Judge Amy Meachum of The 201st District Court in Austin hasn’t issued a decision on a temporary restraining order yet, but Equality Texas along with five other groups went ahead with a press conference on Gov. Greg Abbott’s order to have CPS investigate parents with trans kids.
“I never thought I’d see the day when elected officials would attack innocent children,” said Equality Texas CEO Ricardo Martinez.
He called Abbott’s actions “unconscionable,” but that he called the press conference “to defend their humanity.” He noted the tens of thousands of calls Trevor Project has been receiving “as a result of conversations in the Capitol,” which has resulted in bullying and torment.
A stunt by Paxton, Martinez said, has “turned into persecution.”
HRC’s Texas State Director Rebecca Marques said “Kids are under attack from their own government.”
She accused the governor of targeting and harassing children while circumventing the legislative process. A bill to label gender affirming care as child abuse failed to pass during the final special session of the Legislature.
However, Marques noted, more than 125 bills targeting trans youth have been filed in statehouses around the country already this year.
Texas Freedom Network COO Marti Bier read a statement from a parent of a trans child who thought it was too dangerous to attend the press conference in person. That parent said she and her family were getting ready to leave the state for another state with explicit trans protections.
“I never believed we’d be political targets in our own state,” the parent said.
She ended by saying she was choosing “the loss of our home instead of the loss of our child.”
A representative of the ACLU reiterated that statement, sasying, “When you choose to take away this care, you choose to end their life.”
And Emmett Schelling, executive director of the Transgender Education Network of Texas said he was done talking to Abbott and only addressed trans youth, telling them they are loved.
— David Taffet
