Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton are attempting to criminalize lifesaving healthcare for transgender and nonbinary youth by labeling it as “child abuse”, following a harmful interpretation of state law that systemically medicalizes transness in Texas.

In the past week, Paxton and Abbott have released formal opinions recommending that gender-affirming healthcare constitutes as “child abuse” and that the state must “investigate” parents and healthcare providers who affirm a trans child’s gender.

Although the opinions don’t change the law, they can affect how it is practiced.

It is heartbreaking to imagine the state of surveillance and terror that Abbott and Paxton are creating by unleashing this baseless attack on trans youth, by attempting to strip children’s right to healthcare, and their right to be within the safey and love of supportive family members.

“I am horrified by the inhumane and downright dangerous declarations by the Texas Governor and Attorney General…Trans youth deserve gender-affirming care and to be able to live their true, authentic selves without fear and oppression,” actor Elliot Page told Variety.

Governments across the country are attempting to police bodies and the right to self-determination by enforcing a violent binary that perpetuates cisgender-heterosexual toxic masculinity and patriarchal femininity– at least 157 anti-trans bills have been in this year’s legislative sessions, with 37 attacking trans youth’s access to lifesaving healthcare.

Trans people are not sick for being who they are. It’s the cis-het patriarchal gaze that needs to recover from its internalized wounds around gender, and needs to stop projecting its hurt on trans youth.

“We’re out here just trying to live our lives and they cant stop thinking about us. Our bodies. Our sex. All their efforts are like twisted fan-fiction horror. It’s dark and twisted,” actor Jen Richard’s tweeted in response to Abbot’s letter.

More than half of trans children were at risk of suicide this past year, and access to gender-affirming care is linked to being at lower risk of attempting suicide by nearly 40 percent in trans youth.

Read stories by trans folks on how gender-affirming care is lifesaving: https://bit.ly/33K8DK9