Texas' War on Trans People

the episode has begun. We're improuding all of that, Sofie, all of that Welcome today could happen here the podcast where we will take pictures of your children entering a public school and send them to you as a threat. But we won't tell you what you're we're threatening you over because that's I don't know what that is, probably terrorism technically speaking, speaking of child abuse. Great Garrison very

proud nailed it. Yeah. Yeah, So we're gonna be We're gonna we're doing an episode to talk about the recent kind of letter and opinion piece that the Governor of Texas and the Attorney general wrote relating to trans kids in Texas. We're we're also planning like a like a more like a week long worth of stuff kind of going into this issue across not not just the States, but also like like internationally as well in terms of

like the growing kind of war on trans people. But because this thing happened, we we do want to kind of talk about it now as well before we you know, spend a lot of time making a week long is

the worth of of of scripted pieces on it. So anyway, we're gonna be talking about what happened last last weekend or last week at time of recording, UM when the Texas Attorney General, Kent Paxton released an opinion piece UM on I think it was it was Monday the twenty one, declaring gender affirming medical care for transgender children to be

child abuse UM. In response, the next day, UH, the Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, directed the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services UM to investigate these practices UM and then kind of on that following Wednesday, the letter that Greg Gabbott wrote went viral, detailing both the Attorney general's kind of opinion that a number of the so called quote sex change procedures constitute child abuse under existing Texas law UM and directing the Family and Protective Services

to protect these to quote unquote protect these kids from abuse. And I hear by director agency to conduct a prompt in through investigation to any reported instances of these abusive procedures. UM. And what's really insidious is that like it's not even it's like, of course, like there is not gender affirming surgery done on minors anyway, that does not happen. Um. But the but this letter actually does UM go into

UM says uh. It's it says uh. According according to the general in general opinion, it's already against the law to subject Texas children to a wide variety of elective procedures for gender transitioning, including reassignment surgeries that can cause sterilization, removals of otherwise healthy body parts, and administration of puberty blocking drugs or doses of testosterone or estrogen. So it's not it is also including HRT, including puberty blockers, which

again we already give to sis gender children all the time. UM. Puberty blockers are given to kids who have early onset prebuty who assists UM. But it's now including puberty blockers inside like constituting that in its in and of itself as child abuse, which is an escalation of things that

we've seen before. UM. Yeah, And then it's also talking about how Texas law imposes reporting requirements upon all licensed professionals, um, including doctors and nurses, teachers, therapists, and provides you know,

criminal penalties for failure to report things. So like it is that that was that was that was the that was the main part of the of the letter, that one viral detailing the different different ways that they're trying to harass, intimidate, and um introduce possible legal legal repercussions to parents and um, you know, caregivers who support transgender youth inside the state of Texas. Oh yeah, um it is.

It is like the perfect example of the thing these people always do when they make laws based on their bigotry, which is like reflexively make a law based on whatever is like the fucking Twitter talking point that they've been yelling about, and then don't consider all of the different things that it's going to do that have nothing to do with the group of people they're trying to hurt.

And lots of cases, this is just gonna it's it's not even gonna it's it's gonna impact a lot of like queer people in general, right because it's it's in terms of like reporting things that seem outside the mainstream so not even necessarily transer, not even necessarily transgender people, not even necessarily queer people as well. Like there's a lot of like you know, I ice and if definitely when I was growing if there's a lot of like

cis girls who enjoyed dressing more like butcher tomboy. Um. You know, there's a there's a and there's a whole bunch of stuff that will just affect like kids in general. Um with all of this reporting and all of this like and making making these like procedures and like hormone treatments like you know, to trying to make them seem like they're legal. Because that because again, like the actual Texas law has has not changed. It is it is the it is. This is an opinion piece investing directing

the child Protective Services to investigate these things. So the actual law in the books doesn't change. What it has done is caused a whole bunch of like possible legal danger um and a massive headache and just a whole

bunch of like legal harassment against parents and kids. And that that's what it's gonna that's what's gonna result in because it's it's unclear what this what the Governor's directive is going to actually practically look like UM because in the in the in a tweet on last Tuesday, he said that he's directing the Child Protective Services is to enforce this ruling and investigate and refer for prosecution for instances of miners receiving affirming care UM, and then to

the Texas Protective Services told Time magazine on Wednesday that it was going to comply with the Governor's directive UM, but in terms of like directing them for prosecution, there has been like five Texas digitit attorneys UM, including the

d as of Dallas County and Houston's Travis County. They issued a statement to the day after h condemning the directive UM and saying that they plan to enforce the constitution to quote their quote unquote that's what they said, and that they are quote deeply disturbed by Governor Abbots and Attorney General Paxton's cruel directives treating transgender children's access to life saving gender firm and care as child abuse.

