If you want to be a lawyer or a doctor or a mental health professional in the state of Texas,

you need a license from the state.

That's how these things work.

But in Texas, politicians want to change an essential part of how this works.

Not the part about licensing professionals.

That's going to stay the same.

They want to change who people with licenses have to serve.

There was a committee hearing on Monday, the 25th of March.

The bill that they were debating in this committee would basically give legal cover to people

who are licensed by the state to deny services to folks based on their religious beliefs.

Lauren McGahey reports on politics for the Dallas Morning News.

This kind of stuff happens in Texas a lot.

It's really murky and unclear exactly what we're talking about here because basically all

the bill says is any licensing agency in the state can't require someone to do something

that doesn't conform with their faith.

And so it's really broad, right?

It's kind of like what exactly does that mean.

A lot of people in Texas are scared.

This means the state is going to start handing out licenses to discriminate against LGBT people.

Currently social workers in Texas that are licensed, which you have to be by the state to practice

here, you can't discriminate or turn someone away based on their sexual orientation or their

gender identity.

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