Texas Governor Pushes Back on LGBTQ Human Rights Criticisms: Defiant Stance Against UN: “They Can Go Pound Sand”
Over the weekend, Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) rebuffed recent criticisms aimed at new state laws targeting LGBTQ individuals, dismissing claims that such measures contravene federal and international human rights standards.
Over the weekend, Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) shrugged off recent criticisms surrounding new state laws targeting LGBTQ individuals, while also dismissing claims that such measures run counter to federal and international human rights standards.
In response to a letter dispatched last month to the United Nations, accusing the governor and other state officials of encroaching upon the rights of LGBTQ Texans through administrative and legislative channels, Abbott bluntly urged the international nonprofit to refrain from involvement.
“The UN can go pound sand,” Abbott retorted on Sunday via X, formerly known as Twitter, echoing a similar sentiment expressed in 2021 when he responded in kind after U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres suggested that Texas would need to reduce reliance on oil and gas to ensure prosperity beyond 2050.
In January, four LGBTQ rights groups united in a joint letter of allegation addressed to over a dozen independent experts, working groups, and special rapporteurs at the U.N., asserting that Texas leaders deliberately singled out the LGBTQ community during the state’s recent legislative session.
According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Texas lawmakers in 2023 introduced no less than 55 bills aimed at LGBTQ individuals, constituting approximately 10 percent of similar legislation filed nationwide last year.
The focal point of the groups’ plea to the U.N. centers on seven bills signed into law by Abbott in 2023, including measures banning gender-affirming healthcare for minors and significantly restricting transgender athletes’ participation in school sports.
In their letter, signed by Equality Texas, GLAAD, the Human Rights Campaign, and the ACLU of Texas, the organizations argued, “Taken individually, the seven pieces of legislation discussed in this submission will disrupt the lives of LGBTQIA+ people of various ages and backgrounds. Put together, the Bills are a systemic attack on the fundamental rights, dignities, and identities of LGBTQIA+ persons that opens the gates for discrimination by both public and private actors.”
Additionally, the letter criticized actions by Texas officials preceding last year’s legislative session, citing State Attorney General Ken Paxton’s 2022 opinion equating gender-affirming medical care with child abuse and a subsequent directive from Abbott instructing state agencies to investigate parents of transgender minors for child abuse.
The letter, co-signed by The University of Texas at Austin School of Law’s Human Rights Clinic, implored the U.N. to advocate for the repeal of these bills and urged both state and federal governments to enact stronger nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ individuals.
Furthermore, the letter censured the Biden administration’s response to anti-LGBTQ laws passed in Texas and elsewhere, accusing the federal government of failing to hold states accountable, thereby violating a decades-old U.N. treaty.
The U.N. has previously expressed concerns over anti-LGBTQ legislation in the U.S., with a committee stating in December that it was “concerned at the increase in the number of state laws that severely restrict the rights of persons on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity.”
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