We will not irrationally and ajustifiably interfere with medical decisions made between children, their parents, and their medical physicians to ensure the safety of transgender youth, adding that we will not allow the governor or turn general to disregard Texas

children's lives in order to score political points. So in terms of you know, there's many certain parts of the certain parts of the state where even even if protective Services does investigate reports of this, they're not gonna get prosecuted.

But there will be other parts of the state where these they probably will like and because like it's because because it is just because it is just an interpretation of the law, you can still you can still get lots of legal trouble and it's going to be up to juries and other people to decide on what interpretation of the law is going to be enforced and enacted upon. Um, So you're seeing a lot of people being like, oh, no, it's actually okay because the law is not changing, it's

just the interpretation. And we're like, well, no, it actually gets a big problem. Like it's like and it's not even it's just the overall like it's saying the things that have been gone unsaid for a long time, like it' it's it's it's making the things that everyone kind of assumed or was kind of the unsaid bigotry, putting it into writing and making it concrete, and it's like the overall escalation of this thing, which is which is is deep, deep,

deeply concerning. I mean, it's it's the thing that happened with like COVID restrictions to like masks and stuff, where you've got the cities and stuff where you have kind of more rational leadership are saying like we're not we're not paying attention to this directed from the governor. We're gonna keep having letting people mask or we're not going to let you, you know, go after businesses that require masks.

But with the added dimension of like the rather than it being sort of targeting businesses and schools, it's it's targeting individuals, and it's allowing individuals to target other individuals, like the Texas abortion law exactly. And the primary purpose of this is going to be too basically gradually erode the areas in which which trans kids can can live in Texas. Like, yep, they'll be able to live in some of the cities for a while at least, well

and even even in the cities. Right, it's like, yeah, okay, so maybe the the doesn't prosecute but that doesn't mean that CPS can't just can't investigate you, and like that that's gonna be traumatic, a lot of legal harassment because like DFPS cannot remove any child from their parents or guardians without a court order, and no court in Texas or anywhere in the country has yet found gender affirm

and care to be considered child abuse. So it has not happened yet, but they sure wanted to happen, and this is these are the next These are the next steps that can make it happen. Right, They are trying to get there um with this like incremental like these incremental things, you know, starting off with like legal interpretations and the law. Eventually they would want to change the law just to reflect this opinion, right, Like they want

this to happen. They're just they're trying to slowly, slowly, slowly get at it um and it needs to be pushed back upon because yeah, any any slow incremental thing that they're going to try to do to make it basically be impossible to live as trans in Texas, the UH and lots of other states as well. It's not it's not just Texas. There's things like this happening across all of the United States, basically especially especially you know, portions,

portions of the South. Um. And it's yeah, it does play into this kind of overall in the past five years, you know, once they lost the gay marriage issue, they're like, Okay, the next line of defense for these people is making it be impossible to be trans. So it is that it's like the new that's the new thing they're gonna be really focusing on. And it's we've seen so many, so many new bills against against like being trans over

the course of the past five years. Again, it's it is more so putting into writing the things that have been always kind of unconscious bigotry or even concious bigotry, but it's putting that into actual stone and making it like cemented. Um. You know, just at just at the start of this year, there was new restrictions put in place for Texas is transgender student athletes playing on K through twelve school sports teams UM that that went into effect on January eighteenth. It was it was a house

built twenty five authored by Representative Valerie Swanson. UM requires student athletes to complete in interslastic competition to play on sports teams that correspond with the sex listed on their birth certificate at or near their time of birth, which means that the legislation went further than the previous rules from the University of Slastic League UM, which governs the school sports in Texas, in which the students gender is determined by their birth certificate, but that that can also

be legally modified, like you can change these sex assigned at birth on on on your birth certificate. The new ruling is that it needs to be it needs to match the one that it was at or near your time of birth. So again, like they're finding all these little, these little small like things to like pry um that just makes things overall be harder to live in UM.

