Tweets from Texas Comptroller Susan Combs and Equality Texas.
Texas Comptroller Susan Combs posted a BBC story this week that highlighted the 10 reasons people are moving to Texas.
Reason No. 7 lists the state as family-friendly and mentions that “San Antonio is home to the largest community of gay parents.”
Combs tweeted Reason No. 7 on Wednesday, and Equality Texas retweeted it, thanking her for celebrating all families. Combs then removed the full story from her website, including the 10 reasons and the gay parent mention, leaving only the intro and the story link.
Combs spokeswoman Lauren Willis said several articles shared on the website are eventually shortened and the removal of the whole story was “absolutely not” because it mentioned gay parents.
She said the people who monitor Combs’ website post full articles for three days before shortening them and adding a link.
“That article was treated no differently than any other article that’s ever been on our site,” Willis said.
Daniel Williams, Equality Texas field organizer, said he was “disappointed that the comptroller choose to erase LGBT families.”
“It’s important to thank and celebrate elected officials when they do the right thing. It is saddening to think that could have caused the redaction,” he added. “The more disturbing thought is that the comptroller’s office is distributing information without reviewing it first, and Comptroller Combs was only made aware of the content of the article by our tweet.”
We’ve posted screen grabs below of the story before and after it was shortened.
Story on the site as of yesterday.
Story on the site as of today.
