The country's largest nurses union says Governor Greg Abbott is endangering the lives of transgender kids by going after them criminally.
National Nurses United is calling for gender justice after the Governor and Attorney General Ken Paxton ordered that the Department of Family and Protective Services investigate instances of youngsters going through gender-affirming care/treatment be treated as child abuse.
The union called on Abbott and other lawmakers to stop attacking transgender kids.
"Lawmakers across the country continue to launch political attacks on the transgender community, especially targeting trans youth," NNU President Zenei Triunfo-Cortez said. "Measures that seek to restrict trans youth’s ability to access medical services are being made to advance an extremist rightwing agenda with no regard for the actual health outcomes for patients."
The union insists leading medical organizations agree gender-affirming care is medical care that helps produce better outcomes for patients.
For example, such care reduces the rate of suicide in the transgender community. The union believes this kind of medical care should be decided by patients and their families and lawmakers should not interfere.
The Dallas County DA and several others across the state are refusing to prosecute such cases. They issued a statement saying in part: "We will not irrationally and unjustifiably interfere with medical decisions made between children, and their parents, and their medical physicians".
The NNU's statement concludes as follows:
"These attacks on trans youth are one part of a broader national campaign to dismantle hard-won rights for gender-oppressed people, such as reproductive rights and services and gender-affirming care. This is evident in Texas, where draconian limitations on reproductive rights have been enacted alongside other attacks on voting rights and public education.
NNU seeks to end all gendered violence, especially as it intersects with racism, xenophobia, and economic inequality. NNU stands with our trans members, patients, other trans workers, the broader trans community, and all those fighting for gender justice."
Related
LISTEN on the Audacy App
Sign Up and Follow NewsRadio 1080 KRLD