Good morning,

The U.S. Air Force wants base and installation commanders to "plan and conduct" celebrations for "LGBTQ Pride Month." Give us your opinion of that in today's One Click Survey.

But first, here is the Texas Minute for Monday, May 22, 2023.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Paxton Launches Investigation Into Child Abuse At Texas Hospital

• Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has launched an investigation into Texas Children's Hospital of Houston for allegedly performing child gender mutilation procedures, which he says are “child abuse” under state law. As Katy Marshall reports, this investigation is in addition to one examining similar allegations at Dell Children's Hospital in Austin.
        
• Investigative journalist Christopher Rufo recently shared internal records from TCH in Houston, revealing that the institution resumed performing child gender mutilation procedures only three days after announcing that they would halt the practice.
        
• “I’ve been clear that any ‘gender transitioning’ procedures that hurt our children constitute child abuse under Texas law,” said Paxton.
      
• Last week, the Texas Legislature gave final approval to Senate Bill 14, which will ban medical providers from prescribing minors puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and mutilative surgeries. Gov. Greg Abbott is expected to sign the measure into law.

Schools and Big Business Lobby Senate for New Corporate Welfare Program

• Business lobbyists and school district officials are working to persuade Texas lawmakers to establish a new corporate welfare program. Darrell Frost has the details.
      
• The proposed corporate welfare program – House Bill 5 – would replace and expand on the now-defunct "Chapter 313" tax abatement program. Those agreements allowed school districts to waive property taxes for politically connected businesses, and then have state taxpayers reimburse the districts for the lost revenues. Since 2007, the vast majority of Chapter 313 agreements facilitated the development of renewable energy projects like wind farms, which notoriously failed during the 2021 winter storm.
      
• Lobbyists from the Texas Association of Business, the Texas Association of Manufacturers, the Texas Chemical Council, the Texas Oil and Gas Association, and the Texas Association of Rural Schools all testified in favor of a new program before the Senate Committee on Business and Commerce.
     

• To be eligible for the new abatement program, an applicant would have to demonstrate that the proposed project would produce a net benefit to the state’s economy in an amount greater than the foregone property taxes within 25 years, and that approval is a “determining factor” in deciding whether to go forward with the project.

Texas House (Finally) Advances Protections For Children and Taxpayers

• With the 88th Session of the Texas Legislature ending a week from today, the House closed last week by advancing two grassroots priorities; both measures originated in the Senate.
        
• Senate Bill 12 will ban sexually explicit performances on private or public property in the presence of a minor. It passed by a vote of 88 in favor, 12 opposed, and 42 "present not voting." Those 42 were Democrats who did not want to take a position on pedophiles grooming children through provocative and explicit performances. Sydnie Henry has the story.
         
• Senate Bill 3 will be the lynchpin in the 2023 property tax relief push, combining the approaches of the House and Senate. The measure passed the state Senate on March 22, several weeks before the House passed its version. Darrell Frost describes how the measure increases the homestead exemption to $100,00, reduces the "appraisal cap" from 10 percent to 5 percent, and provides approximately $16 billion in new property tax relief.

Vehicle Safety Inspections Could End... If Abbott Agrees

• Texas is currently the only Republican-led state that requires annual vehicle safety inspections, reports Brandon Waltens. Legislation passed by the Texas House and Senate would eliminate the need for drivers to take their vehicles in for the annual inspection.
          
• House Bill 3297, authored by State Rep. Cody Harris (R–Palestine), doesn’t fully eliminate the cost, however. The legislation would also institute a new $7.50 “Inspection Program Replacement Fee” on all cars in addition to the annual registration cost.
          

• While the safety inspection would end, emissions testing would continue in Texas’ most populous counties – including Brazoria, Collin, Dallas, Denton, El Paso, Ellis, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Johnson, Kaufman, Montgomery, Parker, Rockwall, Tarrant, Travis, and Williamson.
      

• The Senate adopted the House measure last night. It will now be sent to Gov. Abbott for his consideration.

Pre-K Teacher Busted for Possessing Child Porn

• A 33-year-old Austin teacher, Irving Perez, has been arrested for possessing child porn. Erin Anderson has the story.
      
• Perez is a pre-K teacher at Wayside Schools in Austin, a charter school system for students in pre-K3 through 12th grade. School officials said they decided to “immediately escort” Perez off campus after they were notified of a Texas Department of Public Safety investigation.
          
• An Instagram account linked to Perez was allegedly used to obtain and share child pornography materials, including a video file containing child porn, in 2022. Parents of students in Perez’ classroom were “personally notified” by school officials.

Air Force Blasted For LGBTQ Celebration

• As the U.S. Congress is considering its annual national defense spending, the United States Air Force sent out a memo recognizing the month of June as LGBTQ Pride Month. As Emily Wilkerson reports, the memo has sparked pushback from U.S. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas).
        
• The Department of the Air Force memo expressed that it will commemorate the contributions of LGBTQ Americans and continue its efforts to “advance a respectful and inclusive culture.”
      
• The memo also encouraged installation commanders to plan and conduct activities to celebrate Pride Month.
       
• “What’s next, rainbow uniforms during pride month?” said Roy during an interview with Fox News. “The Air Force and Defense Department sanctions this ridiculous use of taxpayer dollars and then expects members of Congress who represent Americans who are livid about this stuff to green light an $800 billion-plus DoD budget.
      

• Hard not to wonder that if, perhaps, the U.S. Air Force was a little less focused on gay pride celebrations and a little more focused on national security, maybe the massive Jack Teixeira leak wouldn’t have happened.

ONE CLICK SURVEY

Should the branches of the U.S. military host “LGBTQ” celebrations?
   

Once you’ve clicked an answer, reply to this email with any thoughts you’d like to share!