Republican leadership in the Keystone State are expressing quiet alarm over the emergence of radical-right state senator who secured his place as the party’s nominee in the race against Democratic nominee for governor, Josh Shapiro, who is himself currently serving as the commonwealth’s attorney general.
State Sen. Doug Mastriano, who represents Cumberland, Adams, Franklin and York Counties in the South Central Pennsylvania area bordering Maryland, was not seen as a truly viable candidate in the primary race to be the party standard-bearer until he was endorsed by former President Trump.
Pennsylvania’s gubernatorial race has serious implications for the outcome of the 2024 presidential election cycle as well. The commonwealth is a strategic swing state and the occupant of the governor’s chair in Harrisburg will lend considerable influence to a final vote count.
Mastriano is a polarizing figure within the state’s Republican Party.
The retired U.S. Army colonel has campaigned at political events that included QAnon adherents, he espoused a political agenda that embraced Trump’s Big Lie about the 2020 election, rejected measures taken to protect Pennsylvanians including masks in the coronavirus pandemic, holding an anti-vaccine “Medical Freedom Rally” rally on the state Capitol steps days after declaring his candidacy for the GOP governor’s primary race, and also mixing in messaging of Christian nationalism.
He also supports expanding gun rights in Pennsylvania and in the state Senate sponsored a bill to ban abortion once a heartbeat is detected.
NBC News noted that Mastriano pledged in his election night address that on the first day of his administration he would crack down on “critical race theory,” a catchall term Republicans have used to target school equity programs and new ways of teaching about race, transgender rights and any remaining COVID-19 vaccine requirements.
“CRT is over,” Mastriano declared. “Only biological females can play on biological females’ teams,” he added, and “you can only use the bathroom that your biology and anatomy says.”
His anti-LGBTQ views have long been part of his personal portfolio. The Washington Post reported that 21 years ago while attending the Air Force’s Air Command and Staff College in 2001, then-Maj. Mastriano wrote his master’s thesis on a hypothetical “left-wing ‘Hitlerian putsch’” that was caused by “the depredations of the country’s morally debauched civilian leaders.” Among those “depredations,” in his words, was the “insertion of homosexuality into the military.”
As the Post reported, his paper shows “disgust for anyone who doesn’t hold his view that homosexuality is a form of ‘aberrant sexual conduct.’”
The paper is posted on an official Defense Department website and lists Mastriano as the author at a time when he said he received a master’s degree from the school.
This year, the Republican majority in the Arizona state legislature passed two bills, S.B. 1138 and S.B. 1165, which target trans children. The day before the 2022 Trans Day of Visibility, Gov. Doug Ducey (R) signed them into law, claiming they were about “fairness.”
In reality, S.B. 1138 and S.B. 1165 willfully restrict the opportunities and medical care available to trans children, with no regard to their quality of life or peace of mind.
The passage of these laws will humiliate and harm trans youth in Arizona, and increase the risk of bullying and social ostracization. And when we know that over 52% – over half – of all trans and non-binary minors seriously consider suicide, laws that target and restrict their lives further could quite literally be a death sentence.
S.B. 1165 bans trans girls from playing on girls’ sports teams because “there are inherent biological distinctions that merit separate categories” for players.
In other words, trans girls are not real girls.
Schools will be forced to prove that girls weren’t assigned male at birth by performing invasive bodily searches of their genitals. The same Republicans who insist that LGBTQ education in schools is sexualizing children would force girls to undergo these searches.
Arizona Republicans pretend that this anti-trans sports law is about fairness. Gov. Ducey cites the need to protect cisgender girls from trans girls who would seek to “unfairly” steal their “titles, standing, and scholarships.”
At the core of this law is the belief that trans girls are not real girls – they are boys masquerading as girls, trying to cheat. This is a gross interpretation of a positive trend – that transgender athletes are finally starting to experience the freedom to compete on the teams of their real gender.
Having access to spaces, like sports teams, where their gender identity is embraced dramatically reduces the likelihood that trans youth will attempt suicide.
S.B. 1138 prohibits trans minors from accessing gender reassignment surgery, which is both affirming and often lifesaving for trans youth experiencing gender dysphoria. There is a reason why every major medical association supports gender-affirming healthcare.