And at this point, like ten ten other states have put in very similar laws relating to like relating to to school sports and like bathroom bills, and yeah, yeah, I mean it's it's the it's the same thing that authoritarians always do, which is they're just kind of edging further and further and and continuing to proceed as they do not meet resistance, and the goal is to make it illegal and impossible to exist as a transgender person

in society. You know, part of what they're doing with with the wording of how this change in Texas has been announced, as they're trying to frame being trans is a contagion that threatens children, and step one of that under the is going proceeding under the ages if we are protecting children by making these kind of surgeries and

stuff illegal. But the steps beyond that are eventually banning and restricting the ability of trans people to be around children and eventually be in civil society at all because they're a threat to children. That that that's the logical procession of the arguments that they're making, and I think they're proceeding in a fairly um um logical way in terms of achieving that as a goal, and they're not going to stop until they are stopped by probably force,

if anything stops it. At this point, that's that's what it's going to have to be, because the local government has realized that that's how you get elected because you can't you can fix the power grid in Texas, you can't provide people with anything that makes their lives easier, but you can hurt trans people. Um and Republicans are are well are always down with that. It's it's it's it's it's the thing fascists to where they introduce a

false crisis. They introduce a false crisis that they can actually take steps to to, you know, um, make changes about. But all that ends up doing is hurting more of the population. It doesn't actually solve any issue that actually hurts people. Um. It's it's one of the core things in the fascist playbook. And I think it's even in the States where there aren't just like blanket bands on kids being able to participate in sports teams. Um, there's

other horrifying things happening. Um. Like in the beginning of February, it came out that the Utah Republicans propose a pros Commission to analyze trans kids bodies. Um, you're talking about the firstman's kind anti transit sports bill that would form a commission to determine a student athletes eligibility on a

case by case basis. The commission would have authority to establish a baseline range for various attributes including height, weight, body mass, wingspan, hiptoony ratio another physical characteristics affected by puberty bearing trans athletes um, who do not fall within the established limits to from from participating engendered sports um. And yeah, asking like a government appointed panel to analyze the bodies of transminers. It does sound like a giant

recipe for disaster. Um and there is some even more like horrifying details. The bill would render the commission quote immune from suit like lawsuits with respect to all acts done and actions taken in good faith in carrying out their purposes. Uh so, yeah, you can't sue anybody for what happens under the guise of this commission. So yeah, they're just going to be investigating trans youth bodies and yep,

you can't. There's no lawsuits allowed. Let's let's let's let's let's give the let's give the trans child abuse phrenology panel just immunity from lawsuits like, yeah, qualified extend qualified immunity to citizens hurting the group of people that, uh, we don't think are human. Like, this isn't the only way place we're going to see that logic extended towards You're already seeing it in places like Louisiana with these bills to make it legal to kill protesters if you

feel threatened. Um, Like, it's it's the same playbook, and it's going to be the same playbook because there's no way to fight it without some sort of force. You can't vote these people away. The courts are packed for the time being. There's there's only there's not a solution

that isn't some kind of force. Now we can discuss, is it like the force of getting the Fed to intervene or whatever, But like, there's no there's no solution that is just like democratic I mean, and like Biden's office made a statement on this recent Texas like a law opinion interpretation thing, and they're like, yeah, this seem was bad anyway, good luck could You're like, yeah, oh cool, Yeah, it's that that meme of like the person drowning with

their hand out and they high. You're thinking, yeah, that's exactly what's happening. And I think the situation is like is it's worse than that too, because you know, in the past couple of weeks, what's something we started seeing as we started seeing democratic journals and democratic strategists openly talking about how we need to make as sessions to the right and the culture wars Like okay, well, what

what does that mean? Is like, yeah, throw pro trans concert the bus, right, Yeah, because they can't vote, they're already freaks, So yeah, they're the easiest person to pick away at the rights for UM. And because overall, just in the past year alone, more than a hundred bills designed to restrict the rights of transgender people have been introduced at least thirty three states. Um, it's a it's a it's a record breaking year for anti trans legislation

