The Texas GOP attack on trans kids reaches a horrifying new level

The Texas GOP attack on trans kids reaches a horrifying new level

Paul Waldman — Read time: 4 minutes

Columnist

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. (Emil Lippe for The Washington Post)

When we look back on this period in conservative politics, two things are likely to stand out: culture war grievances turned up to a fever pitch and a newly unrestrained use of power, with Republican politicians everywhere inventing novel ways to target enemies and accomplish their goals.

When taken to an extreme, the results can be absolutely horrifying. Which is what we’re now seeing in Texas.

In the Republican response to President Biden’s State of the Union address, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds touted “the pro-parent, pro-family revolution that Republicans are leading.”

Texas Republicans are showing how that “pro-family revolution” gets put into practice.

Paxton also stated that among others, “teachers, nurses, doctors, day-care employees, employees of a clinic or health care facility that provides reproductive services” have a duty to report to the state any child they think is receiving such care. He added: “A failure to report under these circumstances is a criminal offense.”

Gov. Greg Abbott then directed the state’s Department of Family and Protective Services “to conduct a prompt and thorough investigation of any reported instances of these abusive procedures.”

These Republicans conflate permanent surgical interventions that are seldom performed on minors with common and reversible therapies, such as puberty blockers. So if you’re a teacher with a trans student whose family is supporting them, you’d better report them to the state government.

The investigations have begun; one of the first was of a child protective servicesemployee who asked her supervisor what to do about the fact that her own daughter is trans. The employee was placed on leave, and then investigators showed up at her family’s door demanding her daughter’s medical records.

This has terrified families with trans kids around Texas, as The 19th, a news organization focused on gender, politics and policy, reports:

Multiple parents of trans children told The 19th they had started gathering testimony from friends and family in case they were sued. Parents, many of whom had spoken to media in recent weeks, declined to be interviewed by The 19th, citing fears that doing so would draw attention to them. A mother sobbed on the phone as she reiterated that she was unable to talk.

“It’s as bad as it’s ever been,” said Angela Hale, a spokesperson for Equality Texas. “We have fended all of this off for a decade.”

Hale said Child Protective Services has been arriving at the homes and schools of a handful of transgender children across the state.

The American Civil Liberties Union has already filed suit against the governor and the head of Texas’s child protective services to stop the investigations. Even if we’ve seen only a small number of investigations so far, this amounts to a campaign of terror against these families, precisely because they’re giving their kids the love and support they need to navigate an emotionally difficult process.

So the Republican policy goal has gone from “Let’s make sure no trans girl gets to play on her middle school softball team” to “Let’s see if we might be able to rip trans kids from their homes and prosecute their parents.”

If that isn’t a crime against decency and morality, I don’t know what is. This is from the party that calls itself “pro-family.”

It’s no surprise that Paxton is the one spearheading this crackdown. Paxton is an especially repugnant figure; he was a high-profile attendee of Donald Trump’s Jan. 6 rally, he was indicted on securities fraud charges, and he was accused by his own aides of bribery and abuse of office.

Paxton is up for reelection and is headed for a primary runoff against George P. Bush, who, in a nod to his family’s long history of abandoning all principle in the service of ambition, has reinvented himself as a MAGA warrior. At a recent debate, Bush and other challengers signaled agreement with Paxton’s nascent war on trans kids and their families.

I doubt most Republican voters support this kind of cruelty, though a good proportion likely do. But Paxton and Abbott have made the calculation that what the base wants is to make the lives of already-vulnerable trans kids even more miserable and haunted by fear.

What makes this an unrestrained and creative use of power is that it’s characteristic of a new spirit among state-level Republicans who are dissatisfied with ordinary limits on governing. Fed by the conviction that the culture war is the key to political success and their base wants nothing more than rage and red meat, they keep looking for new ways to deploy the powers of their offices.

You don’t like Roe v. Wade? Why not essentially outlaw abortion in your state by creating a vigilante system to use against providers? Turns out the Supreme Court will give you the thumbs-up. Mad that liberal protesters stopped traffic for an hour? Pass a law granting civil immunity to people who run over protesters with their cars. Pine for the days when textbooks said enslaved people were happy and well-fed? Make it illegal for teachers to tell students hard truths about race.

Anyone who follows the conservative movement knew this ugly period would come to this: Talk of “liberty” and “free speech” would end up with state censorship of ideas conservatives don’t like, while “pro-family” would end up meaning deploying the state to break up families.

One day, Republicans might move beyond what they’re doing now, just as they prefer not to talk about their opposition to marriage equality. But in the meantime, they’re going to victimize a lot of people.