![](https://dallasvoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Simmmons-and-Thierry.jpg)
Lauren Ashley Simmons, left, has been endorsed by The Houston Chronicle, several LGBTQ lawmakers and numerous LGBTQ and progressive groups and leaders over Democratic incumbent state Rep. Shawn Thierry, right, who voted against transgender student athletes and against gender-affirming health care for trans youth.
The Houston Chronicle Editorial Board has endorsed Lauren Ashley Simmons, the primary opponent to Democratic Rep. Shawn Thierry. An endorsement from an editorial board should not be news. But for a LGBTQ audience, and anyone who cares about human decency, here’s why this one is important.
“After a combative and petty performance that was beyond the debating showmanship we typically see, Thierry again interrupted Simmons during what was supposed to be her closing statement. Simmons, 36, was noting that she had earned the support of three of Thierry’s colleagues.
“‘The gay ones,’ Thierry interjected sharply.
“The gay ones” she’s referring to North Texas Reps. Julie Johnson, Jessica González and Ana-Maria Ramos, who backed Simmons when she emerged as the frontrunner of the two challengers. (2022 opponent and Ashton Woods, who is LGBTQ, is also running.) Johnson and González are lesbian. Ramos, however, is straight.
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“Still, we were irked when Thierry seemed to misrepresent what happened during the negotiations over the transgender care bill. She claimed she was unable to get her fellow Democrats to bend at all on a compromise she might accept. We checked the record, and it’s full of amendments that could’ve offered a principled middle ground.
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“Rep. Ann Johnson, D-Houston, offered an amendment replete with layers of necessary interventions and restrictions on treatment, including an evaluation by a state-appointed commission of professionals that would have to be completed before a young person could receive certain prescriptions. So much for intellectually honest.”