by Wyatt Ronan •
TEXAS — The Texas Legislature has set a record this year for the highest number of anti-LGBTQ bills filed in the country. This past week, two bills that target transgender youth advanced. The Senate passed SB 29, an anti-trans sports ban, and the House Public Health Committee passed HB 1399, a medical care ban. Texans have traveled hundreds of miles and waited many hours to testify about the life-threatening harms that discriminatory anti-trans sports bans and anti-trans medical bills will cause.
“Apparently, anti-LGTBQ Texas legislators realized they were running out of time to target transgender children so they really picked up the pace this week. Once again, the legislature took the ‘public’ out of ‘public interest’ by ignoring the opposition testimonies of transgender children and their families, public health experts, and in the case of HB 1399, even the Texas Medical Association and Texas Hospital Association. The House Public Health Committee limited public testimony for HB 1399 and rapidly voted to pass it. But we’ve been here before and we will stand up again — always — for the transgender children who deserve to be children, yet find they have to travel to Austin to fight for the rights we all deserve: to exist, to have the same opportunities as other children, and to be safe.
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