that's been that has been introduced. UM. In Arkansas, the state legislator recently banned gender affirming treatment for minors, UM, including hormotherapy like like puberty blockers and similar treatments. Again, this is the thing that like that could not happen for a long time anyway, just because like culturally and medically doctors would never do that. But now at the point where that started starting to change, it is this it is this like um reactive, reactive effect that people

are doing. And like now now that now that these cogs are turning, people are putting the massive brakes on it and putting the thing that used to be just unsaid now into actual legal writing. So now this actually is like just not allowed as opposed to it just not happening because doctors were assholes. So yeah, in Arkansas, you can't even receive hormone treatment or beauty blockers. The

bill was called the Save Adolescence from Experimentation Act. Yeah, so referring to medical treatment of one of affirming one's gender identity as experimentation. Um, which is not great. I mean that is that is how I view it for myself, because I like being a freak. But as an overall trend, that is that is horrible. Like, that is a horrible way to to phrase this type of thing for a lot of people, especially the people who who know specifically what gender they want to be and and are like

that is that affects them so differently. I mean, I'm I'm lucky enough just to be more gender queer, is ish um And but yeah, it's all of these bills are gonna affect so many people in different ways, and it's it's real bad. Like shortly after the Aukranstar bill prohibiting transforming medical practices was signed into law last April, reports of suicide attempts among trans youth in the state. Uh,

we're going up, um. And the doctor Michelle Hutchinson, who runs the largest provider of hormo therapy in the state, called the ap that just just into office alone. During April, she saw an uptick in suicide attempts from from from trans youth. And this is, this is it's gonna keep happening, and like there is you can't trust a lot to

stop it. Like the Arkansas Governor um uh Issa Hutchinson, a Republican, did veto this bill, citing potentially dangerous consequences for trans youth and telling it that telling reporters that it was a vast government overreach and a byproduct of the culture war in America, and her veto was vetoed by the state legislator. So like it's gonna be a looping,

endless problem of legal issues. So it's there's there's needs to be other things, Like I've been on Twitter the past week just watch looking at all the go fund means by parents of trans kids in Texas who are trying to move out of state so that their kid can receive like hormone treatment and just like be allowed to be a person without being harassed by protective services

and teachers and the school system. And it's it's it's it's horrifying, like watching all these people like asking for help so they can move out of state so that they can let their kid be it just a kid.

Um and it's it is. It is really rough, um And a big part of why, part of why it's so horrifying is that like obviously, if you're in that situation, you can get your kid out there, of course, but it also means the more people who move out of places like that, the less resources there will be in the future for kids whose parents can't get them out, you know, and the less support there will be, the less and like there is just there is no real

escape from it, like you cannot get fully away. It is that you cannot ever fully escape that type of fascist um thought and creep within the state. Letis later on specifically around you know how it's going to affect different different classes of minorities. UM. I will direct people if you want to kind of learn more about this sort of thing and if you, you know, can you can find some some stuff around that. There's an organization Texas called TENT which is uh the UH I just

want to make sure I say it right. Oh no, it's it's the Texas Educational Network, the trans Educational Network of Texas. UM. It's one one of those, but it is it is a. It is a. It has a whole bunch of like mental health resources, guides for trans youth in Texas for how to make things slightly less shitty. Um and yeah they do. They do some advocacy work in Texas. There's also a Quality Texas which is another organization that does that does some assistance for transgender people.

Look in schools. Um and just you know, try again trying to make life slightly less, slightly less shitty. Um, yeah, I kind of the last the last thing I wrote is the is just fix your hearts or die, which is the kind of overall overall message that you can really only give to people who want to do this type of thing, is that Yeah, there's really no arguing

with them. Um, you have to either they need to fix their hearts or not be around any are like they're they're just like whether that be like the just secluded to your part of society. But it's like it it needs to be actually like resisted upon because these people are never going to back down on their own.

