In the past two weeks, I have received news from friends, family, and organizational emails about bills currently being considered by the Texas legislature.  In each instance, they were worked up because an article they read said that a beloved hobby of theirs might be made illegal because the wording of the bill was too broad and poorly defined.  We had some back and forth discussions about it, then I did my own research and read the words of the bills.  What I learned was fascinating.  Here is a list of the proposed bills:

Senate Bill 20:  This bill has actually already passed the Senate, with a unanimous vote.  This bill modifies the Texas statutes relating to obscenity and sex crimes, adding a section that makes it illegal to make, possess, or display any material that depicts someone that is supposed to be a minor in an obscene act.

What the activists said:  This bill was creating thought crimes, arguing that people would become criminals for the Anime, Manga, and other media they already possess, and that “obscene” was so poorly defined that any prude of a prosecutor could come after you if it offended their sensibilities and nobody else’s.

What I found: The bill was very well-written, easy to understand, and referenced all the related state statutes.  I looked them up and found out that obscene is already very clearly defined in Texas law.  Any “prude” prosecutor that finds everything obscene will run afoul of the Texas statutory definition of obscene.  If anyone does possess Anime, Manga, or media that does offend SB20, then they should pause for serious reflection and ask themselves why they possess, enjoy, and care about material that depicts minors in obscene situations.  Otherwise, your Anime, Manga, and any other media are safe.  Reading through the relevant statutes did make me realize how so much sexual material has made its way into our school system: statutes exempt teachers and scientists in an educational environment from prosecution when they expose children to explicit materials.  While this does make sense to a point (anatomy classes), the activists pushing to normalize unhealthy human sexuality have been abusing this loophole, and I suspect this loophole exists in the other 49 states as well.

House Bill 4814:  This bill is aimed at keeping furries out of schools.  For brevity’s sake I will not be defining furries here.

What the activists said:  This bill is going to outlaw roleplaying games, such as Dungeons and Dragons, and all associated clubs from schools, because of broad language that isn’t specific enough.

What I found:  This bill was again, well-written, easy to understand, and did an excellent job targeting unhealthy behaviors.  The bill specifically outlaws games that encourage non-human behaviors… like licking oneself, using a litter box, etc. While D&D does involve pretending to be something other than human, like an elf, dwarf, gnome, hobbit, etc., all of these non-humans behave in a human-like manner.  Even the anthropomorphic feline race acts human-like.  None of them use litter boxes and players are discouraged from licking themselves or others.  The bill did include appropriate exemptions for days like Halloween, up to five other school dress up days, and school mascots.

HB 912 and SB 1003:  These bills affect people with renewable power generation systems at home that are attached to the electrical grid.

What the activists said:  This bill is going to take away net metering from people; contact your representative and tell them to vote against these bills.

(Net metering is when you generate more electricity than you use that the power company has to pay you for the extra electricity you made.)

What I found:  The bill could have been written better.  It took a couple read-throughs to understand it.  These bills only affect Texas residents who are not on the Texas power grid.  Some Texas cities, close to the border, such as Beaumont and El Paso are not on the Texas power grid, but are connected to various U.S. power grids.  This law requires that Power Companies for Texans that generate power on those power grids count all the electricity those Texans add to the grid towards their bill, and that the Power Companies give those Texans credit for all power they generate in excess of their usage.  In other words, these bills enshrine net metering into law for Texans on a power grid that doesn’t already have net metering, the opposite of what the activist organization was saying.

Closing thoughts:  Activist organizations are not being honest with what they are protesting.  They are being paid money from a fund, probably similar to USAID, to say whatever is necessary to get people worked up enough to contact their representatives/senators to fight good legislation.  Luckily, the people I know and love, who were really worked up about these issues, ended up doing their own research and finding out the truth.  Because of the internet, it is easy to look up the actual bills and read the text.  Encourage your friends and family to do their own research.  Read the text of the bills, don’t trust activist organizations.  They lie to get you to be their pawn… like certain political parties I could name.

Monroe Wesson is a nom de plume for a mechanical engineering consultant in Texas.

Image: Free image, Pixabay license.