A Tale Of Two States

One is doing everything in its power to force LGBTQ+ people back into the closet and the other is making sure the needs of LGBTQ+ people are meet.

Texas agency pulls website for LGBTQ youth, with suicide prevention info, after taunt from Abbott's GOP challenger
The Week
By Peter Weber
October 12, 2021


It isn't clear just how much the hard-right turn in Texas politics is being driven by Gov. Greg Abbott's (R) 2022 GOP primary rivals. But one of his main challengers, state Sen. Don Huffines (R), took credit Monday for the scramble by "state employees who are loyal to Greg Abbott" to pull down a state child welfare site with links to a suicide prevention hotline (866-488-7386) and other resources for LGBTQ youth. And he's probably right, the Houston Chronicle and The Texas Tribune reported Tuesday.

On Aug. 31, Huffines tweeted a video claiming the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services is "promoting transgender sexual policies to Texas youth," adding: "These are not Texas values, these are not Republican party values, but these are obviously Greg Abbott's values." He was citing a DFPS page titled "Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation," with resources for LGBTQ youth in the foster care system.

It is like the game “I gotcha” who can be the most oppressive Republican.

But the Republicans put the screws to us over politics created buzz in the agencies.

Prompted by Abbott primary challenger, Texas agency removed webpage with suicide hotline, other resources for LGBTQ youth
Houston Chronicle
By Jasper Scherer
October 12, 2021


In late August, one of Gov. Greg Abbott’s primary challengers, Don Huffines, accused Texas’ child welfare agency of “promoting transgender sexual policies to Texas youth” under a section of its website titled “Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation.”
[…]
But Family and Protective Services communications obtained through a public records request show that agency employees discussed removing the “Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation” page in response to Huffines’ tweet, shortly before taking it offline.

Thirteen minutes after Huffines’ video went up, media relations director Marissa Gonzales emailed a link to Crimmins, the agency’s communications director, under the subject line “Don Huffines video accusing Gov/DFPS of pushing liberal transgender agenda.”

“FYI. This is starting to blow up on Twitter,” Gonzales wrote.

Putting us in harms way is just another political ploy for the Republicans. They don’t care about if it increases suicides by LGBTQ+ youth, it is just one-upmanship by the Republicans.

Here in Connecticut the state legislature passed a bill to fund a legislative committee to advise the legislature on the needs of the LGBTQ community and funded a survey to find out what our needs for us are (The committee does not get paid, it is an all volunteer committee.). The survey should be released shortly, some of the key findings are,

• About half (55%) of the respondents identified as Cisgender, 40% Transgender, and 5% Gender Diverse (not Transgender).
• LGBTQ+ Community Spaces. For those that had LGBTQ+ community spaces or groups, they found themselves safe and welcomed. Many LGBTQ+ adults wished for more spaces to socialize (outside of bars and nightclubs) in addition to Pride events in more CT towns and cities. [I second that! I don’t like bars and night clubs.]
• Older Adults. There are specific housing comments related to the older adult LGBTQ+ population such as concerns around the inclusivity and safety of senior housing or assisted living facilities and affordability/financial assistance for those looking to live in their own home.

Connecticut has strong laws while Texas is cutting support for trans healthcare and insurance Connecticut’s Commission on Human Rights and Opportunity just issues a ruling that insurance must cover our medically necessary healthcare including electrolysis! Back in 2013 the Insurance Commissioner issued a statement that medically necessary healthcare that means anything covered for cis gender people must be covered for trans people.

The Connecticut Department of Education published a booklet to guide educators on the requirements of the non-discrimination law.

Now compare that to Texas that are wiping out anything to do with us.

The U.S. Constitution Fourteenth Amendment requires all citizen to be treated equally when it comes to government and laws, Texas has support pages for non-LGBTQ people but struck down the same pages for us. To me it seems like a direct violation of the 14^th Amendment.