Skip to content Skip to search

Republish This Story

* Please read before republishing *

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives Creative Commons license as long as you follow our republishing guidelines, which require that you credit The 19th and retain our pixel. See our full guidelines for more information.

To republish, simply copy the HTML at right, which includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to The 19th. Have questions? Please email [email protected].

— The Editors

Loading...

Modal Gallery

/
Sign up for our newsletter

Menu

  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Latest Stories
  • Search
  • Upcoming Events
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Work With Us
  • Fellowships
    • From the Collection

      Changing Child Care

      Illustration of a woman feeding a baby a bottle
      • Washington, D.C., offers financial relief to local child care workers

        Orion Rummler · September 20
      • As climate change worsens hurricane season in Louisiana, doulas are ensuring parents can safely feed their babies

        Jessica Kutz · May 5
      • Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito argued abortion isn’t an economic issue. But is that true?

        Chabeli Carrazana · May 4
    • From the Collection

      Next-Gen GOP

      Illustration of a woman riding an elephant
      • Mayra Flores’ victory set a record for women in Congress. It also reflects the growing visibility of Republican Latinas

        Candice Norwood · June 21
      • A banner year for Republican women

        Amanda Becker · November 11
      • Republican women could double representation in the U.S. House

        Amanda Becker · November 4
    • From the Collection

      On The Rise

      Illustration of three women marching
      • Can Cheri Beasley build a winning coalition in North Carolina?

        Candice Norwood · October 11
      • Los Angeles has never elected a woman mayor. Karen Bass hopes to change that.

        Nadra Nittle · September 8
      • Judge J. Michelle Childs is confirmed to D.C. appeals court

        Candice Norwood · July 20
    • From the Collection

      Pandemic Within a Pandemic

      Illustration of four people marching for Black Lives Matter with coronavirus as the backdrop
      • The 19th Explains: Why the nursing shortage isn’t going away anytime soon

        Mariel Padilla · September 23
      • Some LGBTQ+ people worry that the COVID-19 vaccine will affect HIV medication. It won’t.

        Orion Rummler · November 23
      • Why are more men dying from COVID? It’s a complicated story of nature vs. nurture, researchers say

        Mariel Padilla · September 22
    • From the Collection

      Portraits of a Pandemic

      Illustration of a woman wearing a mask and holding up the coronavirus
      • For family caregivers, COVID is a mental health crisis in the making

        Shefali Luthra · October 8
      • A new database tracks COVID-19’s effects on sex and gender

        Shefali Luthra · September 15
      • Pregnant in a pandemic: The 'perfect storm for a crisis'

        Shefali Luthra · August 25
    • From the Collection

      The 19th Explains

      People walking from many articles to one article where they can get the context they need on an issue.
      • The 19th Explains: What we know about Brittney Griner’s case and what it took to get her home

        Candice Norwood, Katherine Gilyard · December 8
      • The 19th Explains: Why the Respect for Marriage Act doesn’t codify same-sex marriage rights

        Kate Sosin · December 8
      • The 19th Explains: Why baby formula is still hard to find months after the shortage

        Mariel Padilla · December 1
    • From the Collection

      The Electability Myth

      Illustration of three women speaking at podiums
      • Mayra Flores’ victory set a record for women in Congress. It also reflects the growing visibility of Republican Latinas

        Candice Norwood · June 21
      • Stepping in after tragedy: How political wives became widow lawmakers

        Mariel Padilla · May 24
      • Do term limits help women candidates? New York could be a new testing ground

        Barbara Rodriguez · January 11
    • From the Collection

      The Impact of Aging

      A number of older people walking down a path of information.
      • From ballroom dancing to bloodshed, the older AAPI community grapples with gun control

        Nadra Nittle, Mariel Padilla · January 27
      • 'I'm planning on working until the day I die': Older women voters are worried about the future

        Mariel Padilla · June 3
      • Climate change is forcing care workers to act as first responders

        Jessica Kutz · May 31
    • From the Collection

      Voting Rights

      A series of hands reaching for ballots.
      • Election workers believe in our system — and want everyone else to, too

        Barbara Rodriguez, Jennifer Gerson · November 8
      • Voter ID laws stand between transgender people, women and the ballot box

        Barbara Rodriguez · October 14
      • Emily’s List expands focus on diverse candidates and voting rights ahead of midterm elections

        Errin Haines · August 30

    View all collections

  • Explore by Topic

    • 19th Polling
    • Abortion
    • Business & Economy
    • Caregiving
    • Coronavirus
    • Education
    • Election 2020
    • Election 2022
    • Environment & Climate
    • Health
    • Immigration
    • Inside The 19th
    • Justice
    • LGBTQ+
    • Politics
    • Press Release
    • Race
    • Sports
    • Technology

    View All Topics

Home
  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Latest Stories
  • Search
  • Upcoming Events
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Work With Us
  • Fellowships

We’re an independent, nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics and policy. Read our story.

The 19th News(letter)

News from reporters who represent you and your communities.

You have been subscribed!

Submitting...