Gov. Ducey and other members of the Arizona GOP claim that they are acting in the best interest of trans youth. But for trans children, who bear disproportionately high rates of mental illness, this is the very care that will transform their lives for the better.
It is undeniably wrong for politicians to have more say over a trans child’s body than themselves and their family members. And anti-trans sports bills are just another way of invalidating transgender people and seeking to cast us to the sidelines once more.
But we will not be silenced. Fighting against atrocities like these bills is about saving lives – the lives of children.
Republican leaders in Arizona, and across the country, are obsessed with trans children, and LGBTQ youth more broadly. In 2022, Arizona led the nation with the most anti-LGBTQ bills introduced in its state legislature. These laws are not about fairness or respect, as Ducey says. They are a sinister step toward controlling and coercing trans youth. They are absolutely reprehensible, and everyone in Arizona, and across the nation, should be raising their voices in outrage.
In 2023, the Super Bowl LVII is scheduled to take place in Arizona, outside of my hometown Phoenix, the same city where I am running as a candidate for the state legislature. Phoenix has one of the highest populations of LGBTQ residents of any city in the United States, and my district in particular, Legislative District 5, has a high concentration of LGBTQ constituents.
And we’re not alone. Religious leaders and voting rights activists all over the country have already called for the Super Bowl to be relocated over the countless heinous restrictive voting and election laws passed by the Republicans in Arizona this year.
If the NFL truly stands with us, they know what to do. They talk the talk; now it’s time to walk the walk.
Brianna Westbrook, a transgender working-class parent who grew up in poverty, is running for State Representative for District 5. For nearly a decade, she has worked tirelessly with local and national progressive organizations and organizers to meet the community’s needs.
My decision to transition took place while in the midst of reading the classic George Orwell opus on war: Homage to Catalonia.
Having been on and off feminizing hormones for the previous nine months, it was in Barcelona when I called my best friend and told her that my 35-year wait to embrace myself was finally ending.
Barcelona was also the city where Orwell’s personal narrative of fighting for a foreign nation in combat took place.
When coupled with other works on conflict by literary luminaries from the past including Faulkner and Hemingway, I’d come to appreciate the skill seemingly necessary when trying to write under such conditions and respected the apparent sacrifices that came with their tales.
Almost three years after that May 2019 phone call took place, I too am experiencing the conditions faced by the writers named above. However a different realization has taken place in the midst of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and my time spent here on the front lines.
That reality has imbued me with a new perspective on life as a writer, a transgender female and a minority in general, one that, no doubt, many others realized as part of their own existence well before I did in mine.
Put bluntly, the danger and microaggressions that non-cis, non-hetero, non-white, non-males face in the United States is the same as being in a European ground war.
The comparison is apt for several reasons.
After decamping to the northeast Ukrainian battlefront for the last month and counting, I understood with stark clarity that ever since announcing the decision to live as my most authentic self, I had been faced with the same obstacles I’m encountering here including the need to exhaustively be on guard against danger, to prove myself over and over as an outsider, and to wake up wondering every morning if this is the day I’ll die.
Having lived as a cishet white male for the vast majority of my life, the risks faced by those who blazed the pathways for my own success had always been a concept which eluded me.
No longer.
In recognizing the physical, mental, and emotional similarities which exist between the two spaces, I finally accepted that whatever privilege I’d previously enjoyed had long since dissipated. Furthermore, in spending the last few years compartmentalizing the slights, bigotry, and prejudice directed towards me, I was unable to fully grasp the constant struggle too many others are forced to endure.
Being a party to an actual, defined war has forever rendered my unintended ignorance moot.
In addition to making me aware of societal hostility, and the ramifications surrounding it, living among constant shelling, rocket attacks, and machine gun fire has also made me further consider why bloodshed, and the scent of ever looming death, may have creatively driven the authors I previously mentioned.
My current belief is that for those men, whose lives were otherwise bland, pedestrian, and without racial-, ethnic-, or gender-based burdens, seeking out the ultimate confrontation allowed for them to feel alive and stare at death.
For many who are minorities, every day brings a slight twist on that challenge: we avoid death, while hoping to grasp life.
DJ Dank invites you to COCKETTES: ETERNAL EMISSIONS. Take a trip back to the heyday of the Cockettes in this new & colorful multi-media musical revue featuring musical numbers made famous by the Cockettes with members of the original Cockettes in person! Video testimonies and archival footage round out the revue.
