Entre Hermanos Statement for: Florida “Don’t Say Gay Bill” and Texas Gov. declares trans medical case child abuse & orders investigation of supportive parents
Date Posted: February 25, 2022
Categories:
NEW RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Seattle, Washington
February 24th, 2022
Contact: Robert Foss
Tittle: Acting Executive Director at Entre Hermanos
Phone: 206.274.1510
Email: robert@entrehermanos.org
Entre Hermanos Statement for: Florida “Don’t Say Gay Bill” and Texas Gov. declares trans medical case child abuse & orders investigation of supportive parents
Entre Hermanos stands for equality and human rights for the LGBTQIA+ community. This past day was horrific with the news about two efforts that stand squarely against equal rights – First, the Florida “Don’t Say Gay Bill” and second “Texas Trans Medical Case Child Abuse”.
Florida House of Republicans on Tuesday advanced a bill to prohibit discussions of sexual orientation and gender identities in schools. The “Don’t Say Gay Bill” is set to come to debate, and a full House vote next week. The “Don’t Say Gay Bill” outlines what seems to be one of the most controversial topics in this week’s news. Essentially the bill would require:
- The school district to ban the teaching of LGBTQIA+ topics in the classroom.
- Schools to “not encourage” discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity in primary grade levels, or in a manner that is not “age-appropriate” or “developmentally appropriate” for students.
- Parents that feel their student was subjected to a discussion, or educated about, gender identity and sexual orientation have the right to take legal action and sue the school district for violating the bill.
*Florida House Bill 1557, if passed, would take effect this year – on July 1, 2022.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) is demanding the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) to investigate parents who support their transgender children and allow them access to gender affirming medical care prescribed by their doctors in a letter sent to the agency yesterday.
Last year, the Texas legislature tried and failed to pass S.B. 1646, a bill that would have declared parents who allow their trans children to take puberty blockers or hormone therapy to be child abusers. Earlier this week, the attorney general of Texas, Republican Ken Paxton, issued a non-binding opinion stating that gender affirming health care for transgender youth is a form of child abuse. And his main reasoning for calling gender affirming care child abuse is that trans people might not be able to make babies with certain kinds of gender affirming care. Paxton said, “Each of the ‘sex change’ procedures and treatments enumerated above, when performed on children, can legally constitute child abuse”. Sex-change operations and puberty blockers prescribed to kids is “child abuse” under Texas law.
Here at Entre Hermanos we stand in solidarity with our LGBTQIA+ communities in Florida and Texas because we believe in freedom and equality, and no one deserves to be held back from living their authentic selves. We serve to provide a health environment to our community by supporting the needs of the LGBTQIA+ community. For us, is horrifying to see how things are going backwards in some parts of the country with all the advances the world has achieved in the past years. We believe that supporting your kid is not illegal nor is it child abuse. “This is a fight, that we will do for everyone, because we all deserve a better place to live with no judgement and with inclusion for all.” – Robert Foss, Entre Hermanos Acting Executive Director.
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