By me, from “The Awful 88th” at @TexasObserver:
Although Republicans floated dozens of anti-#LGBTQ+ bills during the regular session, just a handful of them made it to the governor’s desk. Still, each one whittles away at the rights of #queer folks in #Texas in different and distinctly harmful ways. These include: banning medically-necessary #gender-affirming care for #transgender young people, banning transgender athletes from participating in #sports at public colleges and universities, a broadly written bill targeting “sexually explicit” performances (meant to criminalize drag performers), and a bill to ban or restrict public library books that #Republicans deem to be “sexually explicit” or “educationally unsuitable.”
The most immediately harmful bill of the bunch looks to be Senate Bill 14, which prohibits evidence-based, frequently life-saving care for transgender young people under 18, including treatments like hormones and puberty-blockers, a reversible treatment to slow the onset of adolescence. Doctors caught providing these forms of #healthcare to trans kids would be stripped of their medical licenses, even though essentially all of the same treatments can legally be used on cisgender individuals (and most controversially, intersex people) under other circumstances. For example, some cis kids who enter puberty too early may be prescribed the same blockers now banned for trans kids.
A coalition of groups including Lambda Legal, the Transgender Law Center, and American Civil Liberties Union (#ACLU) of Texas have pledged to sue to block the bill’s enforcement on the grounds that it creates an illegal double standard. Thanks to Abbott’s signature on Monday, the new law goes into effect September 1, and it’s already becoming harder to access trans healthcare in the state as doctors and clinics move or close.
“In the last two weeks, we have probably gotten somewhere between 40 and 50 phone calls from panicked parents,” a leading New Mexico pediatric physician told the Observer. “What I’m hearing from families is that appointments that they had already scheduled are now gone,” said Dr. Michele Hutchison, chief of pediatric endocrinology at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. That leaves families scrambling to secure care in neighboring states to avoid disastrous interruptions in treatment.
Senate Bill 12, the so-called “drag ban” bill, underwent significant changes in its journey through the two chambers. Explicit references to #drag performers were removed but the bill’s scope was broadened to ban so-called “sexually explicit” performances anywhere minors are present. A last-minute addition targets the usage of certain prosthetic body parts, such as the silicone breasts or artificial phalluses sometimes worn by drag performers—and by some transgender people, too.
“There is no good version of this bill,” said Ash Hall, a policy and advocacy strategist at the ACLU of Texas who focuses on queer rights. “Because it’s not limited to business premises anymore, a major concern I have is how this is going to play out in #Pride parades,” they said.
However, Hall suggested Abbott might veto the bill because, as written, it could even affect performances by groups like the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. Of course, if this one is vetoed, the next step could be passage of a new version of the bill in special session. Already, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick has called for a special session bill to ban drag queen story hours at public libraries.
Despite the record-breaking attacks on LGBTQ+ rights this year, Hall said they find hope in the queer community, which came out by the thousands to oppose the bills.
“They want us all to go back in the closet and be miserable or shut up, but we won’t,” Hall said. “#Trans people have always been here and always will be. They can’t legislate us away.”
Read more at https://www.texasobserver.org/88th-session-texas-legislature-lgbtq-energy-schools/
#politics #transphobia #trans #HumanRights #SB14 #censorship #books #Libraries #FreeSpeech #LGBTQIA+ #TXLege
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