Musical Direction by original Cockette – Scrumbly Koldewyn.
Directed and choregraphed by Noah Haydon. Produced by Dan Karkoska.
COCKETTES: ETRNAL EMISSIONSwill be performed Thurs., June 2, Fri., June 3, Sat., June 4, 2022 – at 7:00 pm, at OASIS – 298 Eleventh St. (SOMA at Folsom St.), in SF 94103. Tix – $40 – $60 – Cabaret Seating, Front Cabaret Seating, Premium Runway Seating.
This is a limited engagement. – 3 Performances only!
For more information call OASIS at 415-795-3180 or Production at 415-350-3295 during business hours.
Performers scheduled to appear include: (as of 4-20-22 – Alphabetically)
Lisa Shepard Appleyard, Andy Arcade, Birdie-Bob Watt, Matt Bratko, Corey Go-go Pup, John Flaw, Noah Haydon, Kitten On The Keys, Scrumbly Koldewyn, Carl Linkhart, Steven Satyricon, Maya Songbird, Sunshine, Jef Valentine, Jason Wade, Will Power, Diogo Zavadzki. Orignial Cockettes scheduled to appear TBD.
Band: Scrumbly Koldewyn (piano / Music Director)
TECH CREDITS: Scrumbly Koldewyn (Writer); Dan Karkoska (Producer); Noah Haydon (Director and Choreographer); David Hawkins (Graphic Designer); Birdie-Bob Watt (Ass’t. Director); Sharon Boggs (Sound Designer); Tina Sogliuzzo (Wardrobe); Lawrence Helman (Publicity), Gareth Gooch (Photography), Jim Jeske (Artist).
SYNOPSIS – COCKETTES: ETERNAL EMISSIONS:
In 1969, The Cockettes debuted at the Palace Theater in San Francisco with their midnight sensation the Nocturnal Dream Show starring a genderbending, glitter-encrusted, drug-induced theater troupe who took drag and old Hollywood musicals and turned them inside out and upside down, attracting the attention of the American underground culture.
Fifty years later in 2020, they celebrated their golden anniversary with an epic, sold-out event featuring many of their classic numbers and a special appearance by cult film icon John Waters at the Victoria Theatre in San Francisco. Additional shows were booked to continue the celebration, but COVID changed those plans.
Now, DJ Dank is bringing a colorful, multimedia, musical revue: Cockettes: Eternal Emissions,to OASIS, June 2, 3, 4, 2022, to continue that mission. Musical director and original Cockette, Scrumbly Koldewyn has reconceived the 2020 show to create a naughty, scintillating, debaucherously, dreamlike revue especially for OASIS.
The Cockette’s sprawling, kaleidoscopic pantheon of colorful personalities included icons including: Hibiscus and Sylvester, and was often augmented by special guests, most notably drag superstars Divine & Mink Stole. The Cockettes were ahead of their time, especially in the acceptance of gender fluidity and glittered beards, and they changed the face of drag forever.
Although the Cockettes disbanded in 1972, its many members kept the group’s spirit alive; in 2009, a theater troupe called the Thrillpeddlers helmed by Russell Blackwood revived a legendary Cockettes show called Pearls Over Shanghai to much acclaim and a long 22 month run. Playing on the interest already garnered by David Weissman & Bill Weber’s The Cockettes documentary released in 2002, interest in this troupe was reawakened and entertained an entirely new & appreciative audience. Over the next decade, The Thrillpeddlers continued recreating Cockette shows under the watchful eye of the original songwriter and Cockette Scrumbly Koldewyn.
