Contact: Debi Jackson | debi.jackson@equalitytexas.org 

                   Angela Hale | angela.hale@equalitytexas.org | 512-289-2995

Crisis counselors have fielded over 14,500 calls, texts, and online messages from young LGBTQ Texans looking for support in the last year. Despite the crisis young LGBTQ+ people are in as a result of the debate being had about their humanity — lawmakers continue their relentless and cruel attack on innocent children.

Austin, Texas – October 5, 2021 – Equality Texas, the largest statewide organization solely dedicated to securing full equality for LGBTQ+ Texans, today responded to HB 25, the anti-transgender sports ban being scheduled for a hearing. Ricardo Martinez (he/him), Chief Executive Officer of Equality Texas, released the following statement:

“For months, we have been ringing the alarm about the unequivocal harm that filing, hearing, and debating anti-trans bills has had on our community. Placing invented hypothetical scenarios over the real harm these bills have already caused transgender children and adults and their families reveals the intent of policies like this: cruelty. What we worried most about is happening now — the relentless bullying we have witnessed at the Capitol has trickled down to our schools. In September alone, we received close to twenty incident intakes for support. These include a Lamar County middle schooler who was viciously beaten by a classmate at a school-sponsored event because he was gay. The attacker taunted the boy by saying, “…you want to be a girl.” The victim is cisgender. A trans middle schooler in Austin attempted to take her own life after being bullied mercilessly by a classmate about her gender identity. A Wichita ISD teacher was pressured to release names of students who use names and pronouns different from their enrollment forms, “outing” transgender kids. The Trevor Project received nearly 4,000 crisis contacts from transgender and nonbinary youth in Texas in 2021 — a 150% increase over the same period last year — with many directly stating that they are feeling stressed and considering suicide due to anti-trans laws, including sports bans, being debated in our state. These are real kids and real lives and should not continue to be treated as political fodder, session after session. Trans and LGB people do not deserve to live under constant threat and fear of their safety and well-being. We will continue to show up to the Capitol in opposition of these bills and will do everything we can to ensure they are defeated once and for all.”  

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Equality Texas is the largest statewide organization working to secure full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer Texans through political action, education, community organizing, and collaboration.