Advocates brace for anti-trans legislative session
When the Legislature convenes Monday for its third special session, the main order of business is redrawing the state’s political boundaries for the next decade’s worth of elections.
But tucked into Gov. Greg Abbott’s agenda, again, is a bill that would bar transgender children from playing in school sports that align with their gender identity. Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, says his bill — which already failed to pass during the 87th legislative session and the two special sessions that followed — is about protecting competitive balance for cisgender girls, or those whose gender identity matches the one they were assigned at birth.
It is just the latest in a history of attempts to curtail the rights of transgender Texans, but for longtime advocates in Houston’s transgender community, it only reinforces their conviction in their causes and each other.
Earlier this summer, Abbott successfuly pushed to have gender-affirming surgery for children redefined as “genital mutilation,” a characterization that goes against the longstanding wisdom of medical professionals. In 2015, Houston voters struck down the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance — which protected marginalized groups including transgender people from discrimination — after opponents stoked fears of transgender women using women’s restrooms.
Neither Abbott nor Perry’s offices returned requests for comment.
For transgender people in Houston, and especially people of color, the political attacks mean many have had to take matters into their own hands to keep themselves and their
communities safe. Some choose to take their fight to lawmakers, while other tune out the political noise and focus on what they can do to help each other.
“When people say I’m a trans advocate, I’m actually a human rights advocate. It just so happens that I’m trans and that population needs attention, and I have some privilege in that space to use my voice,” said Atlantis Narcisse, founder of Save Our Sisters United.
Narcisse is one of many organizers in Houston working to support transgender people of color by providing them financial resources, health care guidance and safe spaces to mingle and build community. Save Our Sisters United was able to dole out over $3,700 in gift cards to women and transgender people of color last spring following the February freeze, and in preparation for hurricane season.
Monetary assistance is only one of the ways advocacy groups in Houston provide for one another. Groups including Save Our Sisters United and The Mahogany Project, another nonprofit that focuses on Black transgender people, direct people to resources for getting their names changed and gender-affirming surgery.
The Organización Latina de Trans en Tejas holds monthly food drives for transgender people, information sessions for immigrants and support group meetings and spiritual healing sessions. Elia Chino, founder of the Fundación Latinoamericana de Acción Social, started her organization in the 1990s to provide education and resources to those affected by the AIDS crisis.
Though these spaces have now become vital points for the transgender community to celebrate each other, some, like the Fundación, were born of tragedy. The Mahogany Project was formed in 2017 when Chyna Gibson, a Black transgender woman and popular ballroom performer, was fatally shot in New Orleans.
In Texas, at least 14 transgender people were killed between 2017 and 2020, eight of whom were Black and four of whom were Latinx, according to the Transgender Law Center. That’s about 10 percent of the 139 transgender people who were killed nationwide in that time; Texas has just under 9 percent of the U.S. population.
Trans murder capital
“I’ve been working within trans communities for the last four years, and in that time I’ve watched Texas become the trans murder capital of the United State. I’ve watched year over year a record number of trans individuals being killed, and most of them being Black women,” said Verniss McFarland, founder of The Mahogany Project.
“I’ve watched politicians take personal attacks against trans youth, trans individuals and other gender-expansive individuals as it relates to health care, housing, jobs and just basic civil liberties,” McFarland said.
Advocates say that while an increase in awareness and education about transgender people has led to some positive shifts, such as more people having their names changed and pronouns used correctly, it’s also led to an increase in attacks from people looking to use transgender people as a scapegoat for societal ills.
“Everybody needs somebody to blame when things aren’t going right,” McFarland said.
“America has a long history of being homophobic and transphobic, so if we can turn away from the Jan. 6 insurrection and say ‘Well hey, lets put the lens on trans people playing sports,’ then people start to forget that people tried to tear up the Capitol … because now our common enemy is the trans people out here getting sex changes, asking to use the restroom, playing sports and asking to vote,” McFarland said.
Trans people also worry about the effects that having their existence constantly politicized can have on mental health. The 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey found that about 40 percent of transgender adults reported attempting suicide at some point in their lives.
“One of the fears that comes with all of these attacks is the increase in suicides, and just the need of mental healthcare,” said Dee Dee Watters, publisher of TransGriot. “It changes the narrative of a lot of things, and sometimes people don’t even notice what’s going on, but the more they attack our rights — and you see this with abortion — these things happen when you get a lot of people involved and worked up about a specific topic.”
A larger platform
Watters took over TransGriot after founder Monica Roberts died in October. The blog is centered around the experiences of Black trans women, and Watters says she’s in the process of hiring staff members to take the publication to a larger platform.
“TransGriot is something Monica decided to start because she was noticing that there wasn’t any coverage of people that looked like her or even had a similar experience,” Watters said. “Monica wanted to start contributing things and putting things out there for people who looked like her.”
“My goal is to give a space for those voices to be heard. I’m not a journalist and not looking to become one, I’m just looking to take TransGriot and create space for people who want to do that,” Watters said.
The Mahogany Project, meanwhile, is planning for its fourth annual Black Trans Empowerment Week in November, which will include resource fairs and social events like mixers and movie nights, as well as awards for members of the community.
“It’s a week where we get to pay homage and honor trans individuals lives and legacies and their direct work within the community,” McFarland said. “While we pay homage to some of our ancestors who are trans-visible who we have lost over the past year, we also recognize it’s important to give individuals who are still living their flowers now.”
Advocates say they can only do so much to keep each other safe. They are asking legislators to pass laws such as the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance that will put protections in writing, instead of pushing legislation that will further harm transgender people.
When the “bathroom bill” was under debate in 2017, Ana Andrea Molina, founder of Organización Latina de Trans en Tejas, testified before the Texas Senate, as did Monica Roberts, and the bill was eventually defeated. Emmett Schelling, a Korean American transgender man and executive director of the Transgender Education Network of Texas, often testifies when legislation targeting transgender people is up for debate in the statehouse.
“We need to have laws that protect us. We live in a world that is full of violence and discrimination against the trans community, and this has to stop. That is priority No. 1,” said Chino, founder of Fundación Latinoamericana de Acción Social.
“What is it that our allies and others who are supposedly in agreement with us doing? Houston doesn’t even have an equal rights ordinance because of us,” Watters said. “Some people say that (anti-trans) people are doing this because they’re uneducated, but I’m not sure I can agree with that. You shouldn’t be able to hold a certain position and not know to take care of your constituents. If you can’t do that you shouldn’t take on the position, and not only that, but how dare you speak on things that you’re not educated on?”