Texas’ new attack on transgender care called ‘political ploy’

One week before statewide primary elections, Texas governor Greg Abbott and Texas attorney general Ken Paxton launched an attack on the state’s transgender children and their families, threatening to charge parents, teachers, and medical professionals with child abuse if they help provide gender-affirming care to minors.

“It is clearly and explicitly a political ploy, and it’s about power and retaining power,” said Presbyterian minister and transgender advocate Remington Johnson. “And the people they are using to get their power from are children. They are hurting children to try to hold onto their power.”

Statewide, parents of transgender children were sent into a panic by the governor’s February 22 letter to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services about “conduct[ing] a prompt and thorough investigation of any reported instances” of children receiving “abusive gender-transitioning procedures.”