The next fight will begin immediately.
Texas is on the brink of banning transgender minors from getting puberty blockers and hormone therapies, treatments that leading medical groups say are important to supporting their mental health.
The Senate has voted 19-12 Wednesday to accept Senate Bill 14’s House version and send it to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk, two days after the lower chamber passed the legislation. Legal groups opposing the bill — including the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Texas, Lambda Legal and the Transgender Law Center — said Thursday they will launch a legal challenge to try and block the legislation from becoming law.
SB 14 is a legislative priority for the Republican Party of Texas, which opposes any efforts to validate transgender identities. It’s also a key proposal among a slate of GOP bills that would restrict the rights and representation of LGBTQ Texans this session, amid a growing acceptance of Christian nationalism on the right.
[…]
“This legislation is vicious, it’s cruel and it’s blatantly unconstitutional,” Ash Hall, policy and advocacy strategist at the ACLU of Texas, said following the first House vote. “The bigotry and discrimination in this bill will not stand up in court and it will not stand the test of time.”
And already, the prospect of losing access to these treatments has prompted many parents of trans kids — including Randell’s — to consider traveling out of state for care or flee Texas altogether, costly options that are not available to all. Others have also spoken publicly about not wanting to abandon the community that they love or that their families have been in for generations.
“We’re not going to be able to know how many children will be ‘saved,’ as it’s been called, from this lifestyle, but we will definitely be able to track what harm it may cause,” said Sen. José Menéndez, D-San Antonio, on Wednesday. “It is my hope that every child affected by this bill can have a chance to grow up and see that things will get better.”
See here for the previous update. From the inbox, here’s what is coming next:
The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, the ACLU, Lambda Legal, and the Transgender Law Center pledged Thursday to file a lawsuit against a sweeping new law banning transgender youth from accessing medically necessary health care that the Texas Legislature just sent to the governor’s desk.
Texas Senate Bill 14 bans the only evidence-based care for gender dysphoria for transgender people under 18 and aims to strip doctors of their medical licenses for providing their patients with the care they know to be medically necessary. Texas lawmakers have ignored the warnings of transgender youth, their families, and the medical establishment about the harms of this law.
Similar restrictions in Alabama and Arkansas have been enjoined by federal courts, and legal advocates have filed challenges in federal court to bans enacted in Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Montana. A state court judge in Missouri recently blocked enforcement of the Missouri attorney general’s emergency order blocking provision of gender-affirming care.
The aforementioned organizations issue the following joint statement:
“We will be filing a lawsuit to protect transgender youth in Texas from being stripped of access to health care that keeps them healthy and alive. Coming on top of the effort last year to classify providing medically necessary and scientifically proven care to transgender youth as child abuse and threatening to tear Texas families with transgender children apart, an effort currently blocked in state court, Texas lawmakers have seen fit to double down.
“They are hellbent on joining the growing roster of states determined to jeopardize the health and lives of transgender youth, in direct opposition to the overwhelming body of scientific and medical evidence supporting this care as appropriate and necessary. Transgender youth in Texas deserve the support and care necessary to give them the same chance to thrive as their peers. Medically necessary health care is a critical part of helping transgender adolescents succeed in school, establish healthy relationships with their friends and family, and live authentically as themselves. We will defend the rights of transgender youth in court, just as we have done in other states engaging in this anti-science and discriminatory fear-mongering.”
Bans like S.B. 14 are opposed by the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
If you or someone you know needs mental health resources or support, please visit:
—Trans Lifeline at (877) 565-8860 or https://www.translifeline.org
—Trevor Project at 866-488-7386 or https://www.thetrevorproject.org/
I will obviously keep an eye on that. Lambda Legal has more.
I think it should be noted when mentioning Christian Nationalism that the ultimate goal of the ‘Christian Nationalists’ is the dismemberment of democracy and the installment of Christian hard-liners in every position of government. Democracy as it is now only exists for these people as a means to gain power and never relinquish it. They want a permanent Christian dictator to replace the President, one who gives special treatment to so-called Christians and restricts all others. Sadly for us they already control the US Supreme Court, the Fifth Circuit, and many red states.
The situation is extremely dire, and I feel that many people don’t understand how serious it really is right now. The broad based attack on transgender people, who should have the same constitutional rights as anyone else, is only the beginning. They are being attacked because some ‘Christian’ hard-liners don’t like them, and craven, soulless political hacks like Abbott, Patrick, and DeSantis see demonizing these innocent people as a way to rally their voter base. Who is next to be targeted and stripped of their rights? Once these crazies hold all of the power in America, who is going to be the one who decides what God wants done next?
We agree on the necessity to maintain the separation between Church and State. Unfortunately, right-wing conservatives on the U.S. Supreme Court continue to breakdown that separation (see link below). Do we really want the government to play favorites when it comes to religious beliefs? As you said J, once we go down that path, where does it end? The 1st Amendment states that, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”. To me, that means the Founding Fathers wanted all people to be free to worship as they see fit and for government to stay out of it. To people who disagree, would you feel the same way if our government advocated for religious beliefs that differed from your own? I didn’t think so…
https://www.aclu.org/news/religious-liberty/the-supreme-court-benches-the-separation-of-church-and-state
Frank Zappa warned us all 37 years ago…
Frank ZAPPA: I’m not going to give you a civics lesson, but I can tell you one thing: we must not see eye-to-eye on a government that must forbid things in order to protect families.
John LOFTON (Washington Times): What is the government’s role? You’ve told me several times what it should do.
ZAPPA: What about defense? What about national defense?
LOFTON: Our families are under attack from people like you with these lyrics.
ZAPPA: Could I make a comment about National Defense: the biggest threat to America today is not communism. It’s moving America toward a fascist theocracy. And everything that’s happened under the Reagan Administration is steering us right down that pipe.
Robert NOVAK: Oh, Mr Zappa…
ZAPPA: Yes, MISTER Zappa…
NOVAK: Do you really think…I mean…
ZAPPA: I really think!
NOVAK: All kidding aside. Is this country, with the permissiveness, that we are moving toward a fascist theocracy?
ZAPPA: You bet we are buddy.
NOVAK: Do you think that things like this would ever have happened…
ZAPPA: Give me that famous smile, buddy.
NOVAK: When we were twenty, when we were kids…you’re about my age?
ZAPPA: I’m forty-five.
NOVAK: Well, I’m fifty-five. Do you think that when I was a kid that they would permit songs like that to be sold. I mean permissiveness is a game. I mean you’re not really serious if you saying we’re going toward a fascist theocracy.
ZAPPA: That’s right we ARE!
Tom BRADEN: Wait a minute, give me one example of a fascist theocracy.
ZAPPA: When you have a government that prefers a certain moral code derived from a certain religion, and that moral code turns into legislation to suit one certain religious point of view, and if that code happens to be very very right wing, almost toward Attila the Hun…
LOFTON: Well then you are an anarchist. Every form of civil government is based on some kind of morality Frank.
ZAPPA: Morality in terms of behavior, not in terms of theology!
LOFTON: Well of course, but look, I mean, I couldn’t believe in terms of your lyrics, I mean, uh….
NOVAK: Wait a minute gentlemen, we have to take a break now.
As the link in the article mentions, the radical right wing religious nuts have interpreted the separation of Church and State to mean protection of the Church from the State, rather than protection of the State from being taken over by the Church. The founders of our nation clearly intended that the State be free of influence from the Church.