was originally reported by Grace Panetta of . .

Melissa Hortman, a former Minnesota House speaker who championed the passage of ambitious progressive policies in the state, was assassinated early Saturday in what Gov. Tim Walz called “an act of targeted political violence.” 

Hortman, 55, who was elected to the Minnesota House in 2004, became the speaker of the state’s House of Representatives in 2019 and, during her first few years, presided over the chamber under a divided government. In 2022, when the Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party won full control of the state government, Hortman played a key role in shaping what legislation the chamber would prioritize, working closely with Walz to enact a slew of progressive policies that included major investments in children and families, as well as expanded protections for abortion and gender-affirming care. She left the post in March.

A man posing as a police officer killed Hortman and her husband, Mark, at their home in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Park in what Walz described at a news conference as an apparent “politically motivated assassination.” DFL state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, were shot by the same gunman at their home in nearby Champlin. Walz said they were out of surgery and was “cautiously optimistic” that they would make a recovery.  

“Our state lost a great leader and I lost the greatest of friends,” Walz said. “Speaker Hortman was someone who served the people of Minnesota with grace, compassion, humour and a sense of service. She was a formidable public servant, a fixture and a giant in Minnesota. She woke up every day determined to make this state a better place. She is irreplaceable and will be missed by so many.”  

Hours after the attacks, an “extensive manhunt” remained underway for the suspect, who impersonated a law enforcement officer to enter Hortman’s home, Brooklyn Park chief of police Mark Bruley told reporters in a news conference Saturday. The suspect fled on foot, leaving behind his car, where, law enforcement officials found a list containing about 70 names, including abortion providers and advocates, as well as lawmakers.

Here’s a look at Hortman’s legislative history and legacy on key policies:

Abortion:

After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the federal right to abortion in June 2022, Minnesota emerged as a key access point for abortion as other Midwestern states moved to ban the procedure. 

“There was a simmering rage that did not stop,” Hortman said after the 2022 election, according to . “I was hopeful that voters would take that energy and put it on the ballot and vote for Democrats. And thankfully they did.”

In 2023, Hortman led the Minnesota House in passing , legislation that codified the legality of abortion and other forms of reproductive health care in the state. In subsequent bills, the Minnesota legislature eliminated other restrictions on abortion, passed protections for abortion providers, boosted state funding for clinics providing abortion and eliminated funding for anti-abortion counseling centers.     

LGBTQ+ rights: 

The Minnesota legislature passed a bill for minors in the state, which Walz signed into law in April 2023. Lawmakers passed additional legislation with that made Minnesota a “trans refuge state.”  

Paid leave: 

In with the Minnesota Reformer, Hortman cited a as “the most rewarding” piece of legislation she passed. The legislature also enacted paid sick leave and paid safe leave for survivors of intimate partner violence, to help them find temporary housing or seek relief in court. 

“An average person can take time, whether it’s to take care of somebody who has cancer or to take care of a new baby,” she said. “People shouldn’t have to choose between a job and recovering from illness.”

Child care and education: 

Hortman and Walz passed major investments in aimed at lowering child poverty and hunger. These included providing free school breakfasts and lunches, expanding the child tax credit and increasing funding for early childhood scholarships, child care provider stabilization funds and child care for low-income families. Lawmakers also enacted a program making tuition at Minnesota’s public colleges free for families earning less than $80,00 a year.   

“From the word ‘go,’ you can see that children were top of mind,” Hortman . “Gov. Tim Walz gave a very inspiring state of the state address in 2023. He was very clear that his administration was focused on reducing childhood poverty. The DFL House and the DFL Senate said, ‘Governor, we are right there with you.’”

In 2024, Minnesota lawmakers from local schools and libraries on the basis of ideological or content objections. 

Gun safety and criminal justice: 

After the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in May 2020, Hortman worked across the aisle to . In 2023, the Minnesota legislature passed the Restore the Vote Act, which restored voting rights to formerly incarcerated Minnesotans upon completion of their sentences. Hortman was also an advocate for gun violence prevention . In 2023, Walz signed a bill that measures like universal background checks and extreme risk protection orders, or “red flag” laws. In 2024, the Minnesota legislature that, among other things, made straw purchases of firearms a felony. 

“We clearly have a gun violence problem in this country, and there are things we can do about it, and we did them,” Hortman .

