A Texas Dem voted against trans kids. This queer Black mom challenged her and won
www.independent.co.uk
For labor organizer Lauren Ashley Simmons, every battle is ‘David and Goliath.’ The state’s new class of LGBT+ lawmakers is telling the world that Texas is worth fighting for, Alex Woodward reports
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    3•5 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    Simmons, a queer Black woman and labor organizer from Houston, watched her Democratic state representative break with her party and vote in favor of three Republican-led bills limiting rights for transgender teens and children.

    Texas Republicans outlawed gender-affirming healthcare for transgender teens, blocked trans college athletes from playing on teams that don’t align with their gender, and banned broadly defined “sexually explicit” books from school libraries.

    Simmons got involved with community organizing groups and labor unions to help other Texans learn how to navigate the same system she endured, and to fight for better wages and working conditions for Black women in a state with some of the weakest worker protections in the country.

    Supporters encouraged her to run after her viral opposition to Republican threats to public education, but Thierry’s vote to deny affirming healthcare to young trans people was something of a last straw.

    Simmons has two children in Houston schools, including a child with a chronic health condition, “and there is nothing I wouldn’t do to make sure that my baby had access to the care that she needed,” she tells The Independent.

    Senate Bill 14, which was signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott last year, forces children off transition healthcare like puberty blockers and hormone treatments against the urgent guidance from major medical associations.

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