A homeowner in Katy and his wife placed a white cross in their front yard. Their homeowners association cited them for it. They appealed to the association’s board and explained their concern. The board, he wrote, “refused to reverse their decision and instructed us to remove the cross because it was ‘holiday decorations.'”
That account is one paragraph in the public comments filed with the Texas House Committee on Business and Industry for its April 13, 2021 hearing on House Bill 1569. It does not say when the citation came, what fine was threatened, or whether the cross came down.
Under the law as it stood that morning, the association had a statutory footing: the only religious displays Texas protected from an association were the ones at the front door.
What each side claimed
Supporters told the Legislature that a 2011 law meant to protect one kind of display had become a license to ban others. The House Research Organization’s analysis of the Senate version put their case this way: “Some homeowners’ associations have determined that the law permits them to force homeowners to remove any religious display that is not affixed to a homeowners’ front door. There have been instances of homeowners being told to take down a small cross from their front yard.” Witnesses in favor included Texas Values Action and the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops…