Texas Governor Signs Ban On Trans Youth Healthcare

The Texas Tribune reports:

Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law Friday a bill that bars transgender kids from getting puberty blockers and hormone therapies, though the new law could face legal challenges before it takes effect on Sept. 1.

Senate Bill 14’s passage brings to the finish line a legislative priority for the Republican Party of Texas, which opposes any efforts to validate transgender identities. Trans kids, their parents and LGBTQ advocacy groups fiercely oppose the law, and some have vowed to stop it from going into effect.

Texas — home to one of the largest trans communities in the U.S. — is now one of 18 states that restrict transition-related care for trans minors. “Cruelty has always been the point,” said Emmett Schelling, executive director of the Transgender Education Network of Texas.

Read the full article.

The bill’s author, state Sen. Donna Campbell, first appeared here in 2014 when she introduced a bill to legalize anti-LGBTQ discrimination by businesses on the basis of “sincerely held religious beliefs.”

In February 2015, she appeared here when she joined a hate group in eating wedding cake to celebrate the 10th “banniversary” of Texas putting a ban on same-sex marriage into the state constitution.

They held that celebration nine months early because the US Supreme Court was about to rule on Obergefell.

Gov. Greg Abbott signs legislation barring trans youth from accessing transition-related care (via @TexasTribune) https://t.co/SlJ0RvRsLD

— KVUE News (@KVUE) June 3, 2023