Friday Report: Trans victory In Texas, Wisconsin Rules For Trans Students, And SB170 I California

So much has happened this week in queer news and I hope to make it all accessible and easy for you to keep track of. Please don’t forget to subscribe to support my content and help sustain a space away from social media algorithms to stay up to date on LGBTQ+ news.

This week:

A Texas judge ruled in Travis County that child abuse investigations into trans teens must stop in Texas. If you haven’t been watching closely, on February 23, Greg Abbott officially directed all Texas CPS agents to begin investigating the families of trans teens for child abuse. This resulted in a massive number of families seeking out help from legal organizations. Some reached out on twitter - we have successfully raised over $100,000 for multiple families fleeting Texas as a result of this order.

Judge Meachum in Travis County determined that the plaintiffs in this case, families registered to PFLAG, had a high likelihood of success against the state in blocking these enforcement efforts. The Supreme Court of Texas had previously overturned an injunction, allowing child abuse enforcements to continue. It remains to be seen if they do so again. This will buy families precious time. Any parents of trans kids in Texas are strongly urged to register with PFLAG to be covered by the injunction.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled in favor of transgender students. This lawsuit sought to block school districts from enacting policies that allowed students to change their names and pronouns without parental notification. Madison Metropolitan School District has fought to not out trans students unless they feel safe to do so. The plaintiffs in this case sought to overturn that policy while ironically attempting to maintain privacy themselves.

The Wisconsin supreme court was having none of this. They sent the issue back to the lower courts while refusing to overturn the policy. This does not mean that the fight is over, but it does keep trans students safe from forced outing to their parents for the time being. Hilariously, the Supreme Court of Wisconsin ruled that the plaintiffs in this case could not remain anonymous.

Erin Reed @ErinInTheMorn

California SB107 passes its first committee vote 5-2! This bill would protect the families of trans refugees fleeing states like Texas from being extradited back to Texas under anti-trans child abuse enforcements. It would also prevent child custody jurisdiction in those cases!

SB170 which protects trans refugees was passed its committee hearing this week! This bill is huge. It would protect refugees fleeing from states like Texas, Alabama, and Arkansas where they are making it illegal to provide youth with gender affirming care. This bill would ban law enforcement from using resources to serve out of state subpoenas or extraditions. This is setting up for a constitutional crisis the likes of which we have not seen since the fugitive slave laws.

This bill has been described to me by legal scholars as legal interstate warfare. There is case law on states refusing to extradite fugitives to other states - famously, the Dred Scott case in the leadup to the civil war featured exactly this kind of legal issue.

I would also like to leave a final parting note on why I am beginning this newsletter. Although I have strong followings that depend on my content on TikTok and Twitter, I am at the mercy of the algorithm there. TikTok has hit me with several community guidelines violations over nonsensical reasons (such as “illicit substances” on a video about how to contact your congressmen). Twitter is still teetering on what happens with a potential Elon Musk buyout, though this may end up not going through (thank god).

So I am here. Many people have asked how they can support my content and activism and I want to give them a more meaningful way to do so. I want to give something back to my supporters as a result, and so I’m hoping to have summaries of weekly legislative happenings and queer news here. I’ll also cover historical vignettes of queer and trans people, state legislative happenings especially as the legislative cycle starts up again, and more. I’ll have a few things special for my paying subscribers, but I intend to keep anything activism related for free (and with crossed fingers that those who can support me, will).