![]() ![]() Trans kids deserve not only to exist, but to thrive as their authentic selves in every facet of their lives, and we will never stop fighting to to actualize a world where that is undisputed. Legislation that purports to ‘protect youth’ while stripping them of the life-saving, life-giving care that they receive will cost lives, and that’s not an exaggeration. “Today Governor Abbott signed cruelty into law. In a late Friday evening phone call, Landon Richie, with the Transgender Education Network of Texas, told the Washington Blade: “It’s a privilege to be able to fight,” Buchert said about the ongoing court challenges that Lambda Legal is involved in. Impeached Attorney General Ken Paxton later appealed the decision in March, but the 3rd Court of Appeals has yet to issue a ruling on it. ![]() “It’s one thing to see some of the things that state legislators do, but it’s a completely different thing when you’re under the white-hot spotlight of judicial scrutiny,” she said.Īnd prior to SB 14, the ACLU and Lambda Legal successfully sued Texas last year to halt state-ordered child abuse investigations of parents who provide their trans kids with access to transition-related care. While the lawsuits are tailored to each state, Sasha Buchert, a senior attorney at Lambda Legal and the director of its Nonbinary and Transgender Rights Project, told the Texas Tribune last month that a major common challenge to the laws hinges on the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause and the argument that these laws are stopping trans kids from accessing the same medical treatments that are still available to their cisgender peers.īuchert added that the lawsuits’ immediate goal is generally to get a preliminary injunction to stop these laws from taking effect, a tactic that has seen some success. Earlier this year, the Department of Justice also joined the legal fight against Tennessee’s ban. This legal threat is not new some of these groups have sued several other states over their restrictions. “Our trans youth deserve a world where they can shine alongside their peers, and we will keep advocating for that world in and out of the courts.” “Transgender people have always been here and will always be here,” Ash Hall, policy and advocacy strategist at the ACLU of Texas, said Friday. In response, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Texas, Lambda Legal and the Transgender Law Center pledged on May 18 to fight SB 14 in court. At the same time, doctors say cutting off these treatments - gradually or abruptly - could bring both physical discomfort and psychological distress to trans youth, some of whom have called it forced detransitioning. SB 14’s supporters have also disputed the science and research behind transition-related care.īut trans kids, their parents and major medical groups say these medical treatments are important to protecting the mental health of an already vulnerable population, which faces a higher risk of depression and suicide than their cisgender peers. Those who support the law claim that health care providers have capitalized on a “social contagion” to misguide parents and push life-altering treatments on kids who may later regret their decisions. The law also bans transition-related surgeries for kids, though those are rarely performed on minors. Children already receiving these treatments will have to be “weaned off” in a “medically appropriate” manner. Donna Campbell, the law bars trans kids from getting puberty blockers and hormone therapies, treatments many medical groups support. ![]() ![]() “It’s not shocking that this governor would sign SB14 right at the beginning of Pride however this will not stop trans people from continuing to exist with authenticity - as we always have.”Īuthored by New Braunfels Republican state Sen. “Cruelty has always been the point,” said Emmett Schelling, executive director of the Transgender Education Network of Texas. is now one of over a dozen states that restrict transition-related care for trans minors. Texas - home to one of the largest trans communities in the U.S. ![]()
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