A few people have brought to our attention their concerns about Texas Values Action’s endorsement for Texas SBOE member Tom Maynard based on claims that Maynard voted in November 2023 for Health textbooks that contained gender identity ideology with the phrase “pregnant person” being used in the book. However, our team has discovered that the premise of this argument is untrue as there were no Health Textbooks voted on in November 2023. Below you will find an explanation of the series of events that happened during the vote on “pregnant person” language at the November 2023 Texas State Board of Education meeting.

• There was no proclamation presented for Health textbooks to be voted on at November 2023 SBOE meeting. In fact, the Health Textbooks were adopted in 2021.
• Up for adoption at the November 2023 meeting were instructional materials for the following subjects: Technology Applications, Knowledge and Skills for Career Development, Knowledge and Skills for Technology Applications, Health Science, Law and Public Service, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics https://tea.texas.gov/system/files/proclamation-2024_1.pdf
• Goodheart-Wilcox presented materials for the following elective courses for high school students pursuing a career in health and medicine. As you will see, none of the materials are simply “Health textbooks” and do not represent the Health textbooks that would be associated with sex education.
  • Health Science Theory
  • Human Growth and Development
  • Medical Terminology
  • Principles of Applied Engineering
  • Principles of Education and Training
• In the meeting on Friday November 17, Member Audrey Young stated that she spoke to Goodheart -Wilcox publishers about the phrase “pregnant person” being in the instructional materials for the subjects “Child Development” and “Human Growth”. Member Young stated that despite her attempts to have the “pregnant person” language removed from the final text of the materials, Goodheart-Wilcox did not make the changes to include “pregnant woman” or “pregnant female”. Thus, Member Audrey suggested that she would not vote in favor of adopting the Goodheart -Wilcox Materials for these two subjects.
• The Goodheart- Wilcox materials were defeated with only 5 members voting in favor of the materials (all Democrats) and 8-member voting against the materials. There is a total of 5 Democrats on the State Board of Education.
• Texas Values Government Relations Director recorded this vote in real-time on November 17 while present in person at the meeting, on the social media platform X in the image below.
• Though the video is hard to decipher, you can see Member Tom Maynard’s hand raised while sitting to the right of Member Audrey Young whose hand is also raised in voting “no” to the Good Heart- Wilcox materials.
• The debate and vote on the Goodheart Wilcox materials begins at 3:05:05 on the video of the full board meeting on November 17.