When 74-1 is a losing score

75 anti-LGBTQ bills filed in Texas in 2021, 49 specifically targeting transgender children (graph courtesy of Equality Texas)

I’m sick. And exhausted. And heartbroken. 75 anti-LGBTQ bills filed in 2021 (to date), 49 (to date) directly targeting transgender kids. One made it through. But if we’re winning 74-1, why does it feel like we lost?

HB25, the latest anti-transgender athlete bill in Texas, passed the House last night. Next step is the Senate, where it’s likely to pass quickly, then to Governor Abbott’s desk. Because he has made this issue one of his priorities in FOUR SESSIONS this year, it will be made law.

I purposely didn’t watch the floor debate, knowing that a garbage can full of hurtful language and misinformation about trans kids would be thrown around by conservative representatives. The last time I watched a committee hearing in its entirety, I had a stomachache for days from the vitriol directed at transgender kids like mine.

I’m still processing. And my heart is breaking for trans kids, the entire Texan trans community, and the people who love them. Trans kids deserve the world, and they’re being erased by our state.

This bill will require “public school students to compete in interscholastic athletic competitions based on biological sex.” The bill defines biological sex as “the physical condition of being male or female as determined by the sex organs, chromosomes, and endogenous profile of the individual at birth.”  It goes further: “a statement of a student's biological sex on the student's official birth certificate is considered to have correctly stated the student's biological sex only if the statement was (1) entered at or near the time of the student's birth; or (2) modified to correct any type of scrivener or clerical error in the student's biological sex.”

So a transgender girl can’t play sports on the girls’ team with her friends, regardless of any kind of social, legal, or medical transition.  And if she tries, she will open herself up to scrutiny by … whom, exactly? Who will be conducting these investigations? Who will be examining children’s genitalia so they can participate in a school activity?

ALL girls will be at risk with this nonsense. Any girl who is too fast, too tall, too muscular, not pretty enough, not feminine enough, too good, or too winning will have their gender questioned in unspeakable ways.

No one transitions to win trophies or gain access to spaces or trick anyone. No one. It’s not an easy life.

But it’s an authentic one. How lucky am I that I get to witness my children living into their full selves?

I’m incredibly frustrated and angry, and yet I still have hope. So many have done so much over the last 10 months to fight this bigotry and transphobia. I am hugely grateful for all the dedicated people who displayed ordinary courage and power by standing up and using their voices to combat this nastiness.

This isn’t over.  I love you all.