LGBTQ+

In Texas, where dozens of proposals attacking transgender people have already been pitched for the coming year, a hopeful sign has emerged nonetheless: The west Texas city of Odessa, notorious for adopting one of the most extreme anti-trans bathroom measures in the country, has now declared the ordinance unenforceable, a step taken after voters ousted the council members and mayor who had pushed it through.

The city’s bathroom ban came into full effect this fall, calling for “bounties” on supposed offenders and creating a right for private citizens to file suit against them.

Just weeks later, though, Odessa voters sent the mayor and three council members to defeat. The new mayor, Cal Hendrick, and the new council members, Craig Stoker, Eddie Mitchell, and Steve Thompson, have promised to revisit the ordinance in full.