BEERFEST-THE GOOD ONE RETURNS TO THE LUTHER BURBANK CENTER FOR THE ARTS IN SANTA ROSA. SATURDAY, JUNE 11, 2022 1pm-4:30pm
TICKETS NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE
A limited number of VIP Tickets remain at this time. Get in one hour earlier at noon and beat the crowds. Receive 5 complimentary Food Tickets for special offerings from our food vendors just for being VIP! General Admission begins at 1pm
Enjoy over 40+ breweries & cideries pouring their best mouth-puckering sour beers, hop bombs, barrel-aged brews, and a wide range of other cool libations that make Northern California one of the best beer-producing regions in the world.Raffle Prizes, DJ, Games & More
West County High School GSA, Positive Images, LGBTQ Connection, and the Sonoma County Library are proud to present Sonoma County Queer Prom 2022! WHO: Sonoma County High School Students, 14-18 years old (Attendees must bring a form of ID for entry, no exceptions to age range)WHEN: June 11, 2022, 6:30-10:30PMWHERE: The Barlow, Sebastopol, CATHEME: Fairytale ATTIRE: Dress up, dress down, costumes, cosplay – all attire is welcomeWest County High School GSA, Positive Images, LGBTQ Connection y la biblioteca del condado de Sonoma se enorgullecen de presentar Sonoma County Queer Prom 2022.
QUIÉN: Estudiantes de secundaria del condado de Sonoma, de 14 a 18 años (los asistentes deben traer una forma de identificación para ingresar, sin excepciones al rango de edad)
CUÁNDO: 11 de junio de 2022, 6:30-10:30 p. m.
DÓNDE: The Barlow, Sebastopol, California
TEMA: Cuento de hadas
VESTIMENTA: disfrazarse, vestirse informalmente, disfraces, cosplay: toda vestimenta es bienvenida
Interested in purchasing tickets, donating or volunteering? Click on the pictures below to direct you to the appropriate link.¿Interesado en comprar boletos, donar o ser voluntario? Haga clic en las imágenes a continuación para dirigirlo al enlace apropiado.
Countless trans people are speaking out about their childhoods by writing letters in an effort to humanise the often cruel “debates” about them.
Under the hashtag “Letters 4 Trans Kids“, trans, non-binary and gender non-conforming Twitter users told their own stories.
As adults, they are thriving – and they want to help young people do the same. In a news cycle so often dominated by stories that dwell on bullying, murder and whether to remove their rights, trans people brought the conversation back to joy.
Among them was Arthur Webber, a 24-year-old writer based in London, England, who recalled nights “praying” that he would “wake up a boy” and now considers being trans a “gift”.
In many nations, from the US to Britain, trans folk are facing fire seemingly from all sides. From a belligerent press and politicians that see them as a “culture war”, to the spectre of rising violence and dwindling healthcare options.
But before then, Webber was a young person wishing he could throw on boy’s school uniform and use the men’s bathroom.
“My nights were spent praying that in the morning I would be a boy. I would wake up disappointed,” he tweeted. “However, I already was a boy – no divine intervention required.”
Webber recounted a Christmas Eve when he was seven spent cutting his hair off and rushing to tell his family about it. “I had been watching The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, so perhaps took the time of children coming out of a closet a bit too literally,” he joked.
“However, I already was a boy – no (terrible) haircut needed.”
Holidays provided a young Webber with a chance to be himself, a feeling so often stripped from trans kids. “I’d avoid giving them my name and say I was born without one,” he said, “which everybody is, really.
“The devastation I felt when my family would fetch me using my deadname and reveal that the outside world believes I was a girl still lingers with me.”
There were many stories from a childhood spent hiding who he was that he could have included in the letter, Webber told PinkNews. Many show how life-saving inclusive education can be.
“Until I had sex ed in year five, I was convinced that I was just a really late starter at being a boy and one day my d**k would just grow,” he said. “I’d be like all the other boys so sometimes I would look at men out in public and wonder at what age theirs showed up.”
Visiting a train exhibition at a Doncaster museum with his father and grandfather, the pair let him use the washroom with them “because they weren’t about to leave a five-year-old alone”.
“I was so happy to be there,” Webber recalled, “even though it smells.”
“As a child, I thought that eyelashes were a female thing so I would pull them out,” he added.
“So now they’re very thin because when you pull them out for years they sort of stop growing back.”
The Letters 4 Trans Kids hashtag was first started by Ina Fried, chief technology correspondent for Axios. She sought to “find a way to support” trans and non-binary youth amid an anti-trans legislative onslaught in America.
Fried called on social media users to pen a letter to share their experiences growing up trans or show their emphatic support for the community’s rights.
“I can only imagine what it is like to be a trans kid right now, trying to find your own way while having to have your humanity and basic human rights up for discussion every day,” Fried wrote on Facebook on 10 April.
“And then there is the message that debate sends to their community, to their friends and even to them – that they are not seen or valued for who they are.”
