Texas’s Attack on Trans Kids
What Next | Daily News and Analysis
Slate Podcasts
4.3 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 1 March 2022
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Texas’s Republican governor and attorney general are pursuing a new crackdown on trans kids and their families. Their directive compelling Child Protective Services to treat gender-affirming care as child abuse is raising alarms among trans rights advocates, who say the order, if enforced, will prove dangerous for a vulnerable population.
Why did Republican leaders pick this moment to trumpet an anti-trans effort? How does it fit into a wider culture war—or perhaps a larger effort to drive trans people from public life?
Guest: Katelyn Burns, columnist at MSNBC and co-host of the podcast Cancel Me, Daddy.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | There's something so romantic about winter and I don't know whether that's just because |
| 0:05.4 | I'm a bit of a homebody and I love a 5th but I think it's just the holiday period. |
| 0:09.9 | It's just for me it's the most romantic period and I think anyone who's listened to my |
| 0:15.5 | records will know that I'm quite a big fan of romance. |
| 0:18.8 | Join in every sip with Red Cops Now Back at Starbucks. |
| 0:33.5 | Last week, a couple of letters from Texas Governor Greg Abbott and his attorney general Ken |
| 0:38.7 | Paxton started pinging around the internet. |
| 0:42.2 | Major outrage in Texas today after the state attorney general Ken Paxton likened kids |
| 0:47.3 | getting gender-reforming medical care to child abuse. |
| 0:51.8 | These letters were aimed at child protective services and they encouraged Texans to do |
| 0:56.2 | something no other state does. |
| 0:59.6 | View medical treatment for trans kids as abusive. |
| 1:03.4 | ACLU Texas has been receiving an uptick and calls from concerned parents of trans youth |
| 1:10.2 | wanting to know about their legal rights. |
| 1:13.2 | Reporter Caitlin Burns, she wasn't surprised by these letters but she was outraged by them. |
| 1:19.8 | You know I don't understand why anybody wouldn't be upset by that but I just think about |
| 1:24.8 | to my own time as a closeted kid who had you know I would classify it as gender feelings |
| 1:34.0 | but no language to go along with that all I was was just a scared little kid and if you |
| 1:41.8 | know my state governor who at the time was Mario Cuomo in New York had come out and |
| 1:46.4 | done this I'm not sure how how the little version of me would have handled that. |
| 1:52.2 | So there's a very visceral reaction to this. |
| 1:55.6 | As a reporter Caitlin knew the facts here. |
... |
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