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please try again later.

Become a member

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

A woman and a child hold a trans pride flag in during a rally.
Transgender kids’ sports participation and access to gender-affirming care have become a target in statehouses across the country. (Photo by Stephen Zenner/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images)

LGBTQ+

For trans Texans and their families, another special session means another fight to exist

Transgender kids’ sports and gender-affirming care access are a top priority for Texas’ third special legislative session that began on Monday. Trans Texans and their families tell The 19th they’ve had enough. 

Orion Rummler

LGBTQ+ Reporter

Orion Rummler headshot

Published

2021-09-21 11:09
11:09
September 21, 2021
am

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

Transgender kids’ sports participation and access to gender-affirming care are a top priority for Texas’ third special legislative session that began on Monday. Gov. Greg Abbott named a long-debated bill to ban trans students from playing sports that match their gender identity as one of his core reasons for calling another session — and the bill is just one part of a legislative push targeting trans kids across several dozen states.

Trans Texans and their families are feeling the strain of having to repeatedly speak out against the legislation, and the frustration from seeing how lawmakers talk about them and their loved ones. And still, advocates on the ground are also seeing how privilege impacts who has the opportunity to make their voice heard.

Abi Robins, a yoga therapist living in Austin, was one of the people testifying against the sports bill — formerly Senate Bill 2, now Senate Bill 3 — in the last special session, staying until 4 a.m. on August 25. They were at the Capitol for over 18 hours.

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

“I was in tears listening to some of the testimony in support of this bill,” they said. “And some of the things they say about trans children, it’s heartbreaking.” 

Being in the room as lawmakers claimed that trans people are mentally ill, or that parents of trans children are committing child abuse, took a toll on them. None of Texas’ proposed legislation acknowledges transgender as an identity, and sponsors of the bills have continued to stress in debates that the legislation is “about protecting female athletes.” Robins said they could hear that erasure reflected in the discourse around the bill.

Sports provided an outlet for Robins when they were a kid. Throughout high school, softball, volleyball and track gave them a space to be themself before they even had language to know they were trans and nonbinary. While playing, they felt less self-conscious about their gender. 

“Sport was actually a really wonderful place, because the ways in which I was different weren’t as big of a deal,” they said. 

Stories by experienced reporters you can trust and relate to.

Delivered directly to your inbox every weekday.

You have been subscribed!

Submitting…

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please try again later.

Off of the track, field or court, however, Robins didn’t have the opportunity to live as themself while growing up the way that trans kids do today, they said. It devastates them to think that a bill that could threaten a new generation of trans kids — one that Robins says has a greater understanding of themselves and more chances to be who they are. 

After processing the last special session in therapy, they plan to return to the Capitol in the third legislative session to again testify against the legislation, adding in a text: “I’m ready.”

Rev. Remington Johnson, who served as an interim pastor at Hope United Church until this spring and is currently a graduate nursing student, has testified at the Texas Capitol four times this year against anti-trans bills. She’s also volunteered with local LGBTQ+ advocacy groups like Equality Texas, Texas Impact and the Transgender Education Network of Texas to speak against legislation, including religious liberty bills, since 2019. Johnson said she felt “incredibly lonely” testifying in the last legislative session — she feels that many of the queer people in her circles have not made enough of an effort to push back against the state’s anti-trans bills. 

Soon after realizing the governor had called for trans participation in sports to be debated in Texas’ third special session, Johnson said she felt sick and angry.

“I am leaning into my anger and just letting it burn for a bit because I know that if I try to cool down before I am ready I will just crumple,” she said in a text to The 19th. “Doing this work is hard. Have your therapist on speed dial, hard.”

Nearly 1 in 3 LGBTQ+ youth, ages 13 to 24, reported participating in any kind of sport in the Trevor Project’s third annual mental health survey. The organization found a similar rate of sports participation last year among a younger cohort of 13 to 18-year-olds. Across the country, state lawmakers have failed to cite cases of trans youth posing a problem in sports — or participating in school sports at all. 

That lack of data undermines lawmakers’ rhetoric that trans inclusion would overrun teams and lead to an unequal playing field, Jonah DeChants, research scientist at the Trevor Project, said.

LGBTQ+ kids should be able to “receive all of the mental, physical, social benefits of being on a sports team,” he said. 

The Trevor Project didn’t publish data solely on trans or nonbinary youths’ sports participation, though some kids responding to the survey pointed to policies that would keep them from playing with other girls or boys as a reason for staying out of sports altogether.

“I probably wouldn’t be allowed onto the boys’ team because I’m a trans boy (both parents and school won’t allow this), and even if I was allowed I’d be at a huge risk of bullying,” one respondent wrote.

Doing this work is hard. Have your therapist on speed dial, hard.

Rev. Remington Johnson, who has testified at the Texas Capitol four times this year against anti-trans bills

On top of the newly proposed legislation, some trans children in Texas are already living with restrictive rules. Kristin, the president of a public relations firm in Austin, said that her 15-year-old daughter is just happy to be with other girls when she gets up early, before 6 a.m., to attend cross country and track meets — even when she doesn’t get to participate.

