m Black.”

That simple truth carried force. Because SB12 doesn’t just target queer kids, it sets a precedent for banning any identity-based student group that doesn’t fit a narrow ideological mold. Collier pointed to what comes next. Black Student Unions? Banned. Mexican-American clubs? Banned. Will we see the same logic applied to legislative caucuses? To any space where marginalized students gather for mutual support?

“This bill is pushing our Black, brown, LGBTQ people into the shadows of the dark, as if we are not accepted.”

Republicans justified this legislation by referencing the 14th Amendment, the very constitutional amendment that forms the legal foundation of civil rights protections in the United States.

The monster agenda.

Throughout this session, Texas Republicans have slammed through nearly every item on their ideological wish list, turning the machinery of the state into a weapon aimed at the most vulnerable.

They’ve targeted LGBTQ+ children, banning books, censoring school clubs, and criminalizing the mere discussion of identity. They’ve attacked immigrants, empowering local law enforcement to act as ICE agents and reviving the spirit of SB4. They’ve turned teachers, librarians, doctors, and social workers into suspects.

And yet, for all the fury aimed at drag queens and school counselors, the harshest blows have landed on working Texans, the people who keep this state running.

This session gutted workers’ rights, expanded corporate loopholes, and handed obscene power to billionaires and business PACs. Lawmakers poured time into stoking culture wars while ignoring unaffordable housing, collapsing schools, overburdened hospitals, and a water system on the edge of failure.

Republicans didn’t govern. They scapegoated. They didn’t fix problems. They invented enemies. They didn’t protect children. They hurt them because cruelty is the point.

Gene Wu called them monsters. But that’s not what makes it true.

What makes them monsters is that they are in power, and they use that power to harm the smallest, quietest, least protected corners of our state.

They govern by fear. They legislate oppression. They uphold white supremacy not just in word, but in law.

And they do it all while calling it “freedom.”

• June 2: The 89th Legislative Session ends.

• June 3: The beginning of the 2026 election season.

• Click here to find out what Legislative districts you’re in.

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