A federal district court judge in Missouri has blocked implementation of the Biden administration’s new Title IX rule in six additional states — Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota.

The , ordered late Wednesday, brings to 21 the total number of states where the U.S. Department of Education can’t enforce the rule on Aug. 1.

Judge Rodney W. Sippel, a Clinton nominee, said the plaintiffs have a “fair chance” of demonstrating that the department “exceeded its statutory authority” by using the Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton County to expand Title IX protections to LGBTQ students. 

Ravina Nath, a recent graduate of Gunn High School in Palo Alto, California, originally included Rice University in Houston on her short list of colleges to attend this fall. With an interest in neuroscience, she was drawn to its top-ranked biomedical engineering program. 

That was before Texas became one of to sue the U.S. Department of Education  over its new Title IX rule. The regulation extends protections against discrimination and harassment to LGBTQ students and requires prompt investigations into students’ complaints.

Instead, she’ll attend Barnard College in New York City.

“I need to be in a place where I would feel like my school supported me,” said Nath, who became a in high school. At Rice, some students to how officials handled complaints of sexual misconduct. And she ruled out the University of Georgia, a “potential safety school,” because it to make data on such investigations public. Several of her friends made similar calculations when narrowing down school choices. 

“My friends who are survivors and who are LGBTQ+ students applied to schools on the West Coast or the Northeast,” she said. “I don’t think any of my friends applied to school in .”

With the new rule set to go into effect Aug. 1 — just seven days away — a flurry of lawsuits has once again turned the map of the United States into a familiar patchwork of red and blue.

District courts have blocked the regulation in 15 Republican-led states. In the most recent development, the on Monday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to allow all but related to gender identity issues to go into effect in 10 of those states after two appellate courts denied earlier requests. 

Complicating the legal math further, in an earlier action, a federal judge in Kansas the rule just at serving children of current and future members of the conservative Moms for Liberty and students involved in , another advocacy organization opposed to trans girls competing on teams consistent with their gender identity. Moms for Liberty sees the ruling as an expansion opportunity: On Tuesday, the group tied to Title IX.

With the legal landscape changing daily, some experts think the Education Department should take a step back and delay the rule.

“For schools, universities and students, it’ll calm things down,” said Sandra Hodgin, who runs a Title IX consulting firm in Los Angeles. “What are we talking about, 75% of the country not implementing Title IX and only 25% of the country implementing it?”

A spokesperson said the department has no plans to skirt the Aug. 1 deadline. On Tuesday, it sent schools a list of “” and a on how to draft policies to comply.   

For now, the Supreme Court is considering whether to lift the temporary pause on the rule in the affected states.

The far larger question is what the justices might decide if and when they consider the substance of the rule itself. In addition to expanding protections to LGBTQ students, the new rule largely replaced one issued under former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. That regulation narrowed the definition of sexual misconduct and required live hearings so male students could face their accusers. 

W. Scott Lewis, managing partner with TNG Consulting, which trains districts across the country on Title IX, has advised red states covered by an injunction, like Wyoming and Idaho, that they’re currently bound by the 2020 regulation.

But that could change quickly. 

“It’s a race to the Supreme Court right now,” he said.

‘Bigger than sports’

Some families with LGBTQ students aren’t waiting for the legal drama to run its course. They’ve already to escape laws that bar trans students from using bathrooms or playing on sports teams consistent with their gender identity. Several have moved to the Denver metro area, where Lewis lives, to attend schools in a state that is not challenging the rule.

“We have more than a handful of students at my kid’s high school who moved here from Wyoming, from Kansas, from Iowa,” he said. 

Most of the controversy surrounding Title IX focuses on trans students’ participation in sports, a part of the rule that the U.S. Department of Education has delayed addressing until after the election. But in Lewis’s estimation, that issue is “bigger than sports.” 

“If I’m in a state that won’t let me compete, I’m probably not in a state that’s very friendly to LGBTQ students on the whole,” he said. “I’m far more likely to just move on.”

In blue states set to implement the new rule, many conservative parents say their children’s rights are also at stake. 

They’re concerned students would be disciplined for not using LGBTQ kids’ preferred pronouns, forced to censor their speech or share bathrooms and locker rooms with trans students.

Hillary Hickland, a mother of four in central Texas, moved her children out of the Belton Independent School District partly because she felt there was too much emphasis on students’ gender identity. Her sixth grade daughter told her that teachers encouraged a friend to identify as a boy and use a boy’s name without the parents’ knowledge. 

