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Month: July 2025

Tu Lucha Es Mi Lucha: Texas Cis Women Promise to Support Trans Rights

Posted in Activism, Austin, Journalism, and LGBTQIA

Despite failing in the regular Texas legislative session, the “bathroom bill” is back yet again.

After Governor Greg Abbott vetoed a bill which would have banned hemp-derived THC products in the state, he called for a special legislative session to replace it with regulations, rather than a ban. In the leadup to the reopening of the lege, devastating floods claimed the lives of over 100 residents of Central Texas, including many children, and responding to this disaster also became a part of the agenda. 

But the special session is quickly becoming a debacle. The Senate introduced a near-identical THC ban to the one that Abbott vetoed, with its sponsor claiming that it’s impossible to regulate the plant. They’re planning a massive power grab through redistricting. And, of course, the Texas Republican party can’t pass up an opportunity to oppress a vulnerable group. They’ve revived a failed bill which would ban transgender women from bathrooms and locker rooms at public places, including government buildings and schools. It would also ban trans women from women’s prisons and domestic violence shelters.

Bonus Interview: Mom of Trans Teen Says, ‘There Is No Doubt That She Is Who She Is’

Posted in Austin, Austin Free Press, Journalism, and LGBTQIA

Even as the world tries to batter them down, trans and gender nonconforming young folks are still out here, being themselves. As one mother of a trans teen told me recently, these kids are “choosing authenticity” in the face of ruthless attacks on their personhood. 

I recently interviewed two different mothers of transgender teenagers for an Austin Free Press article on “Skrmetti,” the devastating Supreme Court decision which upholds bans on gender-affirming healthcare for minors. With 27 states having some form of ban or restriction on gender-affirming care for minors, it reinforces a profoundly unequal landscape where, in over half the country, vital forms of medicine are simply unavailable to so many. 

It breaks my heart that in this, and many other ways, we’ve failed these young generations of trans and queer folks. Just as we were coming into a world where we had the vocabulary, and the social support in place for kids to come out of the closet, the fascists in charge want to shut it down and force them back inside. 

Austin Free Press: Supreme Sadness As Locals React to ‘Skrmetti’

Posted in Austin, Austin Free Press, and Journalism

Life was already tough enough for transgender Texas kids. But a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling has made things a lot tougher.

Last month’s ruling by the high court upholding Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors reinforces a similar ban Texas enacted in 2023, delivering a pair of legal blows to Texas transgender children and their families.

“Our country is really headed in a direction away from caring about individuals, and it’s still so shocking,” an Austin mother of a 13-year-old transgender girl told Austin Free Press.