Austin TX: Republican Senators took advantage of the Democrat’s absence Monday and bullied, lied to, misgendered, and insulted every transgender person in Texas before calling the first gender-expansive witness to testify.
The minority of Democrat legislators weren’t there to correct them, they left Texas the day before to break quorum, a method rarely used to halt the advancement of horrific agendas when all other means fail.
Governor Gregg Abbott regularly calls ‘special sessions’ in hopes of advancing unpopular bills that were defeated by the people during the regular session.
Some states constitutions allow special sessions to be called by the legislature as an equalizer in case of a governor veto, but in Texas, it works quite the opposite.
It is always the worst day of the year to testify at the Texas legislature, but Monday was the worse by far. The transgender people in the Senate gallery, waiting to testify, were subjected to an extremely hostile environment, the likes this citizen/reporter has never seen. If this had taken place in a workplace or on the corner in front of a seven-eleven someone would have been sued or it would have been called a hate crime.
With the Democrats in DC Committee chairwoman, Lois W. Kolkhorst (R) began interviewing a long list of ‘invited guests’ all of whom supported the anti-trans bill and questioned each extensively. In the beginning, Senator Bob Hall and committee member’s language was problematic, but it quickly devolved into outright hate speech.
And when Hall was later confronted with his language he remanded the non-binary witness with a tone that was undeniably hostile, that he had already realized his error and not to correct him again.
When I was called up Senator Kolkhorst pretended not to know who I was. But the sideways glances between members and the look of recognization in her eye let me know otherwise.
I testified against Kohlkorst’s anti-trans bathroom bill beginning in 2017 and quickly reminded her of that. But first I announced in a loud speaking voice looking directly at Hall telling him that I am a transgender woman and that my pronouns are She and Her. If Hall had objected or called me a man, or boy, as he did other transgender women and girls I would have brought him up on charges.
Senator Kolkhorst knew better by her own admission. She allowed and promoted the committee’s behavour to speak about us in such a demeaning, dehumanizing fashion.
I told the Committee that since testifying in front of Senator Kolkhorst in 2017 there hasn’t been a single instance of a student changing their gender to participate in interscholastic sports or of a transgender girl dominating in Texas sports.
Equality Texas tagged the Republican committee members making a historical timeline for prosperity. Each testimony only lasted 2 minutes so understandably they couldn’t name each of the people who spoke.
The bill was voted out of committee as expected but it won’t be passed as long as the Democrats remain in Washington DC.
Insurrectionists have called them cowards but I call them heroes. I will gladly continue to do my part as an American citizen to defend my country against totalitarianism, as I did during the cold war, with every means at my disposal.
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