“She gets to go to practices and meets … but she doesn’t actually get to participate like all the other girls,” Kristin said. “Being a manager is the only way she can be on the girls’ team.” 

Kristin did not want to use her daughter’s name, or their last name, to protect her family against potential harassment. 

This is the first year that Kristin’s daughter, a sophomore, has taken in-person classes at her public high school after the pandemic started. It’s also the first year that she’s been able to publicly be herself, after she came out as transgender following middle school. 

Since 2016, Texas’ regulatory body for high school athletics has required trans students to join single-gender sports teams according to what is on their birth certificate. Under that rule, Kristin’s daughter is barred from competing with the other girls, though the school’s coaches have tried to include her through practice meets. 

“She gets to run about every other day,” Kristin told The 19th. “She doesn’t complain … but it makes me really sad for her.” 

Under this rule, when a student updates their birth certificate as they transition, they can join the team that matches their gender identity. SB 3 would block public schools from acknowledging that change. The paperwork to update her daughter’s birth certificate is in process, Kristin said. But the current rule — and the state’s legislative push to make future competition impossible for her daughter — makes her feel powerless and frustrated about Texas’ priorities. 

“As parents, all we want to do is protect our kids and do what’s best for them. But I can’t do that,” she said, adding: “She still shows up every day, even though she’s being told ‘you’re different’ … but she still goes out there with a smile on her face and does it every day.”

Regardless of whether bills like SB 3 pass, advocates fear the language in and around them that characterizes trans girls as boys will spur violent attacks. Those attacks are consistently made against people of color. 

The majority of trans people that have been killed this year were nearly all Black women and Latinas — a trend that repeats year over year, as marginalized people are targeted for their race and gender. 

  • More from The 19th
    Activists hold candles during a vigil in remembrance of transgender friends lost to murder and suicide.
  • Texas is pushing the most anti-trans bills in the country. Advocates fear deadly consequences.
  • Advocates fear Texas abortion ban could impact LGBTQ+ health care
  • Courts block laws targeting transgender children in Arkansas and West Virginia

Still, as people head to capitols to speak against the bills, it is mostly White parents of trans kids that tend to be the face of the debate, Victoria Kirby York, deputy executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition, said. 

“I’m not saying they shouldn’t show up,” she said. “But it paints a picture of who the harm is hitting that doesn’t get at the data.” 

In Texas, advocates on the ground say that same trend has continued, as more White trans people and their parents have the ability to show up and endure hours of testimony, while others have to choose work or taking care of their families.’

At the Texas Capitol in August, Robins said that all of the trans people they personally met that night were White. Johnson agreed that the trans people that show up to testify are generally White. 

“It makes sense, being able to spend an entire workday sitting around doing nothing is a huge function of privilege,” Robins texted. 

Testimony for SB2 did not start until 8 p.m., after debate was heard on other legislation.

Adri Pèrez, a policy and advocacy strategist for the ACLU who stayed at the capitol until 7 a.m. in August, said those who can come testify are usually privileged enough to afford missing work or school, or can afford transportation. 

“When our democracy functions in this way, we exclude so many people from the process,” they said. “August 24 was already a school day, and you’re hearing bills in the public education committee that are going to affect students.”

Pèrez said that it was mostly White trans people who were able to stay for the marathon of SB2 testimony. Bullying or backlash faced by trans children or teachers that speak out, or even publicly out themselves, can be too high a cost for some, they added. 

Many Black parents of trans youth “may go to the mat with the principal of the school about their kid, and their kid being able to play in sports, but may not be willing to put themselves in front of a camera, or in front of lawmakers,” Kirby York said. Ideally, lawmakers should have another way to hear where parents of color stand, she added. 

On top of the institutional barriers that bar more people of color from participating, Pèrez noted that the demographic makeup of Texas’ legislature — which is mostly White and male — may not take Black or Latinx trans people seriously if more of them were able to testify.

“Sometimes I’m not entirely convinced that Texas legislators, who themselves are White, would take the time to listen to a trans person of color,” they said. 

Pèrez went back to the state Capitol on Monday, at one point leading chants during a protest against the anti-trans bills, and said that people are both fired up and despondent. 

“We’re pretty fed up with the fact that we have to keep coming back to defend our humanity.”

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

Help sustain what we started

Your monthly investment is critical to our sustainability as a nonprofit newsroom.

Donate Today

Become a member

Up Next

People holding signs that read

Abortion

‘We’re seeing shock.’ Texas abortion clinics are now operating as trauma centers

Senate Bill 8 has eroded abortion access in Texas. But desperate patients are still showing up to clinics seeking emotional support — and sometimes, out-of-state options.

Read the Story

The 19th
The 19th is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Our stories are free to republish in accordance with these guidelines.

  • Donate
  • Newsletter
  • Events
  • Search
  • Jobs
  • Fellowships
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Community Guidelines
  • Membership
  • Membership FAQ
  • Major Gifts
  • Sponsorship
  • Privacy
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram