AND THOUGH THEY ARE WITH YOU YET THEY BELONG NOT TO YOU

Texas governor Greg Abbott is leveling another attack against the LGBTQIA+ community by attempting to criminalize gender-affirming medical care. Abbott is calling on Texas state agencies, including the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, to classify medical procedures and treatments that align children with their gender identity as “child abuse.” This follows an opinion released by Ken Paxton, Texas’ attorney general, where Paxton states that parents who permit gender-affirming procedures should be investigated for child abuse. Abbott also directed “all licensed professionals who have direct contact with children who may be subject to such abuse, including doctors, nurses, and teachers” to report parents or guardians that support gender-affirming care or face “criminal penalties for failure to report.”

To sum up, Texas’ governor and attorney general are classifying gender reassignment surgery, puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and all other gender-affirmation therapies and surgeries as child abuse under state laws.

It is unclear how this directive is going to actually play out. So far, Paxton’s opinion is not legally binding, and it is still up to Texas’ state courts to interpret the laws and constitution. The ACLU has clarified that the governor’s statement cannot be enforced under the current law, but nevertheless it does “spread fear and misinformation, and could spur false reporting of child abuse.”

More than thirty anti-LGBTQIA+ bills were introduced in Texas last year, and we need to do all we can to fight.

What can we do to help? First off, contact Abbott and Paxton’s offices and show your support of trans kids and their families:

https://gov.texas.gov/apps/contact/opinion.aspx

https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/contact-us-online-form

Urge your local leaders to also speak out against anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation. Get on the phone, write to your representatives, show up to protests.

Share trans activism and education resources freely, support trans folx in your community. Here’s a toolkit for protecting LGBTQIA+ students that was drafted by the ACLU in conjunction with Lambda Legal:

https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/lgbt/pages/44/attachments/original/1644292200/LGBTQIA_StudentsRightsToolkit.pdf?1644292200

Use your voice. Magnify your voice on social media, engage in tough discussions with your friends and family, and do what you can to raise awareness and build understanding and compassion in your community.

We have crafted two oils inspired by a poem of Kahlil Gibran’s in order to fundraise for Lambda Legal who has joined the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, Equality Texas, and Transgender Education Network of Texas to form TxTransKids.org, an initiative that fights for the rights of LGBTQ Texans in the courts, the legislature, local governments, and schools. “We are coming together to ensure that K-12 transgender, non-binary, and genderqueer students and the people that love them have access to the resources that they need.”

If you choose to make donations directly, please consider TxTransKids.org, or any of these following organizations:

Trans Youth Family Allies http://www.imatyfa.org/

Lambda Legal https://www.lambdalegal.org/

Equality Texas https://www.equalitytexas.org/

Transgender Education Network of Texas https://www.transtexas.org/

And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, Speak to us of Children. And he said: Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

A gentle vanilla sandalwood blend, serene but mighty.