Gov. Greg Abbott

It only took him all of the 2021 regular session of the Texas Legislature and three special sessions, but Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday, Oct. 25, finally got to sign into law a measure prohibiting transgender youth from playing sports in public schools on teams aligned with their gender identity.

The new law, set to go into effect on Jan. 18, closes a loophole in UIL rules, which require students to compete in UIL sports according to the gender on their birth certificates but which do recognize birth certificates on which the gender markers have been legally changed. Abbott’s new law recognizes only the gender assigned to a child on their original birth certificate.

Abbott and others on the right-wing edge of the GOP spent countless hours since the Legislature’s regular session began last January — and before that as well — targeting transgender people, especially trans youth, for discrimination with legislation aimed at providing solutions to non-existent problems, much as they did four years with their anti-trans “bathroom bills.”

Meanwhile, as meteorologists — and The Farmer’s Almanac — are predicting another extreme winter for Texas, our state’s dilapidated power grid, which failed us miserably last February during a record-breaking winter storm that left some 210 people dead, Abbott and the GOP have done little to address the problems. Abbott did sign two bills in early June that were intended to address problems with the power grid, But the “weatherization” process won’t begin until at least sometime in 2022, probably after winter has come and gone.

But at least we don’t have to worry about trans kids playing sports.

— Tammye Nash