Text of TX HB 4425 (2025)

By: Cain H.B. No. 4425 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED AN ACT Relating to prohibiting public officers and employees from displaying preferred gender pronouns; authorizing a private civil right of action. BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: SECTION 1. Subtitle A, Title 6, Government Code, is amended by adding Chapter 620 to read as follows: CHAPTER 620. WOKE TERMINOLOGY PROHIBITED IN PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT Sec. 620.001. DEFINITIONS. In this chapter: (1) "Governmental entity" means this state, a state agency in the executive, judicial, or legislative branch of state government, or a political subdivision of this state. (2) "Preferred gender pronouns" refer to sets of pronouns that an individual wants others to use when referring to that individual, often displayed in parentheses, such as "(he/him)," "(she/her)," or "(they/them)." Sec. 620.002. PROHIBITED TERMINOLOGY IN PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT. (a) Notwithstanding any other law, no officer, employee, volunteer, or agent of a governmental entity may do any of the following in any document or communication made within the scope of their employment or work with the governmental entity, or in any e-mail sent from an account provided by the governmental entity: (1) List, display, or provide a hyperlink to a person's preferred gender pronouns; (2) Describe elective abortions as "abortion care" or "health care" of any sort; (3) Use any phrase that implies that men can become pregnant, such as "pregnant persons," "pregnant individuals," or "pregnant Texans"; (4) Use the term "gender-affirming care" to describe treatments that are inconsistent with an individual's biological sex assigned at birth; (5) Refer to any transgender individual with a noun that contravenes that individual's biological sex assigned at birth, i.e., a biological man who identifies as a woman may not be called a "transgender woman" or any phrase that implies that such an individual actually is a woman; (6) Use the terms "cisgender" and "cissexual"; (7) Refer to prostitutes as "sex workers." (b) Nothing in this section may be construed to restrict or regulate in any way: (1) The off-the-job communications or correspondence of an officer, employee, volunteer, or agent of a governmental entity; or (2) Speech or conduct protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, as made applicable to the states through the Supreme Court of the United States' interpretations of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, or by Article I, § 8 of the Texas Constitution. Sec. 620.003. PRIVATE RIGHT OF ACTION. (a) Any person who suffers injury in fact on account of a violation of section 620.002 has standing to bring and may bring a civil action against the person who has violated or is violating section 620.002. Sovereign immunity, governmental immunity, official immunity, and qualified immunity are waived and abolished in any action brought under this section. (b) If a claimant prevails in an action brought under Subsection (a), the court shall award: (1) declaratory and injunctive relief sufficient to prevent the defendant from violating this chapter; (2) nominal damages; (3) compensatory damages if the plaintiff has suffered damages from the defendant's conduct; and (4) costs and attorney's fees. (c) Notwithstanding any other law, a person may commence an action under this section and relief may be granted regardless of whether the person has sought or exhausted available administrative remedies. (d) A defendant against whom an action is brought under this section may assert an affirmative defense to liability under this subsection if: (1) the enforcement of this chapter against the defendant will violate constitutional or federally protected rights that belong to the defendant personally; or (2) the defendant (A) has standing to assert the rights of a third party under the tests for third-party standing established by the Supreme Court of the United States; and (B) demonstrates that the enforcement of this chapter against the defendant will violate constitutional or federally protected rights belonging to that third party. (e) Notwithstanding any other law, a civil action under this section shall not be subject to any provision of Chapter 27, Civil Practice and Remedies Code, or Chapter 110, Civil Practice and Remedies Code. SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 2025.