Julie Mabry, owner of Pearl Bar in Houston, warned that insurers are “adding drag in as a risk factor.”
Julie Mabry remembers walking with her sister into the Bonham Exchange, San Antonio’s iconic queer bar, for the first time in 1989. “I just saw a completely different person. She was just happy, she was in a great mood,” Mabry said.
Mabry had watched her sister struggle for years before that night: “From a very young age, my sister’s identity was more like a boy,” Mabry explained. “And we didn’t have these terms, we didn’t have this knowledge when we were kids. It’s just how she was born.”
After watching her fight through years of isolation and addiction, Mabry says the memory of her sister’s happiness that night in San Antonio inspired her to open Pearl Bar, the only remaining lesbian-specific bar in Houston.
Julie Mabry, owner of Pearl Bar, poses for a photograph at the bar Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2020, in Houston. The Human Rights Campaign awarded Pearl Bar, Houston’s only lesbian bar, funding to help preserve it during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It became something I was obsessed with. The idea was to provide an environment for people like my sister so she could have something to do so she wasn’t [using drugs], or going through things where she hated herself, because people on the outside didn’t see her as normal. That was the purpose of Pearl Bar,” said Mabry.
Two sweeping bans on gender-affirming care for trans teens could have devastating implications.
Two of the largest conservative-leaning states, Texas and Florida, are on the verge of implementing new bans on gender-affirming healthcare for transgender children. In Texas, the legislature recently passed a bill prohibiting gender-affirming care, including hormone treatments and surgeries, for individuals under 18. While trans teens already undergoing hormone treatments will be allowed to continue temporarily, they are required to gradually cease the treatments. Governor Greg Abbott is expected to sign the bill into law. Similarly, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a similar ban that imposes felony penalties on healthcare providers offering gender-affirming care to minors. This law includes a provision concerning custody disputes for children receiving gender-affirming care, raising concerns that it may override rulings from other states.
These bans are part of a coordinated national campaign by the GOP to undermine LGBTQ rights within state legislatures. Florida has already passed more anti-LGBTQ legislation this session than it did in the past seven years, while Texas is on track to surpass its previous record with more than double the number of similarly restrictive laws. Cathryn Oakley, the State Legislative Director and Senior Counsel at the Human Rights Campaign, highlights the alarming trend.
The implementation of these bans could potentially uproot many families with transgender children in Texas and Florida, forcing them to consider relocating to more accepting environments. Removing access to gender-affirming care has profound and life-altering impacts on these families, as noted by Oakley. The well-being and safety of their children become paramount concerns. Families with the means to do so have been contemplating moving to states where their children can receive the necessary care and protection.
The consequences of these bans extend beyond immediate access to healthcare. The emotional toll on trans youth and their families is immense, as they face a hostile legislative landscape that disregards their identities and rights. These measures reflect a broader trend of conservative lawmakers prioritizing their political agendas over the well-being and lives of LGBTQ individuals. As these bans become enacted, trans families and their allies continue to advocate for inclusivity, understanding, and equal treatment, emphasizing the urgent need for education and awareness surrounding the experiences of transgender and non-binary communities.
Supporters of trans rights rally on the steps of the Texas Capitol ahead of an advocacy day of meetings with state representatives. Julia Robinson for The Washington Post via Getty Images
What’s in the Florida law
Advocates are challenging parts of the Florida law on an emergency basis in court, arguing that it violates parents’ fundamental rights to make medical decisions for their children and that it violates the Constitution by discriminating against transgender children. A hearing in the case is scheduled for Friday.
Texas lawmakers this year are debating whether to block transgender kids’ access to transition-related health care, classify businesses that host drag shows as sexually oriented establishments and limit public school lessons on sexuality and gender identity.
Members of Austin’s LGBTQ community gather on the steps of the Texas Capitol in 2017 to celebrate the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall riots. Republican lawmakers are pushing bills that could upend the lives of LGBTQ people this year. Credit: Austin Price for The Texas Tribune
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For mental health support for LGBTQ youth, call the Trevor Project’s 24/7 toll-free support line at 866-488-7386. For trans peer support, call the Trans Lifeline at 877-565-8860. You can also reach a trained crisis counselor through the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988.
In the current legislative session, Texas lawmakers are deliberating on multiple bills that could significantly impact the lives of gay and transgender individuals in the state. Republican legislators have introduced bills aiming to limit the teaching of sexuality and gender identity in schools, regulate drag performances, and restrict access to healthcare for transgender children.
These bills emerge within a larger context of conservative lawmakers capitalizing on the rise of Christian nationalism within right-wing circles. Some legislators are actively pursuing bills that they believe can establish a model for integrating Christianity into the public sphere, inspired by a growing acceptance of Christian nationalist ideals.