The other part of the problem here again is just with how you know, like this this is sort of kind of this is an inherent problem that you have with democracies, right with with democracies, and in civil rights, where it's yeah, you have a group people who aren't extremely small minority, and you know, and you know and and and this gets compounded by the fact that you're dealing with extremely well minority of people and you know, you're already dealing with like the you know, the thing

that is called democracy, right is only participated in by an extremely small number of people, especially when you get you know, especially when you get down to like the the state level of the local level, right like very few people are actually voting in these things that people who are voting in these things like want trans people to die, and so you know, you you you you need, you need some kind of other solution to actually secure

to secure civil rights, because there's just there's there literally are not enough trans people, and there are not enough people who support them and care enough to do it and also are in these areas to prevent this through just the normal like vote blue. I mean, like I keep seeing this with with Texas. Everyone keeps saying it's like, well, Okay, we just gotta vote blue. And it's like people have been like people have been saying this about stuff in Texas.

For as long as I've been alive, it has never happened. Ever, like it hasn't my entire life. They keep saying, is it keeps not happening and kids keep dying, and yeah, there has there has to be something else because yeah, Texas is going to come back here. Texas has been labor laboriously constructed as a political entity to sty me all of your liberal dreams of of uh it going purple um and and it will continue to be for the foreseeable future. You cannot This is not a voting issue.

This is a I mean, like I said, some kind of force is going to have to be used to oppose these people. They're not They're not there. They wouldn't listen if you voted them out, you know, and like and they do like they themselves do for is you look at all the stuff we've been yeah, and and and even like regular people like this whole thing of like, yes,

you should like report your neighbors that you see. If you if you see a kid who doesn't look like a regular normal borings this child, then yeah you should report them. But you should go harass everyone who works in your school board so that they ban all books referencing anything related to being queer. It's like they do

take steps to actually hurt other individuals. Um. And they can do it through these means that you know, they don't necessarily have to always punch you in the face, but they can sure direct the state to send agents to your house to to like to intimidate, harass you and threaten threatened to take away your children. Um. Or they can you know, if you're a therapist or a teacher, you can be fired or put in jail for failing to report, you know, kids who don't subscribe to their

Christian supremacist ideas of like traditional general rules. Um. Because again it's it's it's not even all It's like, again there's not tons of trans people in general. Usually it's like this is just gonna affect a lot of CIS kids as well, who maybe don't want to who don't, who don't who don't who who just want to dress cool? Like it's like it's it's it's it doesn't even just

like it is is it does affect everybody. Um, So it is it's a it's a it's a it's a horrible it's a horrible thing that is not even like there's no escape from it, and it will affect you

whether or not your trends or not. And I think it's important also to talk about the manager reporting stuff because even manager reporting in general, like even like I've I've had things where I was in a school and my school essentially turned into a police state because there are people who I couldn't talk to about things because of things that happened to me that if if if if any of them heard it, and one time someone did and had to literally beg them, like on my

knees not to report me, right, not not to report the thing that happened to me, because if you know, because because if if if that had been heard, like and if that had actually been reported, it would have you know, it would have started an enormous process and I would have had to, you know, like the I I would have had to, you know, deal with this like this is an institutionalized thing, and that like the absolute terror that this kind of stuff creates where you

have to you know, you have to watch every single word that you say around all of the adults in your life because if you don't do it, they are going to report you. It is like the level of psychological terror you weren't flicting on people is horrific. And then that in and of itself just is is a cost like and and it is something that is going to contribute to trans kids killing themselves. And it's it's it's just that simple net place. It is such a life and death issue, so you have to really be

forced to go. Yeah, it goes into like it's very like ontological issue as well, um. And it deals with so many things around the nature of like being and what you're allowed to be inside as this societal construct. Um. And they're just trying to make that impossible for so many people and make everything so limited in their very narrow version of what they want the world to be that makes them feel comfortable. Yeah. And then and because because it's not it's not what the world is, they

have to use violence to do it. Yeah. So because it's stuck, because that is the rule that that is, that is the rules that we're playing by, that is the game we're playing. Yeah, my, my, only. The the default response to be for those people is yeah, they need to they need to fix their hearts or die and just get out of the way. And because it's that's they already have that for us, except they don't want us to their hearts. They just want us to die.

