Down In Texas…

Three stories about Texas ban on trans children and anti-LGBTQ groups, the first is about flaunting the law and not keeping any records as required by law!

Texas Agency Aimed for Secrecy on Probes of Trans-Supportive Parents
Among other things, supervisors with the Department of Family and Protective Services ordered workers to avoid written communications about the matter.
The Advocate
By Trudy Ring
August 31, 2022


Employees of Texas’s child welfare agency were told to avoid written communications and take other steps to maintain secrecy about investigations of parents who allow their transgender children to receive gender-affirming care.

The investigations began after Gov. Greg Abbott ordered them in February, based on a nonbinding legal opinion from Attorney General Ken Paxton that allowing kids access to such care is child abuse. Both are far-right, anti-LGBTQ+ Republicans. Scientists have said the opinion was based on faulty and biased information, and LGBTQ+ activists have condemned the “child abuse” characterization. The order is partially blocked while a lawsuit against it proceeds.

Supervisors with the Department of Family and Protective Services ordered workers not to send emails or text messages about the probes, an unusual move since the department usually documents everything carefully, The Texas Tribune reports. Employees were told to apply this policy when communicating with the parents under investigation as well as with colleagues. They were advised not to post any opinions about Abbott’s order on social media either.

To me that looks like a violation of the open records laws, if I was a parent I wouldn’t answer their phone calls and make them leave voice messages on answering machines. It also sounds like an admission of guilt if they don’t want to leave any records of their conversation.

Hmm… “They were advised not to post any opinions about Abbott’s order on social media either.” that seems to be violation of the First Amendment rights!

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Meanwhile state employees don't want to be caught in the middle and don't want to violate their own ethical standards which seems to exceed the state ethics.

Flood of 2,300 departing workers leaves Texas child welfare agency scrambling: ‘Absolutely a crisis’
Houston Chronicle
By Cayla Harris
August 18, 2022


Nearly 2,300 employees have left the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services since the beginning of the year, stressing an agency that has already experienced some of the highest turnover rates of any large state department.

In interviews and at public town halls, more than two dozen current and former employees described a department that has been stretched thin for more than a year, needlessly losing passionate workers who carry decades of experience and knowledge. From dangerous overtime shifts watching children in hotels to political drama to problems with their supervisors, workers say the agency has lost its mission — and in the end, it’s Texas kids who suffer for it.

[…]

Yet another said she quit because of unmanageable workloads and pressure to close multiple cases a day even though she believed more investigation was needed. Several others said they were offended by Gov. Greg Abbott’s order to launch child abuse investigations into families of transgender children. A former director cited the politicization of the Department of Family and Protective Services, questioning why employees tasked with caring for children were caught up in culture wars and legal battles.

It looks like to me that Texas keeps digging a deeper hole for itself.

Then we have the Exodus!

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Families fleeing persecution because their children are LGBTQ+!

Texas Realtor Helps At-Risk LGBTQ+ Homeowners Flee Texas
The exodus comes in response to transphobic legislation and a hostile environment spurred on by GOP Gov. Greg Abbot.
The Advocate
By Donald Padgett
August 11, 2022


A man in Texas is offering to help at-risk LGBTQ+ homeowners flee the Lone Star state.

Flee Texas is the brainchild of gay Dallas realtor Bob McCranie, who runs Texas Pride Realty. He set up Flee Texas to help other LGBTQ+ homeowners in the state not just sell their homes, but also connect them with LGBTQ+ or affirming realtors in other states to help them purchase a new home.

“I’ve been in Texas since 1987 and I have seen this state transform into a juggernaut of right-wing conservatism,” McCranie tells The Advocate.

[…]

“As LGBTQIA+ citizens of Texas, many of us feel at risk,” the Flee Texas website reads. “If you feel the need to leave the jurisdiction of Texas, let us help you sell your property here and connect you with an LGBTQIA or ally agent in a better location of your choice.”

[…]

Sadly, he fears the worst about his state. He knows of many LGBTQ+ folks who have moved to more tolerant areas like California, Colorado, and even Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. It's a trend he expects to continue.

“I think that you will see a migration out of the red states,” he says. “I have realtors in other states who are setting up the same services there.”

Making the red state even redder and more dangerous for those who can’t move out of state.

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Then there are the armed right-wing anti-LGBTQ+ protesters. Hmm… and you wonder why people are fleeing the state?

Progressive Texas Activist Exposes Terrifying Right-Wing TikTok Videos
The Texas blogger is sounding the alarm and directing the FBI toward far-right extremist videos threatening violence on TikTok.
The Advocate
By Christopher Wiggns
August 31, 2022


For years there has been a rise in right-wing extremism in the United States, but since the Department of Justice obtained and executed a search warrant at former president Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago retirement residence, violent extremists have taken to TikTok to post alarming videos and one Texas activist is sounding the alarm.

Michelle Davis, a progressive blogger in Texas, began noticing right-wing extremism when writing about the Black Lives Matter movement and issues surrounding Confederate statues in 2020. 

In any given week, Davis tracks several thousand extremist TikTok accounts. She agrees that, in a way, she's the antidote to the right-wing Twitter troll Chaya Raichik, who tweets under the Libs of TikTok pseudonym.

She saw hundreds of new, threatening TikTok posts each day in the wake of the FBI's August 8 raid of Donald Trump's compound, she said, and still more on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube

[…]

Instead, she wants people to know that more than just a few fringe people are out there plotting acts of violence, organizing into armed groups and speaking of civil war, and targeting FBI and IRS agents and others, including the LGBTQ+ community.

There are wackos down in Texas, they are armed and crawling out of the swamp!