“What if everyone who supports trans kids wrote a letter, or made a short video or posted on social media,” Fried added. “Well, why not? Let’s do it.”
And hundreds of people did just that. Trans actors, filmmakers, drag artists and leading LGBT+ advocates grabbed their pens and wrote about figuring their identities out just like any other kid.
The letters are a testament to just how possible it could be for trans youth to flourish when supported, affirmed and loved.
A question so many of the letters raised was how the adults in trans children’s lives – from parents and caregivers to educators and politicians – can choose to care for them, not abandon them, so they grow up into the people they know they can be.
Despite the obstacles he faced, Webber has persevered as a proud trans man – and so will today’s trans youth, he stressed. Webber now considers being trans a “limited edition gift with no receipt”.
“Sometimes you’d give anything to return it because it’s too hard to look after,” he said, “but most of the time you’re thankful that it’s unique.”
When George M. Johnson wrote their memoir, All Boys Aren’t Blue about growing up Black and queer in America, they knew the calls to ban it would come.
“We live in a country where any story that is not centering some white, cis, heterosexual young boy or young girl…are not books they deem as acceptable and worthy,” Johnson told LGBTQ Nation. “I already knew from the beginning it would be banned in some places.”
But Johnson never expected it would go this far. All Boys Aren’t Blue, along with a myriad of other books that celebrate LGBTQ voices, has become the center of a national conservative movement to ban LGBTQ books – as well as books about race – from school libraries.
Across the country, parents and politicians alike are petitioning school boards and proposing laws to severely limit the type of content kids can access at school. In some states, laws have been proposed that would criminalize librarians and other school staff if they don’t remove certain books from the shelves.
Conservatives have claimed these books are inappropriate or even pornographic and that parents deserve more control over what their children can access. In many cases, their fights have been successful.
In at least eight states, for example, All Boys Aren’t Blue has been removed from schools, no doubt cutting off access to kids in dire need of stories like Johnson’s.
“I wanted [Black queer youth] to have the book that I wish I could have had growing up,” Johnson said. “A book that would help them be able to process things that they were going through.”
L.C. Rosen, author of Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts) – the story of a queer high school junior who is stalked and harassed for writing a sex advice column – wrote his book for the same reason.
“Even at the most progressive schools, sex-ed still tends to be focused almost entirely on heterosexual procreation,” Rosen told LGBTQ Nation. “I wanted to make sure there was a sex-ed option for queer teenagers because a lot of us don’t get that early on.”
Rosen’s book has also faced repeated challenges across the country. He feels it is especially ironic, considering the book is about others trying to push the main character back into the closet for failing to meet their standards of a “well-behaved gay boy” as Rosen puts it.
“It feels like life imitating art in that people feel this is a bad example of a queer person and therefore should not be for teenagers,” he said.
But Rosen emphasized that it isn’t him these bans are hurting.
“I care about the teenagers who are actively seeing adults say that books about queer teens who have sex are inappropriate,” he said, “who are actually hearing adults in their communities say that queer teenagers shouldn’t exist and if they do exist they shouldn’t have sex. That is what they’re living with now, and that must be horrifying.”
Maia Kobabe, whose graphic memoir Gender Queer explores Kobabe’s identity as nonbinary and asexual, agrees.
“What it hurts is the community where the bans and challenges take place…Readers in communities who are already the most marginalized or have the least resources and are unable to purchase the book if it is removed from the library or might not feel safe bringing the book into their home…It’s those readers who might need it most whose access is being most limited,” Kobabe told LGBTQ Nation.
Johnson, Rosen, and Kobabe all mentioned that most people challenging their books have not even read them, or else have read one or two lines taken out of context.
But even more, they all disputed the basic notion that it’s problematic to write about sex for a teenage audience, and especially the homophobic notion that queer sex specifically is inherently inappropriate or pornographic.
The reality, Johnson said, is that teenagers are out having these experiences, and they deserve to be educated about them.
“There’s this whole notion that the youth this book is geared towards, which is 14-18, is too young to read it, even though some of the experiences that I had clearly happened prior to the age of 14,” Johnson said. “Saying this topic is too heavy for my 14, 15, or even 13 year old, when they could already be experiencing these things, is really just a denial of what the actual young adult experience is in this country.”