“Don’t do it behind the backs of the parents. That’s a huge violation of trust,” she said. As a Republican running for the Texas House, she’s concerned about sexual orientation and gender identity becoming part of Title IX. “We have the federal government dictating what goes on in our local public schools. It really undermines the neighborhood school and that culture that we’re trying to preserve.”

‘Nine months behind’

Lewis predicts the Supreme Court will eventually follow its precedent in , which said that at least in the workplace, LGBTQ employees are protected from discrimination. The Biden administration’s new rule rests on that decision.

, who wrote that majority opinion, “can’t undo Bostock. He said sex means LGBTQ rights,” Lewis said. In red states where the rule is on hold, districts “better be ready to implement very quickly because [they’re] going to be nine months behind everyone else.”

If the court also decides to address sports participation — an expected part of the regulation the administration has yet to issue — Lewis said it’s possible the justices would rule similar to the way they handled , leaving it to the states to determine when trans students can compete on teams consistent with their gender identity. 

He called that a “nightmare scenario” because it would “create a world where athletes could compete in some states but not others.” And at the college, NCAA level, “there will be all sorts of questions that can’t be limited to state borders,” said Joshua Dunn, executive director of the Institute of American Civics at University of Tennessee, Knoxville. “They’ll have to address that, too.”

Dunn also suggested the conservative court might not follow Bostock and could treat LGBTQ issues differently at school than they do in the workplace. He noted cases, like , where the court put limits on students’ First Amendment rights in schools “that it would never allow outside of K-12 education.” 

Overturning ‘Chevron’

Another recent Supreme Court decision, unrelated to education, adds an additional layer of uncertainty to the debate over Title IX’s future — one that could affect both sides. 

In , the court overturned what was known as “Chevron deference,” which gave federal agencies broad authority to interpret ambiguous laws through guidance and regulations. The decision gives federal courts more power to explain the law when it’s unclear, and experts say, should end “.”

The Obama administration first issued a in 2011 stating schools’ obligations to protect students from sexual violence and harassment, which the Trump administration largely reversed in 2020, followed by yet another 180 in the spring by Biden’s education department.

Republicans have Education Secretary Miguel Cardona that they will review the department’s rules since President Joe Biden took office,  including Title IX. GOP leaders call the rule “overreach.” 

The conservative Heritage Foundation’s , largely assumed to be a legislative blueprint for a second Trump term,would remove the terms sexual orientation and gender identity from “every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation and piece of legislation that exists.”

But if Trump tries to reinstate the DeVos rule, Democrats could use Loper Bright to bring the same challenge, Lewis said.

“If you … say the department does not have the authority, then the 2020 regulations don’t count either,” he said. “It was exactly the same procedure.” 

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox signed six bills the Legislature passed during this week’s special session — including a resolution that bans government officers from complying with a Title IX update that prohibits discrimination based on gender identity.

Wednesday to approve two resolutions — and — declaring they wouldn’t follow the federal directive that extends Title IX protections to transgender students and would allow them to participate on sports teams and use bathrooms and facilities of the gender they identify with.

With the signature, Utah is putting into action the recently enacted , which allows the state to not comply with federal policies in cases lawmakers consider “overreach.”

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During the debate, lawmakers said the new Title IX rules, set to become effective in August, are in conflict with state laws that restrict transgender people from using bathrooms and locker rooms of the gender they identify with. Also with , which bans transgender students from joining sports teams of their gender identity, among other harassment and abortion policies.

Back in 2022, Cox had vetoed HB11, citing “fundamental flaws” and criticizing a last-hour change that allowed a complete ban of transgender high school and middle school students in the sports teams of the gender they align with.

“I must admit, I am not an expert on transgenderism. I struggle to understand so much of it and the science is conflicting. When in doubt however, I always try to err on the side of kindness, mercy and compassion,” Cox said in a to the Legislature’s leadership. “I also try to get proximate and I am learning so much from our transgender community. They are great kids who face enormous struggles.”

However, the Legislature that veto.

Cox didn’t immediately comment on why he signed the resolutions Friday.

This January, Cox HB257, which restricts transgender people from accessing bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity in government-owned facilities, and issued a one-line statement saying “we want public facilities that are safe and accommodating for everyone and this bill increases privacy protections for all.”

