AUSTIN, TEXAS — Rep. Lacey Hull (R-Houston) yesterday voted for a bill echoing the infamous "separate but equal” doctrine from Plessy v. Ferguson, the 1896 Supreme Court ruling that upheld racial segregation. Rep. Hull stood with the House’s Republican majority on the wrong side of history in rejecting two amendments — one that would have stripped this horrifying phrase from the bill, and another that would have explicitly affirmed women’s equality in legislative findings.
The legislation, HB 229 by Rep. Ellen Troxclair (R-Lakeway), is allegedly designed to protect women and girls, but apparently cannot do so while acknowledging their fundamental equality. When Rep. Erin Zwiener (D-Driftwood) introduced an amendment to acknowledge the historical discrimination women have faced and affirm their equal status, Republicans, supported by Rep. Hull, moved to kill it. Rep. Hull blocked an amendment by Rep. Ron Reynolds (D-Missouri City) to remove segregation-era language, with Rep. Troxclair personally defending it, saying that the bill mirroring the doctrine of segregation was “intentional language.”
“The language House Republicans voted for today mirrors the logic of Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court case that upheld racial segregation over a hundred years ago” said HBCU Legislative Caucus Chair Rep. Ron Reynolds. “The phrase ‘separate is not inherently equal’ was the legal foundation for whites-only water fountains in 1896. In 2025, Texas House Republicans fought tooth-and-nail to enshrine it in our state code. Our laws should move us forward, not echo a time when the state’s power was used to divide and exclude.”
“If we are talking about how to protect women and girls, we should do it in the ways women and girls actually need,” said Rep. Erin Zwiener. “My amendment would have acknowledged the longstanding history of discrimination against women on the basis of sex, an acknowledgement all of my colleagues should have been able to support. It’s appalling that this legislature would vote against women’s equality and disturbingly revealing of GOP priorities.”
The dual rejection by Rep. Hull — refusing to affirm women’s equality while embracing language first penned specifically to provide legal cover for discrimination — is a clear message to Texas women: Rep. Hull thinks protecting you means keeping you separate, but not equal. House Democrats are committed to ensuring Rep. Hull’s shameful vote will be remembered, both in the record on the House floor and in the memories and minds of Texas voters.
**See how Rep. Hull voted on: **
Motion to table amendment to remove “separate but equal” language: (Yea is a vote against the amendment, Nay is a vote for the amendment)
Motion to table amendment to affirm women’s equality in legislative findings:
(Yea is a vote against the amendment, Nay is a vote for the amendment)