What Next - Texas’s Attack on Trans Kids
Slate News
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4.5 • 6K Ratings
🗓️ 1 March 2022
⏱️ 32 minutes
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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 | This episode is brought to you by Slack. With Slack, you can bring all your people and |
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| 0:20.9 | inside and outside of your company. Slack, where the future works. Get started at |
| 0:26.9 | Slack.com slash DHQ. |
| 0:36.9 | Last week, a couple of letters from Texas Governor Greg Abbott and his Attorney General Ken |
| 0:42.2 | Paxton started pinging around the Internet. |
| 0:45.5 | Major outrage in Texas today after the state Attorney General Ken Paxton likened kids |
| 0:50.8 | getting gender-reforming medical care to child abuse. Paxton says... |
| 0:55.3 | These letters were aimed at child protective services, and they encouraged Texans to do |
| 0:59.8 | something no other state does. View medical treatment for trans kids as abusive. |
| 1:06.9 | ACLU Texas says it's been receiving an uptick and calls from concerned parents of trans |
| 1:12.9 | youth wanting to know about their legal rights. |
| 1:16.7 | Reporter Caitlin Burns, she wasn't surprised by these letters, but she was outraged by them. |
| 1:23.1 | I don't understand why anybody wouldn't be upset by that, but I just think about to my |
| 1:28.6 | own time as a closeted kid who had, you know, I would classify it as gender feelings, but |
| 1:38.8 | no language to go along with that. All I was was just a scared little kid. |
| 1:43.9 | And if my state governor, who at the time was Mario Cuomo and New York had come out and |
| 1:50.0 | this, I'm not sure how the little version of me would have handled that. |
| 1:55.4 | So there's a very visceral reaction to this. |
| 1:59.1 | As a reporter, Caitlin knew the facts here. These letters are not binding. In fact, after |
... |
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