Tensions between LGBTQ Texans and GOP officials have intensified as the Texas legislature considers a series of bills that could have far-reaching implications for the LGBTQ community. Republican lawmakers have introduced legislation aiming to restrict the teaching of sexuality and gender identity in schools, regulate drag performances, and limit healthcare options for transgender children.
Of particular concern this year is the focus on children and young adults. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has made it a priority to pass measures that curtail discussions about LGBTQ individuals in schools, restrict transgender students’ participation in college sports teams, and control medical treatments for transgender youth. Governor Greg Abbott has also vowed to prohibit what he deems as “woke agendas” in schools. Several of these bills have already been passed in the Senate and now await consideration in the House before potentially reaching the governor’s desk.
LGBTQ activists and Democratic lawmakers have been engaged in a determined fight against these bills for months, arguing that they seek to suppress queer expression and infringe upon the rights of LGBTQ individuals.
The potential impact, even if only a few of these bills become law, is expected to be substantial. A report by the Trevor Project, a national LGBTQ youth suicide-prevention organization, highlights the negative consequences of such legislation. The report reveals that 71% of LGBTQ youth surveyed stated that debates over bills affecting their lives have a detrimental impact on their mental health, with 86% of transgender youth reporting negative mental health repercussions. This alarming data underscores the harm caused by legislation that targets the LGBTQ community.
As the battle over these bills continues, the rights and well-being of LGBTQ Texans hang in the balance. The outcome of these legislative efforts will have significant implications for the community’s inclusion, equality, and mental health.
“Texas has become one of the most dangerous and hostile places for transgender youth and transgender people and their families in America,”
Andrea Segovia, senior field and policy adviser of the Transgender Education Network of Texas, told reporters in February.
Republican Governor Greg Abbott has sent a letter requesting that Texas education institutions take books out of classrooms that he has labeled “pornography,” mentioning in particular two memoirs featuring LGBTQ+ protagonists that contain explicit descriptions of sex.
Following a letter to the Texas Association of School Boards requesting it to ban porn and “inappropriate content” from public schools, Abbott sent a letter to the Texas Education Agency, Texas State Library and Archives Commission, and State Board of Education.
Florida first. Alabama follows. Legislators in Louisiana and Ohio are currently debating legislation that is similar to the Florida statute. A similar bill will be his top priority during the following session, according to Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
At least a dozen states across the country are proposing new legislation that, in some ways, will resemble Florida’s recent contentious bill, which some opponents have dubbed “Don’t Say Gay.”
The nation’s second-most populous state’s Republican governor, Greg Abbott of Texas, on Monday signed House Bill 25, a bill that would prohibit transgender girls from competing in interscholastic athletics. The bill will become operative on January 18, 2022.
Texas becomes the tenth state since March 2020 to do so via floor vote or executive order. In addition to Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, West Virginia, South Dakota, Montana, and Idaho, the state now joins the group. In later verdicts, federal justices barred implementation in West Virginia and Idaho.
A lawsuit was launched on Tuesday against President Joe Biden’s administration over a Department of Agriculture school food program that forbids discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity by more than 20 Republican attorneys general, including Texas’ Ken Paxton.
In the lawsuit, Herbert Slatery, the attorney general of Tennessee, asserts that the federal government is trying to compel states and educational institutions to adhere to anti-discrimination standards that “misconstrue the law.”
When Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) seemed to agree with Justice Clarence Thomas’s concurring opinion that other precedents that might be deemed “demonstrably erroneous,” such as those affecting the LGBTQ community, could be reviewed by the court.
Thomas referred to Lawrence v. Texas as one of the cases that forbade states from outlawing intimate same-sex relationships. The historic 2003 decision invalidated a 1973 Texas law that made sodomy a crime. However, once Roe was overruled, Paxton declared he would support the state’s abolished sodomy ban if the Supreme Court followed Thomas’s advice and ultimately decided to reconsider Lawrence.
Abbott’s order came in response to Attorney General Ken Paxton’s non-binding legal judgment that gender-affirming care amounts to child abuse. Paxton is also engaged in the political battle of his life in Tuesday’s primary election.
Paxton’s ruling cited operations for body modification that, according to medical professionals, are infrequently, if ever, carried out on kids. But he also asserted that providing care that is widely regarded as gender-affirming, such as entirely reversible puberty blockers, would amount to child cruelty. According to specialists, the gender-affirming model of care spends more time focused on social transition for children than it does on medical care.
The Governor further urged “licensed professionals” and “members of the general public” to notify state authorities if it looked that the parents of trans youngsters had received gender-affirming care. The letter was written the day after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued a statement in which he claimed that certain aspects of treatment that is gender affirming are abusive to children.
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