AUSTIN — Texas parents who refuse to affirm their child’s gender identity or sexual orientation would be exempt from state definitions of abuse and neglect under a bill the House passed Wednesday. The House voted 85-59 to send the measure to the Senate for consideration.

One of the likely casualties is a bill that would have transferred tens of millions of dollars in surplus funds from the Harris County Toll Road Authority to the City of Houston.

Current state law allows children as young as 16 to marry if they are legally emancipated from their parents, a situation critics say has given rise to widespread abuses.