In a statement on the banning of his book, Rosen also pointed out that while his book has plenty of discussions about sex, it also has no actual sex scenes.
The authors also encouraged anyone against the banning of their books – as well as the many other books being challenged – to stand up and speak out about why the books matter to them.
“That can send a lot of encouragement and make sure librarians know there are also people who want the books to stay,” Kobabe said.
Rosen said he’s willing to have conversations with parents who want to discuss the nuances of just how far and how graphic a book for teens should go. He acknowledged that not everyone with reservations is necessarily homophobic, and he is happy to speak with those parents about why he feels his book is a crucial source of sex education. But he also said there is no reasoning with those who merely think queer sex is evil or that any depiction of queer teenagers is a bad thing.
“Essentially, it’ll help kids come out of the closet, and that’s exactly what they don’t want,” he said. “It has been proven that reading fiction increases your empathy…[Parents] don’t like the idea of their kids being more empathetic and understanding to other points of view because then they’ll realize how their parents have been complicit.”
Johnson emphasized that what parents really need to do is listen to their kids.
“If your child is interested in my Black queer sex, that’s a deeper conversation you might need to be having with your child. Denying them my book is not the issue. What you’re really denying them is the open communication and dialogue.”
As Rosen put it, “If reading queer books made you queer, then we would all be straight.”
Just a month ago, Katie, a Texas mom, had no plans to leave her home.
Even after Gov. Greg Abbott urged Texans in February to report cases of minors receiving gender-affirming care, Katie — who has a 15-year-old transgender son and knew she could be investigated — planned to stay and fight.
But things started to change for Katie when the Texas Children’s Hospital announced last month that it would pause gender-affirming services for minors in light of the directive. Her son lost access to his care program for three weeks until a judge paused the state’s investigations.
“That just really shook me,” said Katie, who asked that her full name not be published to protect her family’s privacy. “The things that you never would think would happen somehow are reality, and I can’t live with the uncertainty. It’s eating us up.”
A spokesperson for the Texas Children’s Hospital said in an email that the hospital “remains deeply committed to our transgender and gender-diverse patients” and will “continue to monitor the ongoing legal proceedings in determining how best to proceed.”
Her son’s initial loss of gender-affirming care was the turning point for Katie and her family. Katie decided that after her son finishes 10th grade this summer, the family would move to Denver.
Her son, N., told NBC News last month that things have been “awful” since the governor’s directive. “It was hard to stay in one piece and not break down on everything,” he said.
Katie said that since the family decided to move, N. has been doing the best he can to stay positive about it.
“But his heart is broken,” she said. “We’re leaving Texas temporarily on our terms with the hope and prayer that come November, we’re going to get to come back home and it will be a joyous homecoming.”
Last month, NBC News spoke to a dozen parents of transgender children, as well as to trans teens, following Abbott’s directive. At the time, only one of those families had planned to move. Now, three, including Katie’s family, have said they will leave the state.
The three families who are departing said they didn’t make their decisions overnight. But they had watched Texas officials become increasingly bold in targeting transgender people in recent years.
In 2015, the state began to consider a “bathroom bill” that would have banned transgender people from using public and school restrooms that aligned with their gender identity.
Since then, the Legislature has ramped up its efforts. Last year, it considered more than 50 bills targeting transgender people. Only one made it to Abbott for a signature: a bill that bars transgender students from playing on school sports teams that aligned with their gender identity.
But one of the other failed bills prompted an opinion from state Attorney General Ken Paxton, who declared on Feb. 21that gender-affirming medical care such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgery cause “irreparable harm” to minors and were child abuse under Texas law. Abbott followed with his directive to the state’s Department of Family and Protective Services the following day.
“I’ll do everything I can to protect against those who take advantage of and harm young Texans,” Paxton said at the time, arguing in his opinion that minors cannot consent to gender-affirming medical care.
He has since taken several actions to defend and double down on his position. He appealed both injunctions issued by judges: a narrow injunction on March 2 that paused one of the state’s investigations into a Child Protective Services employee and a statewide one issued March 11 that paused all investigations. An appeals court reinstated the statewide injunction and it remains in place.
