Truth or abuse? LGBTQ advocates, Texas lawmakers debate bill protecting misgendering kids

1 day ago 40

By Nolan D. McCaskill | Dallas Morning News (TNS)

AUSTIN — Parents and guardians who don’t affirm a child’s sexual orientation or gender identity would be exempt from child abuse allegations under a proposed exception to the state’s definition.

The bill redefining child abuse ignited fierce debate Tuesday among lawmakers who say it protects parents’ rights and Texas citizens who said it would harm LGBTQ children.

Rep. Matt Shaheen, R-Plano, took about a minute to lay out House Bill 1106, a one-page bill that would add exceptions to the government’s definition of child abuse and neglect to protect parents and guardians in such cases, including if they refuse to address a child by a preferred name or pronoun.

Shaheen, who spent 40 minutes answering questions about his bill, repeatedly said its intent is to prevent parents who believe there are two genders from being penalized in family court for not lying to their children about their identity. It’s a proactive measure to tackle an issue that’s emerged in other states before it takes hold in Texas, he said.

“In parts of the country, there have been instances where parents of a child have been accused of abuse for referring to the child’s true sex,” Shaheen said. “In some cases, the child has been removed from their families while the investigation took place. Legislatures — such as California and Colorado — have proposed legislation that would punish parents refusing to go along with their child’s gender identity.”

Facing questions from Rep. Toni Rose, D-Dallas, Shaheen acknowledged he hasn’t been around any transgender children, prompting her to respond, “You have a bill talking about an experience that you don’t have any knowledge of.”

Shaheen countered that it would be “totally wrong” for a parental debate over a child’s gender to be considered abuse.

“The fact that maybe I haven’t met a transgender child is totally irrelevant,” he added. “I think I know the clarity between what’s male or female. It’s pretty biological. It’s pretty straightforward.”

Opponents of the bill said not affirming a child’s sexual orientation or gender identity could lead to emotional abuse, increasing suicidal ideation or self-harm. They pointed to a Trevor Project study showing that mistreatment of LGBTQ children increases suicide risk, anxiety and depression.

Rep. Christian Manuel, a Port Arthur Democrat who is an openly gay man and vice chair of the House Human Services Committee that heard the bill, shared his personal experience struggling with anti-gay sentiment growing up that nearly drove him to suicide.

“I know you’re not a hateful person, and I know that’s not what you’re trying to do. But it’s a little frustrating because you’re passing legislation about people’s lives that you don’t understand,” Manuel said. “It does feel like you’re legislating from your point of life onto a group of people that you don’t know. You haven’t talked with them. You haven’t done a study on [them] — and it does cause real harm.”

Shaheen dug in, dismissing the notion that it’s harmful to tell children the truth.

“That’s exactly why I have this piece of legislation, because there’s people out there that think it’s abusive if I tell my son that he’s a boy, and it’s not abusive,” he said. “I would argue that it is abusive if I tell my boy he’s a girl.”

In more than two-and-a-half hours of public testimony, only two witnesses supported the legislation. Sharmilla and Levi Kirwin told the panel their teen daughter was placed into foster care after being removed from their Arizona home in 2020.

“We were reported for being emotionally abusive for not using a child’s pronouns and for not calling our girl by the name that she had chosen as a male name,” Levi Kirwin said. “The civil charges were that we were unwilling and unable to raise our child.”

Other witnesses shared personal anecdotes as they urged members to reject a bill they said would encourage deadnaming — using a person’s birth name instead of the name that reflects their gender identity — and misgendering — using a person’s biological sex instead of their gender identity.

Opponents said the bill ignores intersex people; could lead to increased child homelessness, forced attempts of conversion therapy or other retaliation from parents; and protects parents, not their children.

“I represent thousands of people of faith, and we are forced to come here and give this testimony in response to trumped-up non-problems,” said the Rev. Erin Walter, executive director of the Texas Unitarian Universalist Justice Ministry, who spent much of her night waiting to testify at the hearing instead of celebrating her queer daughter’s birthday at a Charli XCX concert.

“We don’t want to be doing this, but we are forced to,” Walter said. “The congregations of the Texas UU Justice Ministry — 40 of them, from El Paso to Lufkin, from Brownsville to Denison, in big cities and suburbs and small towns and rural areas — vehemently oppose this bill and beg you to stop wasting our time and harming us.”

The post Truth or abuse? LGBTQ advocates, Texas lawmakers debate bill protecting misgendering kids appeared first on MyRGV.com.

Read Entire Article