In my latest article for the Austin Chronicle, I wrote about the crisis for trans rights in Texas, where hostile politicians have emboldened hostile bigots to act out against vulnerable people:
Despite a temporary halt to politically motivated child abuse investigations of families with trans kids, parents and advocates say they continue to live in fear as anti-trans moral panic sweeps through the Lone Star State’s GOP base voters and their leaders.
The ACLU of Texas and Lambda Legal have won four successive rulings in their challenge to Gov. Greg Abbott’s directive to investigate normal gender affirming health care as child abuse. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has asked the Texas Supreme Court to overrule a lower court’s injunction and allow Child Protective Services investigations to continue immediately. Shelly Skeen, a senior attorney from Lambda Legal representing the plaintiffs, told the Chronicle that she expects a favorable ruling, because both the law and medical experts are on Lambda Legal’s side.
… Texas continues to look for other ways to put pressure on trans kids, their parents, and their health care providers. In late March, Paxton’s office filed new investigative demands in a civil case against two pharmaceutical companies, Endo Pharmaceuticals and AbbVie Inc., which provide puberty-blocker drugs. Although approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of children who enter puberty early, they’re also prescribed (with the backing of experts like the American Medical Association) as a way to delay puberty in transgender kids who are too young to receive other forms of medical treatment such as hormones.
Read more in the Austin Chronicle.
This article includes an interview with the mother of a trans kid who faced severe bullying, including by a teacher who accused the young person’s parents of “grooming.” This was the subject of a recent viral tweet that resulted in a flood of support (and some trolling).
Though this was a lengthy article for the Chronicle, I still have more material I couldn’t fit in it, so I’m going to try to share more on my blog (& here) when I can.
Right now ,the best thing you can do is make sure LGBTQIA people near you (and parents of LGBTQIA young people too) know you support them and have their back. Then find ways to prove that with your actions.
