LGBTQAI advocates protest Texas House bills targeting transgender rights
Equality Texas organized a rally on Friday with several advocacy partners to protest House Bill 229 and House Bill 778, which speakers argued would negatively impact the lives and freedoms of transgender Texans.
House Bill 229, led by Rep. Ellen Troxclair, R-Borne, would require each government entity to only record the sex at birth of individuals, prohibiting such agencies from recognizing a transgender individual's gender identity or a person who identifies as "non-binary," meaning they do not identify as either male or female.
Troxclair dubs it the "Women's Bill of Rights," saying the definition of sex needs to be clarified and codified to protect women, a common talking point to exclude transgender women.
"We can't have women's rights if we don't even know what a woman is," she said in a Texas Public Policy Foundation video earlier this session. "We need to define what a woman is to bring clarity, certainty and uniformity in the way women are treated under Texas law."
Of course, sex and gender can be far more complicated. The United Nations estimates that about 1.7% of the population is born with intersex traits, meaning sexual characteristics that "do not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies." Furthermore, the Williams Institute estimates about 1.6 million people over age 13 identify as transgender in the U.S. alone, including 92,900 adults in Texas.
Major medical groups reject insurance exclusions or limitations on gender-affirming care, and all world health and major medical associations recognize transgender youth, according to GLAAD, an advocacy organization for LGBTQ rights.
House Bill 778, led by Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, would put health insurance agencies on the line for "all possible adverse consequences" related to a gender transition and all follow-up appointments to monitor the patient's health.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: LGBTQ advocates rally against Texas House Bills 229, 778. Here's why
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