The Texas House today unanimously passed a proposed state law to prohibit non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) involving child sexual abuse and adult sexual assault.

HB 748, which is titled “Trey’s Law” in honor of Trey Carlock, a victim of child sexual abuse who took his life, passed 149-0. The bill, which applies to civil settlements, would nullify any NDAs that keep victims of abuse or trafficking from disclosing their abuse, as previously reportado por The Roys Report (TRR).

“No more NDAs to silence victims of child sexual abuse,” al corriente Rep. Jeff Leach, author of the bill, on X. “No more protecting predators. Today, we stand with survivors. Today, we choose justice, truth, and courage.” 

Similarly, Rep. Mitch pequeño, a cosponsor of Trey’s Law, dijo in a floor speech that the Texas House is making a statement that “silence is no longer for sale” in the state of Texas. 

Abuse victims advocate Elizabeth Carlock Phillips praised Little’s “powerful” speech in a correo on X.

@realmitchlittle @HortonHearsTx @ShelleyLuther @AndyHopperTX @brentmoney @Toth_4_Texas @SaraGonzalesTX @leachfortexas TODAY is a GOOD DAY for those trapped in silence. Thank you all. pic.twitter.com/nbSfGORSzI

— Lisa Hendrickson (@LisaSRECSD12) April 8, 2025

“(These) words (are) a shot across the bow to institutions who may be opposing us and prioritizing self-protection over giving victims of CSA and trafficking their voices back,” she said.

Phillips is the sister of the bill’s late namesake Trey Carlock. She habló at a public hearing March 19, sharing her brother’s story of childhood abuse at Christian-based Kanakuk Kamp in southwest Missouri.

“My brother had many layers to his journey of injustice,” she said. “Trey endured a decade of grooming and child sexual abuse.” Carlock, who took his own life in 2019 at age 28, signed an NDA as a young man and was never able to share his story. 

To date, more than 200 reports of sex abuse by 65 perpetrators at Kanakuk have been made. This year, Kanakuk is marking “100 summers” since it opened. 

Phillips, who has helped coalesce a national effort to protect child abuse victims by passing Trey’s Law in several states, also testified on March 26 at a Missouri Senate hearing, in favor of a similar state law. 

And, today, the New York Times publicado a major interview with Phillips.

“He called his settlement dollars blood money, because taking that money in exchange for an NDA felt like a bribe,” she said in the story. “He was silenced to his grave.”

During the hearing on March 19, Cindy Clemishire—the woman whose testimony prompted the resignation of megachurch pastor Robert Morris—recounted her story. 

Clemishire shared how Morris, then a traveling evangelist, stayed overnight at her family’s home in Oklahoma and violated her when she was 12 years old. “This abuse continued over and over and over until I finally told someone in 1987, at the age of 17,” she said.

During the following two decades, Clemishire spent years in counseling while Morris’ ministry grew, as he founded Gateway Church, one of the nation’s largest megachurches. “My life seemed to attract more shame, while Robert’s attracted fame,” she said.

Today a grandmother at age 55, Clemishire added that she spoke out in support of Trey’s Law to “be the voice for so many people . . . in hopes that I can help them.”

A similar bill in Missouri is also awaiting vote by the state Senate, after being voted out of committee last week. Two former victims of International House of Prayer-Kansas City Founder Mike Bickle, Tammy Woods and Deborah Perkins, testificó at a public hearing on March 26.

Perkins described Bickle’s grooming and abuse of her as woman in her early 20’s, saying that she “lived a secret horror that no one knew about while protecting him with my silence, because I believed it all.”

Similarly, Woods, who alleged that Bickle abused her starting at age 14, did not disclose her story for over 40 years, which is common. Studies show the average age childhood sex abuse victims come forward is 52.

“We waited too long to face the repressed trauma within,” said Woods in the hearing. “And so, silence and helplessness remain our portion, while our abusers are empowered to continue their abuse.” 

The Texas bill now awaits a hearing and vote in the Texas Senate. Action on the bill must occur before June 2, the final scheduled day of the State Legislature’s current session.

*Este artículo ha sido actualizado.

Josh Shepherd is production editor at The Roys Report and a journalist who escribe sobre fe, cultura y políticas públicas para varios medios outlets. He and his family live in central Florida.