Empowered by Donald Trump’s rapid-fire attempt to change American culture, some state legislators and county leaders are pushing the envelope even further, seeking to eliminate rights for people they despise or fear.
In Fort Worth, Texas, the chairman of the Tarrant County Republican Party has openly stated his goal of driving Democrats out of the county.
Brent Money
In Michigan, state Rep. Josh Schriver has introduced a resolution asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 ruling legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide. Similar resolutions have been introduced in Idaho, Iowa, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota.
And in Austin, Texas, Rep. Brent Money — who already introduced a bill seeking to define life as beginning at conception — has introduced a bill that would make it a crime for anyone — child, teenager or adult — to transition from one gender to another.
Ridding county of Democrats
Fort Worth is the seat of Tarrant County, one of four counties that make up the heart of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. While Dallas County turned decidedly blue some years ago, Tarrant County has been teetering back and forth with slim majorities both directions. Currently, the county leadership leans Republican and the county judge executive, Tim O’Hare, is one of the most outspoken far-right leaders in Texas.
Bo French
County GOP Chairman Bo French is even more blunt and outspoken. Last week, he posted a fundraising video on X promoting his vision of “completely routing Democrats from our community, making it the conservative city on a hill.” He pledged, “With your help, we will completely transform Tarrant County and usher in the golden age of Republican rule.”
In the video, French calls Texas “the great bastion of Republican prosperity and achievement” and Tarrant County “the largest Republican county in the nation.”
In reality, Tarrant County is the “biggest purple county” in the state, according to the Texas Standard. Although O’Hare and his allies have instituted some of the most hard-right policies and tactics in the state, the county’s demographics continue to change.
According to the Texas Standard, “With 2.2 million people, Tarrant County is Texas’ most significant remaining battleground for Democrats and Republicans.”
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French declares in his video that “while most urban centers nationwide have fallen victim to the detrimental and degenerative effects of left-wing Democrat rule,” Tarrant has not. He boasts, “There’s no wonder why Tarrant County is one of the fastest-growing counties in America.”
But that claim is not true in the way French implies. While Tarrant County is among growing counties, there are other notable counties in Texas — much less the nation — growing faster, and some of them are Democratic strongholds, including Harris County (Houston) and Bexar County (San Antonio).
He speaks of Republicans’ “novel campaign strategies” in Tarrant County that he predicts will lead it to become “the conservative stronghold in Texas” and “the epicenter for Republicans who value economic success, public safety, limited government and liberty for all.”
Donors who give to the county GOP are “contributing to a bold and innovative grassroots machine dedicated to completely routing Democrats from Tarrant County and making it the conservative city on a hill,” he says.
Overturning Obergefell
Even though support for same-sex marriage remains extremely high in polling of all Americans, evangelical Christian leaders have declared they will not rest until the Supreme Court ruling legalizing such marriages in all states is overturned. This is, to them, on par with their 50-year campaign to overturn abortion rights embodied in Roe v. Wade.
Thus, Republican legislators in nine states have introduced bills asking the Supreme Court to do just that. Although such resolutions have no legally binding power over the high court — and do not tee up any particular cases for the court to make such a reversal — they express the sentiment of these legislators that the court granted too much liberty to gay and lesbian citizens with the same-sex marriage ruling. Even though these same legislators campaign on mottos of “liberty for all.”
The liberal advocacy group Them has traced the language and intent of the resolutions to a conservative advocacy group called Mass Resistance, which publicly states it is working to advance its goals in state legislatures.
Mass Resistance says Obergefell was based on “a fraudulent interpretation of the Constitution.”
“Unlike in 2015, the current Supreme Court has a majority of constitutionalists rather than ideologues. And they’re willing to revisit past bad rulings,” the website declares. “The recent Dobbs decision overturning the similarly illegitimate … Roe v. Wade ruling has generated excitement that Obergefell might also be overturned.”
Mass Resistance says Obergefell was based on “a fraudulent interpretation of the Constitution.”
The latest state legislator to introduce a resolution calling for Obergefell to be overturned is Rep. Joshua Schriver of Michigan.
Naomi Goldberg
Naomi Goldberg, executive director of Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ think tank, told NBC News such attempts to undermine same-sex marriage rights would face a long list of roadblocks, even if they make it out of legislatures.
“Research shows that the majority of Americans continue to support the ability of same-sex couples to marry. And two years ago, a bipartisan Congress passed the Respect for Marriage Act, which both repealed the federal Defense of Marriage Act, codified federal recognition of marriage, and most importantly, also requires that states recognize legal marriages from other states,” Goldberg said. “Despite these resolutions and attempts to undermine marriage recognition, Obergefell continues to be the law of the land.”
Michigan Democratic Rep. Mike McFall was among legislators ridiculing Schriver and the bill’s cosponsors for misplaced priorities.
“At a time when Michiganders are looking to their leaders to address pressing issues like lowering costs and protecting our economy, House Republicans are choosing to focus on undermining the personal freedoms of Michigan residents,” he said. “This resolution is not only a blatant attempt to roll back the clock on civil rights, but it is also out of step with the values and priorities of our state.”
Josh Shriver
Not even all Republican legislators are on board with the anti-gay resolution.
“The people sent us here to fix the roads and improve our schools,” said Rep. Donni Steele. “I want to be a part of a Republican Party that is focused on the issues that matter most to all people. We all drive the same roads, shop at the same stores and visit the same restaurants. We should be focused on improving peoples’ lives, not driving people further apart.”
Michigan’s Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, also weighed in with a warning to Republicans: “Here’s my response to that: Hell no. We fought a long, hard fight to win marriage equality, and we will always protect our family, our friends and neighbors from hateful attacks. No one should be fired from their job or evicted from their home because of who they love or who they are. … I’m not gonna allow the people I love most in the world to have less rights than anyone else. That’s just not how we do things in Michigan.”
Transgender rights in Texas
The state-level battle against the very existence of transgender people is a more real danger to the LGBTQ community, however.
In Texas, House Bill 3399 would ban medical providers from prescribing certain medications and from performing some medical procedures if they “know” their patient is transgender. The new bill builds on a 2023 Senate Bill 14, which banned transition-related medical care and medications for minors. The new bill would simply replace the word “child” in the resulting state law with “person,” making the ban on changing genders to apply to adults.
Although the existing state policy declares gender transition for minors to be illegal, it does not spell out what punishment will be given to those found in violation.
Imara Jones
TransLash Media Founder Imara Jones told KXAN—TV news this bill could be an indicator of things to come and shows anti-trans activists never intended to stop with restrictions on transgender children.
“They’ve had that plan since 2018, where kids were the easiest way to enter into the conversation around anti-trans politics and policies, but the goal always was adults,” she said. “I don’t think that it’s an evolution. … It is a part of the larger effort. I think that they’ve had tremendous success with targeting trans kids and have seen that go better than they thought. So, of course, they would move on to trans adults.”
Texas is an important testing ground for bills that will be circulated in other states, she warned.
“Florida and Texas are about how to use the mainstream levers of politics to advance anti-trans legislation. And so a lot of times, what you see in Texas is a test run for what you’re going to see elsewhere,” she said. “The governor is surrounded and has connections with a lot of radical Christian politics and politicians in Texas, Dominionism and Christian nationalism. Gov. Abbott has embraced those politics and policies as a result of that affiliation.”
Focus on the Family and its affiliated advocacy groups have been previous purveyors of anti-transgender legislation introduced by Republicans in 21 state legislatures.
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