Human Rights Campaign slam new anti-trans bill in Texas: ‘A dark and frightening day’
"Transgender kids, just like any kid, simply want to play sports with their friends."
Words: Alastair James; pictures: Wiki
The Human Rights Campaign has slammed a bill signed into law by the Texas state governor preventing trans pupils from playing on school sports teams that match their gender identity.
It’s the 10th state to do so following Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Mississippi, Montana, South Dakota (which was done by executive order), Tennessee, and West Virginia.
This year has been described by the HRC as the worst for anti-trans legislation in the States, with around 280 anti-LGBTQ bills being introduced – many targeting the trans community.
“A dark and frightening day”
The HRC’s Texas State Director Rebecca Marques says, in response to the passing of the bill: “This is a dark and frightening day for thousands of families in Texas who fear for the safety and future of their transgender children.”
She continues: “Transgender kids, just like any kid, simply want to play sports with their friends. They are being denied that chance by legislators whose arguments are not backed up by evidence, educators, medical consensus, or science.”
She also accused Texas Governor Abbott of appealing to a “radical” support base rather than actually fixing problems such as the state’s electrical grid in the cases of extreme weather.
This refers to major outages experienced by the state in February, which are reported to have caused the deaths of up to 700 people.
The HRC states that a lack of evidence from proponents of such discriminatory legislation only serves to highlight their basis in discrimination.
More than 280 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced across 33 states this session, including more than 130 specifically anti-transgender bills.
While preventing trans pupils from taking part in school sports has been a common goal of some of the anti-trans legislation other bills have focused on access to bathrooms and changing rooms as well as the use of pupils’ preferred pronouns.
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