One week before statewide primary elections, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launched an attack on the state’s transgender children and their families, threatening to charge parents and care providers with child abuse.
“It is clearly and explicitly a political ploy, and it’s about power and retaining power. It’s all about power,” said Presbyterian minister and transgender advocate Remington Johnson. “And the people they are using to get their power from are children. They are hurting children to try to hold onto their power. That’s it.”
Statewide, parents of transgender children — along with teachers, medical professionals, social workers and counselors — were sent into a panic by the governor’s Feb. 22 letter to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to “conduct a prompt and thorough investigation of any reported instances” of children receiving “abusive gender-transitioning procedures.” The governor based his demand on a ruling the day before by the attorney general that “so-called ‘sex-change’ procedures constitute child abuse under existing Texas law.”
Abbott specifically called for investigation and charges against any parent, doctor, nurse or teacher found to be aiding in a child’s gender transition.
‘It’s really scary’
“It’s really scary. They’re now attacking anyone who supports trans kids. Putting that threat out there that anyone who provides any kind of care for trans kids is insane,” said Rachel Gonzales, a Dallas parent of a transgender child. “He’s coming after everyone. It’s a ridiculous theatrical showdown.”
Gonzales and her entire family have become well-known activists for transgender children and their families, showing up in Austin every time an anti-trans bill is debated in the Legislature — which has meant a lot of trips from Dallas to Austin in recent years. She also serves on a council for parental rights through the Human Rights Campaign.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott speaks at a news conference in Austin, Texas on June 8, 2021. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
The timing of Abbott and Paxton’s coordinated announcement says everything about their motivation, Gonzales asserted. Both men face primary challenges from the far right.
Paxton, who has been hounded with his own legal woes throughout his term, is the most vulnerable of the two and faces three well-known primary challengers. Current polling indicates the four-way race likely will require a runoff. A University of Texas poll released Feb. 14 shows Paxton with 47% of the vote, Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush with 21%, former Texas Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman with 16%, and U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert with 15%. A Dallas Morning News-University of Texas at Tyler poll shows Paxton at 39% and Bush at 25%.
Early voting already is under way, and election day is next Tuesday, March 1.
‘The most extreme measure we’ve ever had’
Johnson, who is a health care chaplain ordained through the Presbyterian Church (USA), lives and works in Austin and also is a frequent presence at the state Capitol advocating for transgender rights.
In a state known for some of the nation’s most extreme legislative attacks on transgender persons, “this is the most extreme measure we have ever had,” she explained. “And it comes on the heels of Texas breaking the record in 2021 for the most anti-LGBTQ bills filed, 75. We stopped 74 of them.”
The one that passed was a bill limiting transgender student athletes competing in sports events, legislation similar to that adopted in other Republican-controlled states last year.
Remington Johnson speaking at the Texas State Capitol.
Sadly, Johnson said, recent attempts to legislate against transgender persons often have been couched in language of religious freedom. Two years after the first flurry of so-called “bathroom bills,” Republicans in the Texas Legislature took a different tack: “All the bad bills at that time that would have harmed sexual and gender minorities were based on religious liberty,” meaning some manner of granting evangelical Christians the right to refuse to do anything they oppose or deny the existence of people they don’t want to see, Johnson said.
How to motivate Republicans but not Democrats
“Those bills were so bananas that no one thought they were going to go anywhere,” but with the Legislature, you never know, she added. “What we have seen over the years since the bathroom bills swept the country is the Republican playbook, a national playbook …. where they copy and paste a bill from one state to another … and keep trying to find the thing that turns out Republicans but doesn’t turn out Democrats.”
The answer, Johnson said, is “going after transgender children.” Such legislation fires up support from Republican voters but doesn’t turn out Democratic voters in protest.
Such legislation fires up support from Republican voters but doesn’t turn out Democratic voters in protest.
The transgender population is so small that they are easy-to-hide victims, she explained. “Most transgender children are completely invisible. The terrible cruelty of this is that for the parents and children who came out against these bills, they were putting their safety at risk. There were death threats against the parents, one of our trans teens was attacked, and what is harder now is that all these people’s faces are out there.”
From a religious perspective, “the most damning part of this is that (legislators) refused over and over again to augment their bill, to sit down with experts, to mitigate the harm their bills would do,” Johnson asserted. “Every single time they refused every overture. They refused to see they were doing any harm at all.”
Yet faith leaders are called, and the ethic of Christianity demands, working to mitigate harm, especially to vulnerable children, she added. “Your goal as a Christian leader should be to insulate against harm.”
But Republican elected officials refuse to see transgender persons as real people, she charged, adding that they seem to consider transgender persons as the “unclean” of biblical days and therefore people to be avoided.
“You start worrying when one faith group or one ideology pushes all others out. In a full-court press to wipe the public square clean, they want to cleanse the temple of people they think are unclean.”
“In a full-court press to wipe the public square clean, they want to cleanse the temple of people they think are unclean.”
‘Parents are freaking out’
Gonzales said this reality strikes fear over and over again in families with transgender children. “Parents are freaking out right now. We need to do something immediately. My phone is ringing non-stop.”
Late on Monday, Feb. 21, she put together plans for a Zoom call with worried parents of transgender children for the next evening, Feb. 22. In less than 24 hours’ notice 447 people registered to participate.
The main message she tried to convey is “don’t panic,” Gonzales said. While the threat from Abbott and Paxton is real, neither has the authority to alter existing state laws. And on a practical level, the state’s Child Protective Services already is so understaffed and underfunded that it couldn’t possibly take on hundreds of new cases that would “fill the pipeline with children from loving, affirming homes.”
But while parents who live near support groups and medical care may get this message, parents and care providers in more remote parts of the state may not, she said. “The thing I’m personally concerned about is the schools in small town Texas that are seeing this and thinking they have a responsibility to follow through, who don’t know there isn’t actually legal standing.”
What’s happening in Texas right now is “bananas,” Gonzales said. “People across the country are messaging me, ‘Do you need to come stay here?’”
Abbott and Paxton roundly denounced
All major civil rights groups have issued statements denouncing the Abbott and Paxton play. And four district attorneys have said they will not enforce or facilitate the governor’s demands.
All major civil rights groups have issued statements denouncing the Abbott and Paxton play.
Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot and his colleagues from Travis County (Austin), Bexas County (San Antonio) and Nueces County (Corpus Christi) issued a statement Feb. 22 calling Abbott and Paxton’s interpretation of the law “un-American” and another step in “a continued onslaught on personal freedoms.”
The ACLU of Texas reminded all Texans that “Paxton’s opinion is not legally binding, and it remains up to the courts to interpret Texas laws and the Constitution. Moreover, (the state) cannot remove any child from their parents or guardians without a court order. No court here in Texas or anywhere in the country has ever found that gender-affirming care can be considered child abuse. The opinion released by Paxton cites highly partisan, outdated and inaccurate information that ignores the consensus of every major medical association and the evidence-based and peer-reviewed standards of care.”
The Texas chapter of the National Association of Social Workers issued a statement that it “stands opposed to any efforts to change the definition of child abuse to include ‘gender affirming care’” as referenced by Abbott and Paxton. “These continued attempts to change the definition of child abuse are in direct opposition to social work values, principles, and our Code of Ethics and pose danger to transgender youth and their families.”
The social work organization reminded its licensed social workers that “this a non-binding legal opinion and they still have professional discretion on mandatory reporting. No rules on reporting were changed through this opinion, nor through the governor’s letter.”
Meanwhile, the White House issued a statement reported by the Dallas Morning News saying it is dangerous for Texas elected officials to label gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth as “child abuse.”
“Conservative officials in Texas and other states across the country should stop inserting themselves into health care decisions that create needless tension between pediatricians and their patients,” White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. “No parent should face the agony of a politician standing in the way of accessing life-saving care for their child.”
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