Weird Laws in Texas: Strange Statutes That Are Actually on the Books

Texas has a talent for keeping old laws on the books, even when they’re basically dead on arrival. One of the wildest examples is Texas Penal Code §21.06, “Same-Gender Conduct,” which has sat there since 1973 like it’s waiting for its cue.

In 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court struck it down in Lawrence v. Texas, but that did not mean it vanished from the statute. Fast forward to May 2025, when the Texas House passed House Bill 1738 to repeal §21.06, 59-56, the closest repeal effort had ever gotten. Then the Senate ran out of time before June 2, 2025, and the law stayed in the Penal Code anyway, raising fresh fears after Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022 and old abortion rules were suddenly revived.

The scary part is not what’s enforceable today, it’s what could come back tomorrow.

A Law That Won't Quite Die

Texas Penal Code §21.06, titled "Same-Gender Conduct," has been on the books since 1973. It classifies consensual intimacy between two people of the same gender as a Class C misdemeanor. The U.S. Supreme Court struck it down as unconstitutional in 2003 in Lawrence v. Texas - one of the most significant civil rights rulings in decades - and the case happened to originate in Texas itself.

The law cannot be enforced. But it has never been removed from the statute books.

Repeal bills have been introduced in the Texas Legislature every session since 2005. All of them failed. In May 2025, the Texas House of Representatives passed House Bill 1738 to formally repeal §21.06, by a vote of 59-56 - the furthest any repeal effort had ever advanced. The bill then went to the Senate, where it ran out of time before the session ended on June 2, 2025. The law remains in the Texas Penal Code.

What makes this category of law significant is not current enforcement. It's the possibility of future enforcement. When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Texas's old abortion statute - unenforceable for decades - was immediately revived. LGBTQ advocates point to §21.06 as carrying the same risk. An unenforceable law printed in the state's Penal Code is not the same as a repealed one.

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The same “it’s technically still there” problem is why people keep circling back to §21.06 after the 2022 Roe reversal, even though it was ruled unconstitutional back in 2003.

Soliciting accident victims is illegal. Under Texas Penal Code §38.12, approaching a person involved in an accident for the purpose of soliciting legal representation is a crime. This is the "ambulance chasing" law, and it applies to lawyers and their agents. Making unsolicited contact with an injured person or their family within 30 days of an accident to sell legal services can result in criminal charges.

Wipers required, windshield optional. This creates a documented legal gap where the wipers are mandatory and the thing they're supposed to wipe is not.

In Galveston, intentionally inhaling model glue fumes is illegal. A city ordinance specifically prohibits the intentional inhalation of fumes from any model glue or cement containing toluene, acetone, or other volatile solvents with the intent to cause intoxication or stupefaction. The ordinance lists the exact substances and the purpose requirement, making it one of the more precisely worded local rules in the state.

In El Paso, public buildings were once required to have spittoons. A city ordinance that stayed on the books well into the modern era required churches, assembly halls, hotels, banks, stores, train depots, and saloons to maintain spittoons on the premises. It reflected a time when chewing tobacco was commonplace enough to require designated receptacles in every public space.

Milking someone else's cow remains, technically, theft. Texas once had a standalone offense for unauthorized milking of another person's livestock. That specific provision was removed in 1973. The act didn't become legal, though. It simply got reclassified as ordinary theft of personal property, which can still carry criminal penalties depending on the value involved.

Texas Laws That Are Actually Myths

The Encyclopedia Britannica ban is one of the most repeated claims about Texas law. It holds that the entire encyclopedia set was banned in Texas because it contained a formula for brewing beer at home.

No statute, no date of passage, and no legislative record support this. Legal researchers have repeatedly searched and found nothing. It doesn't exist.

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Then there’s the truly weird paperwork vibe, like the wiper rule where wipers are required but the thing they’re supposed to wipe somehow isn’t, creating a documented legal gap.

This reminds us of the chaotic, no-sense moments captured across America in those 50 photos.

Texas entered the Union in 1845 with an enormous amount of territory and a legal system being built largely from scratch. Local communities, counties, and eventually cities all developed their own ordinances on top of state statute, creating layers of law that proved difficult to maintain over time. When priorities changed, the old rules frequently didn't get removed. They just stopped being enforced.

The cattle industry shaped a significant portion of early Texas law, which is why something like milking another person's cow once warranted its own criminal provision. When cattle were the primary measure of wealth in parts of the state, protecting them legally made economic sense.

The specificity of the old laws reflects how seriously those concerns were taken. For a broader look at what ordinary life actually looked like in that era, 75 rare photos from 19th century America put the conditions that produced these laws into context.

Even more bizarre, in Galveston a city ordinance bans intentionally inhaling model glue fumes, proving Texas can be both hyper-specific and oddly selective about what it decides to police.

Why Texas Laws End Up Like This

Modern Texas law still carries dozens of provisions that made complete sense in their historical context and now read as curiosities. The windshield wiper rule is the most often cited because the gap between what is required and what isn't is so stark. But it was almost certainly written with open vehicles in mind, not as a deliberate quirk.

Texas is also home to some genuinely bizarre roadside attractions that reflect the same outsized, specific energy as the laws themselves. The state that requires working wipers on a car with no windshield is the same state that gave the world some of the stranger corners of American roadside culture.

You'll find a similar pattern in other Southern states. Weird laws in Arkansas include a 19th-century ordinance still on the books governing the pronunciation of the state's name. Weird laws in Alabama have their own collection of rules that outlasted the conditions that created them.

For a broader look at how these laws end up surviving across the country, weird laws in the United States covers the pattern in detail.

Texas doesn’t just pass strange laws, it keeps them around long enough to make everyone nervous.

Think Texas is the only place with real “weird law” drama, see which U.S. statutes actually exist instead of just myths.