The Emotional Weight of Legislative Sessions
Legislative sessions in Texas, which can last up to 140 days every two years, can be exhausting for families of trans children. "It's emotionally traumatizing," Briggle told NPR. "I've been seeing a therapist for years so I don't cry in front of my kids over things that they shouldn't have to worry about."
Anti-trans rhetoric in Texas has grown louder in recent years. Attorney General Ken Paxton issued an opinion likening gender-affirming surgery — a procedure that gives transgender people a body that aligns with their gender identity — to child abuse. Days later, Gov. Greg Abbott doubled down with a letter calling on professionals, including teachers and doctors, to report parents who provide their children gender-affirming care.
The Legal Reality: No Binding Effect
Adri Pérez, a policy and advocacy strategist at the ACLU of Texas, emphasized that neither the letter nor the opinion are legally binding. No one has a legal duty to report someone receiving gender-affirming care.
"They have no legal effect, and they cannot curtail anyone's constitutional rights," Pérez told NPR. "The attorney general and the governor can share their opinions, but it is just their partisan opinion that have been created to target transgender kids and their families."
But the message is clear, said Emmett Schelling, the executive director of the Transgender Education Network of Texas: "The state leadership has said, 'We would rather see dead children … instead of happy, loved, supported, thriving trans kids that are alive and well.'"
The Mental Health Toll on Trans Youth
Texas, among other states, has seen lawmakers propose dozens of anti-LGBTQ bills. More than 40 proposed bills in Texas targeted trans and nonbinary youth in 2021. As states pushed to criminalize gender-affirming care, the American Medical Association sent a letter to governors urging them to oppose state laws that would ban gender transition-related care.
The Trevor Project — an organization dedicated to suicide prevention for LGBTQ youth — received more than 10,800 total crisis calls, texts, and chats from LGBTQ youth in Texas between January 1 and August 30, 2021. More than a third of those crisis contacts came from transgender or nonbinary youth.
For Pérez, gender-affirming care was life-saving. Gender dysphoria — the distress someone might experience if their gender doesn't match their sex — can lead to helplessness. And helplessness leads to depression and suicidal thoughts. "It is a helpless and hopeless feeling that you may not be able to access the care that you need to live as you truly are," Pérez said.
Between 2020 and 2021, the Trevor Project saw a 150% increase in crisis contacts from LGBTQ youth in Texas seeking support. An analysis found that transgender and nonbinary youth "are feeling stressed, using self-harm, and considering suicide due to anti-LGBTQ laws being debated in their state."
Staying Put and Fighting Back
As anti-trans legislation mounts, some Texas families with trans kids are looking to leave the state. But not everyone has the means to move, and relocating wouldn't make the attacks stop. For Amber Briggle, staying in the state — and showing that trans-inclusive families exist — is how she fights back.
Briggle's eyes are on the federal Equality Act, which would expand Civil Rights Act protections to cover discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity. She urges transgender allies across the country to call their senators to get it passed. "It's imperative that people stand up and fight against this," Briggle said. "My kid matters, too."