AUSTIN, Texas — Two bills aimed at restricting sales of sex toys have failed to pass the Texas state legislature during its 2025 session.
As XBIZ reported in December 2024, Republican State Representative Hillary Hickland introduced HB 1549, a bill to restrict the sale of pleasure products at “big-box” and other retailers not considered “sexually-oriented businesses.”
Currently, pleasure products — to which the bill refers as “obscene devices” — are available at major chains, including CVS, Target, Walgreens and Walmart. The bill, HB 1549, would have imposed penalties for their continued sale in such venues, including fining businesses up to $5,000 for each violation.
The bill was referred to the Texas House’s Trade, Workforce & Economic Development committee, but died there. Its companion bill, SB 2399, never made it out of the state Senate’s Criminal Justice committee.
Another bill, SB 3003, would have required online retailers to implement age verification of purchasers before selling “obscene devices” to anyone in Texas.
As XBIZ reported in March, the bill was introduced by Republican state Sen. Angela Paxton, who was the lead sponsor of Texas’ HB 1181, the age verification bill for adult sites recently declared constitutional by the Supreme Court in the pivotal case Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton. She is also the wife of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, named as respondent in that case.
SB 3003 was referred to the Texas state Senate’s State Affairs committee, but never progressed from there before the end of the legislative session.