The “Governor” of Texas has Lost His Mind
Parents of trans kids affirming their children are GREAT parents, no matter what that indecent bloviator signed.
There is reason not to be too deeply concerned about Texas this time. While the governor there did do a very shitty thing, there’s been immediate reason for hope. District attorneys are already saying they refuse to prosecute this nonsense, and I doubt it will stand up in court. The ACLU, and others, are already on the job.
The thing that concerns me more is the constant Republican misuse of words to the point where they don’t mean anything.
Child abuse is ignoring a trans child who tells a parent their truth.
Child abuse is teaching a child they do not know their own mind and cannot trust themselves.
Child abuse is NOT seeking medical attention (yes, including puberty blockers) for a trans child facing a life-altering puberty that doesn’t align with their experience of themselves. Blockers are a simple, completely reversible pause. That’s all.
Child abuse is allowing a trans child to think for one movement this abhorrent political behavior on the part of Republican lawmakers, governors, school board members and the rest is normal, acceptable or has any basis in reality. It is NOT, and it does NOT.
I waited for both of my parents to be dead and my own children to be grown and educated before I gave myself the gift of even beginning to peel back the layers of what was imposed on me regarding my gender identity. I never felt I had choices, because as a child I had no agency, and there were far fewer choices. And I was too compliant a child to insist I be recognized as anything other than what they said I had to be.
I can tell you what a devastating time male puberty was in my life, how cruel it felt, and how deep the negative impact was. The notion of puberty blockers being used for trans children was many years off in the late 1970’s, so it isn’t even a question of my parents ignoring a possibility — it simply didn’t exist to begin with.
When we know better, we do better.
While there is much I can and will say about how abysmal trans medicine remains in this country, we have come a very long way. Protocols for the treatment of trans identifying children is life affirming and life saving, and agreed on by every major medical organization in this nation.
This subject — that doesn’t CONCERN this excuse for a governor — has no business on his desk in the first place. Absent the ability to legislate away our legitimacy and dignity, (they keep trying it…) this chucklehead makes up shit on his own.
In the end, I do not think it will stand THIS time. But the ongoing assault — led exclusively by Republicans — remains one of their biggest “wedge” issues. And I have to ask myself why everyday Americans could possibly think this behavior is okay. Trans folk aren’t here to bother a soul that ain’t bothering us. Not in a restroom, not in a locker room, not on a playing field and most certainly not in our homes or our doctors’ office.
If a human has an LGBTQ+ person anywhere in their orbit — child, parent, sibling, aunt, uncle, cousin, friend — I strongly suggest you reconsider your political affiliation if you STILL identify as Republican. It’s NOT a good look. Don’t tell us you love us and then keep voting to obliterate us. There are NO “values” to that behavior.
It’s high time the “party of small government” get to this “small” governing and stop with the minutia of wedge-issue-governing that causes nothing but death and destruction. They should All be deeply ashamed of their attacks on innocent children and the families doing their best to support these amazing kids.
And I don’t just mean the ones doing it, I also mean the ones voting them in, Deplorables being deplorable when they need to mind their own business and find representatives who espouse the same. THAT is what “small government” is supposed to be about — NOT this sick fascination with what is inside a child’s underpants.
Just. Ew.
Peace, Lovelies, Stay Strong
-MM
