Texas Update #4

As the legal battle heats up down in Texas, I will post updates of the court battles.

First off… a state judge in Texas says stop.

Judge issues temporary injunction barring Texas from investigating pediatric gender-affirming care as 'child abuse'
CNN
By Andy Rose, Rosa Flores, Rosalina Nieves and Ray Sanchez
March 12, 2022


A judge in Texas blocked the state from enforcing Gov. Greg Abbott's order to investigate gender-affirming care of minors as "child abuse."

"The court finds sufficient cause to enter a temporary injunction," Judge Amy Clark Meachum in Travis County said Friday evening.

The judge said Abbott's order was "beyond the scope of his authority and unconstitutional" and that the parents of a transgender child and a psychologist who filed suit against the governor were likely to succeed at trial, which is set for July.

Meachum ruled in district court last week the state must stop a child abuse investigation of a family seeking gender-affirming health care for their transgender child. That decision came after the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Texas and LGBTQ civil rights organization Lambda Legal filed a lawsuit on behalf of the parents of a transgender girl. The child's mother, a DFPS employee, was suspended from her job because of Paxton's legal opinion.

Just remember one thing, the courts in Texas are packed with Republicans and because it is a Texas court the case will end up in the state Supreme Court.

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The Hill had this to say about the case,

The injunction means the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) cannot continue to investigate parents who provide gender-affirming care or puberty blockers to their transgender children while the case, which is scheduled for July, proceeds.

The ACLU of Texas and Lambda Legal sued the state on behalf of the mother of a 16-year-old transgender youth who says she was investigated by the DFPS.

 The ACLU said the ruling came after a long hearing on Friday involving various witnesses, including Megan Mooney, a licensed psychologist who is a mandatory reporter under the Texas law. Mooney believes she cannot comply with Abbott's order without violating her ethical obligations and harming clients, according to the ACLU.

When I was an intern I was a mandatory reporter to Department of Children and Families, I don’t know what I would have done if the state defined child abuse as treating a child for gender dysphoria. I know one thing, it is my deeply held religious belief that god made me as I am, a trans women.

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It almost seems like states are competing with one another to see which state can pass the draconian laws against us.

Indiana, Iowa and Texas advance anti-transgender agendas – part of a longtime strategy by conservatives to rally their base
The Conversation
March 4, 2022


Transgender girls in Iowa will no longer be allowed to compete in girls’ sports – the latest in a rash of anti-trans initiatives sweeping across the United States.

On March 3, 2022, Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law legislation that affects transgender girls and women wanting to compete in accordance to their gender identity.

It comes just days after legislators in Indiana advanced a similar bill aimed at K-12 trans students.

That proposed legislation will now go to the Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb, who has previously indicated a willingness to sign the bill into law.

And as I wrote on Thursday Idaho wants to give us life sentences for helping our trans children. The Los Angeles Times wrote,

The Idaho House on Tuesday passed a measure that criminalizes gender-affirming therapies for children under 18, ranging from hormone and puberty-delaying treatments to surgery.

These treatments would be felonies subject to penalties of up to life in prison. Idaho’s real breakthrough, however, is that the crimes would also include arranging for such treatment out of state.

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It is not just us that they are racing to the bottom, it is also against women.

Missouri And Texas Brawl For “Most Conservative” Title
Reform Austin
By Staff
March 10, 2022


A Missouri Republican lawmaker is not content with just banning abortion in her state, she believes it is her duty to take it one step further, hoping to abolish it completely in the nation.

Since Missouri passed one of the country’s strictest abortion laws in 2019, residents have been opting to take a hike up north to Illinois where they can safely visit an abortion clinic.

State Rep. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, a prominent antiabortion lawmaker in Missouri, is appalled by the number of Missouri residents who seek this loophole and believes she has found a solution.

This all brings back memories of the seventies anti-gay laws. Many of the Republicans states changed their constitutions back in the late seventies, it was a dark time for us back then and that lead to Harvey Milk’s famous speech “You must come out” which was the result Anita Bryant’s “Save Our Children” campaign. It was California ballot referendum that ended her pogrom of gays.

However, we see the same justification for those anti-gay laws and Black segregation in the south which was feeling uncomfortable sharing space with gays and Blacks and is now being used agaisnt us.

Indiana, Iowa and Texas advance anti-transgender agendas – part of a longtime strategy by conservatives to rally their base
The Conversation
By Alison Gash
March 4, 2022


[…]

So far, anti-transgender athlete bills have gained the most traction. Despite consistent public opposition, more than 30 states have now considered barring transgender athletes from playing on teams that match their gender identity. Ten states have already enacted bans on transgender student athletes through legislation or executive order.

As a civil rights scholar, I have found that campaigns that mischaracterize LGBTQ-supportive policies as harmful to young people are a staple strategy conservatives use to galvanize their base.

[…]

Anti-gay activist and Florida orange juice queen Anita Bryant first perfected the strategy in the 1970s to oppose ordinances prohibiting sexuality-based discrimination. Bryant’s “Save our Children” campaign demonized gays and lesbians as “recruiting children.” Bryant successfully encouraged voters to oppose legislative attempts to protect gays and lesbians from discrimination and prompted Florida legislators to bar same-sex couples from adopting children, a law that was overturned in 2010.

[…]

Conservatives may be using these bills – which some describe as “erasing transgender youth” – to catalyze Republican voters to participate in upcoming midterm elections. And the strategy could work.

And in Texas…

Texas GOP candidate 'not comfortable' around transgender children
Shelley Luther was previously rebuked by Texas Democrats and Republicans for calling on the state’s universities to deny admittance to Chinese students.
NBC News
By Matt Lavietes
February 9, 2022


A Texas Republican candidate and former teacher said transgender children make her uncomfortable and questioned why other kids should be punished for making fun of them.

When asked Saturday how she would enact conservative priorities in a divided state Legislature, Shelley Luther — a candidate for the Texas House of Representatives — smeared trans children and tied her discomfort around them with her support for “school choice.”

“I am not comfortable with the transgenders,” Luther said, speaking at a candidate forum in northeast Texas. “The kids that they brought in my classroom, when they said that this kid is transgendering into a different sex, that I couldn’t have kids laugh at them ... like other kids got in trouble for having transgender kids in my class. That’s why I vote for school choice.”

Being uncomfortable is not grounds for discrimination.

Just like in the seventies it is a dark time for us but it passed, the question is how long will the pendulum will stay right? If the Republicans reach their dream of having a one party nation like Russia, North Korea, and China it might be a very longtime… a generation or more.