So like we are way more empathetic than they are, um because they can just not be transphobic. They cannot, they can they can just not do these things. Um. But if they're gonna keep doubling down, then yeah, well that's if if you want to play by their rules, then we need to start playing by their rules because they're not going to have if they're not going to change the rules, then that is the that is the

game that they want us to do. Um. And again, like actual like I want to I always, I always ever epis it's like this, I always want to kind of end with like here are some steps that you can like take that are relatively easy, and it's it's it's challenging for these types of some sorts of things like like there, yes, there is things you can do around you know, getting like making sure you're aware of what bills are being talked about in your local like

your local area, contacting representatives to to do stuff, going to going to you know, either whether their school board meetings or stuff. But like a lot of the electoralist type of ideas around this is always so inadequate, um, and that it feels always so fake. Um that you know it's it's it is so much it feels a lot easier to that to like, you know, figure out different ways to actually help actual trans people in your area,

um and give trans people money. Um. Like It's like that is often can be actually have a way more positive effects at least effects that are like observable. But like, but there are also ways to stop this type of legislation, like there is that there is there there is ways to do that, and I will I'll try to get into more of that kind of stuff as well once we get you know, our our week long of stuff about the war on trans people, um that will be

upcoming probably sometimes in this in this next month. Yeah. Um. Remember folks, if anybody ever suggests doing something for children that isn't providing them with food or shelter, you should probably hit that person because they're probably trying to fund something up for somebody. It's nearly always don't trust anyone who says there need to do something to protect children that they're lying to you. As a rule, they're lying to you. Um, anyway you guys. Um, how's the boy

that's Star Wars? Oh yeah, I love there's the there's the there's the the Obi WANs coming out. That'll be good. I am excited for the Obi WANs because it speaking of speaking speaking of you and McGregor. A few months ago, I saw the film Velvet gold Mine starring you and McGregor, which is a wonderful, like pseudo fictional film but about kind of the glam rock era inside Britain. It's very, very, very gay, very whole bunch of a whole bunch of

very good twink action. And there was one scene where, um, you McGregor's character, he's he's like, he's kind of based off one of the one of those types of music people. I forget, I forget which one it is. Um, I think people, I think, I think, I think he's playing like a kind of a version of that. But there's one scene where he's doing a performance where he takes all of his clothes off on stage and you get to see you and McGregor's dick, um, and yeah you do.

So if if people, if people want to see a kind of David Bowie esque film starring you, McGregor. It has, It has like a weird gay email, Christian Bale as as a twink, and a whole bunch of other really really solid twink stuff. I would recommend watching Vella Guild Mine. It has, it has a lot of great stuff. Um and You do very early in the film get to see you and McGregor's penis just flapping around on stage

and it is. It's pretty good. It's speaking of movies where you see a famous person's dick, if you want to see another famous penis The movie Galaxy Quest contains several shots and Tim now and daw I don't want to see Tim Allen's hanging wang. As someone who's seen both Galaxy Quest and Velvel gold Mine and who appreciates both films, dearly You and You and McGregor is miles hotter than Tim Allen. Tim Allen's dong shot is not hot. It's not pleasing. It is not supposed to be. He

has hungover in his like bathrobe leaning over. But if you want, if you if you want to see, if we see rain Or Fastbender's dick Germany and Autumn, Okay, that that's why I could. I could, I could do

that very weird movie. However, if you were in terms of in terms of actionable things to make you feel better, everyone go watch Vella gold Mine because it has some dairy it has some very good gender play, has wonderful, wonderful s off around gender, wonderfu stuff around gayness, and yeah, the film from like the nineties where there was like lots of gay fucking and you're like, wow, how is this film made in the nineties, because it is a whole bunch of like big name actors now who were

like unknown at the time, all being gay and sucking each other and like, holy sh it. Alright, so folks, that is the uh, that's what we got that. There's your action items items. Go watch, Go watch other gold Mine. Make everyone you know watch the gold Mine and I'll thank you feel good about gender. Take screen grabs of Ellan McGregor's dick, make Berner Twitter accounts and just start posting. Just just get it out there, get it out there the one it needs to know. Throw some of Tim

Allen's dick out there too. Don't be don't be choosy. Stick it all all the dicks, all right, that's gonna be the day. That's that's the show. It Could Happen Here is a production of cool zone Media. For more podcasts from cool zone Media, visit our website cool zone media dot com, or check us out on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can find sources for It could Happen Here, updated

monthly at cool zone Media dot com slash sources. Thanks for listening.