Ahead of Wednesday’s hearing, several LGBTQ and allied groups rallied outside the Texas State Capitol to protest the proposed bill. Participating organizations included the Human Rights Campaign, the Transgender Education Network of Texas, Equality Texas, ACLU of Texas, Texas Freedom Network, and Lambda Legal. “The Texas Legislature’s persistence in pursuing legislation that harms transgender youth reveals their perverse priorities,” Human Rights Campaign Texas State Director Rebecca Marques said in a statement. Nearly 4,000 of those “crisis contacts” were transgender youth. A bill in Idaho barring transgender students from competing in women’s sports was blocked by a federal judge last year.

Source: MetroXpress October 08, 2021 11:48 UTC