The Nashville school shooting should be investigated as a hate crime since the transgender shooter intentionally targeted Christians, Sen. Josh Hawley told Fox News on Tuesday.  The Trans Resistance Network, a trans activist group, said the transgender shooter felt “no other effective way to be seen” than by killing six people at a private Presbyterian school.

Famed Hollywood actor Richard Gere on Tuesday joined Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill to condemn the “abuses” undertaken by the Chinese Communist Party against the people of Tibet, a region in the southwest of China, Gere appeared at a press conference outside the U.S. Capitol alongside Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., and Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.

A new lawsuit over Maine’s tuition reimbursement program for private schools contends an antidiscrimination law unfairly targets religious schools to prevent their participation. The law requiring all schools to follow state antidiscrimination laws, including protections for LGBTQ students and faculty, to receive reimbursements went into effect before the U.S.

A Texas Senate committee is sending two bills placing restrictions on drag shows to the Senate floor, putting them up for a vote, according to reports. FOX 4 in Dallas reported that the bills made it through the senate committee, green lighting them for further action. One of the bills, SB12, restricts some sexually-oriented performances on public property, at a commercial enterprise or in the presence of a minor.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, has built a reputation as one of the “meanest” members of Congress to work for, but has also become one of its most recognizable faces, having represented the same district in the House of Representatives for more than 28 years.  She announced this week, however, that she would be running for mayor of Houston in the off-year election, potentially bringing her tumultuous time in Congress to an end should she prevail.

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, is leading an effort to amend the controversial Respect for Marriage Act, a law aimed at protecting same-sex marriages that was passed with bipartisan support last summer, in order to include new protections for religious observers that weren’t included.

A civil liberties group is urging students at George Mason University to respect differing viewpoints following their calls to remove Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin from the institution’s commencement ceremony. George Mason University announced last week that Youngkin would deliver the commencement speech in May in front of the university’s 2023 graduating class, which led to students demanding the governor be prohibited from speaking or attending the ceremony.