Transgender youths, parents and several Democratic lawmakers rallied at the Texas Capitol on April 28, 2021.Bob Daemmrich / USA Today Network
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Paxton also filed investigative demands on March 24 against two pharmaceutical companies, Endo Pharmaceuticals and AbbVie Inc., alleging that they advertised their products as treatment for gender dysphoria rather than the medical conditions they were approved to treat.
The efforts from Paxton, Abbott and the state Legislature have had widespread effects. The Children’s Medical Center in Dallas removed all references to Genecis, its gender-affirming care program for minors, from its website in November and said the program would no longer take new patients. Last month, 850 doctors, medical students and employees at two Dallas hospitals signed a petition opposing the decision.
Paxton has also tweeted about transgender people, even repeatedly misgendering Dr. Rachel Levine, assistant U.S. health secretary and the first openly transgender Senate-confirmed federal official, prompting Twitter to flag the tweets.
All of it is adding up, and parents and LGBTQ advocates say they are exhausted. The Rev. Remington Johnson, a Presbyterian clergy member and a trans advocate, said she spends her days texting with the parents of trans kids in Texas and doesn’t know of any family who hasn’t considered leaving the state.
Even if advocates continue to defeat anti-trans bills, and even if the courts ultimately shoot down Abbott’s directive, they will leave behind a persistent “climate of terror,” she said.
“This is why there have been doctors that have just stopped treating trans kids,” she said. “It’s not because there’s a law, it’s because this is what terror-inducing bills do. It is the same playbook as the bounty-hunter style abortion bill, where it’s about causing anxiety and fear to stop the thing that you don’t want to be happening.”
She noted that Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has already signaled support for a bill similar to one recently signed into law by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the Parental Rights in Education Act, which bars discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in some classrooms. Critics of the bill have dubbed it the “Don’t Say Gay and Trans” bill.
“Texas will work to pass what Florida passed but make it worse,” Johnson said. “It will be harsher, it will be more extreme.”
K., another Austin mom of a 10-year-old trans daughter testified against anti-trans bills at the Capitol last year, when the Legislature held three special sessions to pass the trans athlete restriction. She said that once it was over, she and the other advocates planned to take time off to recover and strategize for the next session.
But then Paxton and Abbott released their letters two months into the new year.
“Here we see that these two extremist politicians circumvented the legal process in order to implement these policies,” she said.
K., who also asked that her full name not be published out of privacy concerns, said that she realized that even though she and the other parents and advocates “followed the rules” and won, they’re still losing. “It makes me uncertain that we would be protected even though our kids have not received gender-affirming medical care at this point,” she said. “And I can’t fight offensively when I’m already down on the ground just trying to fend people off of my kids.”
She plans to move her family to Oregon this summer.
Parents also expect that the next legislative session, which starts in 2023, will be worse than the last. That’s why Heather Crawford, an Austin mom whose 15-year-old is trans, said she plans to move her family to Minnesota this summer.
“I have zero faith that it will stop,” she said. Her 15-year-old, Cass, was born and raised in Texas, but “I cannot ask them to spend the last years of their childhood in a state that wants to criminalize their existence.”
Cass, who uses “he” and “they” pronouns, said the idea of moving to a state with a number of pro-LGBTQ laws — and was the first to outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in 1993 — is a huge relief. He said Paxton’s and Abbott’s efforts will put trans people in danger. “It’s saying that people can get away with transphobia towards everyone in the community, including kids,” he said.
Sunday May 22 at 4 pm. Nina Gerber and Chris Webster at Occidental Center for the Arts. Join us in our amphitheater for a special outdoor performance by Sonoma County favorites Nina Gerber and Chris Webster! Music fans know Nina GerberandChris Webster as two of the most skilled and artful musical talents. Webster’s voice is uniquely compelling while Gerber’s guitar is beautiful and powerful. Their musical partnership has spanned over 25 years. Don’t miss this magical afternoon concert of soulful originals, tasteful covers, jazzy songs and folk tunes in our outdoor amphitheater! $30 General/$25 OCA Members at www.occidentalcenterforthearts.org. Bring a cushion or low back seat for your comfort. Fine refreshments including wine and beer for sale. Art Gallery exhibit will be open for viewing. OCA is a non profit performing and fine arts center accessible to persons with disabilities. Become an OCA Member and get discounts/free admission. Occidental Center for the Arts, 3850Doris Murphy Ct. Occidental, CA. 95465.