Rep. Kera Birkland, R-Morgan, who sponsored HCR301, the resolution to disregard the new Title IX policies — apart from HB11 and HB257 — that she hopes the signature leads other states to take similar measures.

“Hopefully this all gets us one step closer to congressional action that protects and preserves women’s sports,” Birkeland wrote.

Because of the resolution and the Utah Constitutional Sovereignty Act, the order to not comply with the federal law extends to K-12 schools and higher education, she explained.

“Utah will follow state law and not an unconstitutional rule from unelected bureaucrats under the Biden Administration,” she added in her post.

HJR301, a joint resolution with the same goal as HCR301, didn’t need Cox’s signature.

Apart from those items, Cox signed easing the terms of a controversial bill that would keep the Intermountain Power Plant’s coal generators running past its planned retirement date, an agreement that the Intermountain Power Agency said it wouldn’t oppose.

The governor also signed amendments to the Utah code related to the participation of exchange students in the statewide online education program and other actions “countering federal overreach on public lands,” according to the session’s , among other changes.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Utah News Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor McKenzie Romero for questions: info@utahnewsdispatch.com. Follow Utah News Dispatch on and .

In a move condemned by advocates and lawmakers as an attack on trans students who fear any change to could also increase bullying and violence, passed 8-3 Wednesday evening. 

“We know sports build self confidence and a sense of belonging, which is especially critical for this group of students. Rather than excluding our trans students we ought to be working together to wrap our arms around them. They need love, encouragement and support, not political attacks,” said NYC Schools Chancellor David Banks Wednesday evening. 

After citing statistics that one in three trans youth are suicidal and one in three are survivors of abuse, Banks called the resolution “despicable” and, in an exasperated tone, posed a question: “Would you just leave the kids alone?” 

At a packed District 2 community education council meeting, ACLU civil rights lawyer and District 2 parent Chase Strangio pointed out the current gender guidelines align with state law. “So this resolution does nothing but target trans young people,” Santiago said. 

“I will not sit idly by and see the same misinformed efforts be pushed in my own school district. I will not let NYC, the birthplace and home of some of the most powerful trans people in history, be yet another testing ground for rhetoric that expels my community,” said Strangio, who is trans.

The resolution urges that a reevaluation committee be formed to include female athletes, parents, coaches, medical professionals and evolutionary biology experts, and claims current guidelines “present challenges” particularly to girls. The resolution’s primary sponsor, Maud Maron, said the resolution is in essence asking to hear from all “impacted voices,” according to . 

Given the Chancellor’s condemnation and that community education councils are advisory, it is unlikely DOE leaders will follow the council’s recommendation. 

In December, Banks also used the word “despicable” to describe comments made by Maron in a private chat, which included “trans kids don’t exist.” Parents and advocates have grown increasingly frustrated with the Chancellor’ broken promise to “take action,” made more than three months ago. 

In the time since Banks made his pledge, Community Board 2 issued a resolution demanding the DOE acknowledge and require parent leaders adhere to respective guidelines on bullying and fostering a safe learning environment for all students, particularly LGBTQ students. The late February resolution also encouraged penalties for parents found in violation of Chancellor regulations, including verbal and written warnings and/or suspension of involvement.

Separately, several District 2 CEC members wrote in a February email to Banks that went unanswered that parents’ and students’ rights and protections “continue to be unabashedly violated.” 

In the district which includes hyper-liberal neighborhoods like Chelsea and Greenwich Village, the resolution and restricting LGBTQ student rights doesn’t hold broad public support, parents say. 

“There really wasn’t a debate in our community,” said district 2 parent and CEC member Gavin Healy. “It was very much like ‘we don’t like this, we don’t want this.’”

Dozens of community members spoke out against the gender resolution with only one expressing support. All but two of 175 emails received by the council in advance of its vote were against its passage. 

At least 25 states, concentrated in the south and midwest, have introduced consistent with their gender identity. 

But the resolution’s introduction and passage in New York City is unsurprising, given parent leaders with conservative-leaning education desires endorsed by Parent Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum make up . The group, known as PLACE, was co-founded by Maron. 

“I think they really want something that they can take back to Moms for Liberty and use it as a PR stunt — look, even in Manhattan there’s this concern,” said Healy. “It has to do with that national, moral panic that they are fueling. It’s fodder.”

Conservative parent voices have been rising in the city. Moms for Liberty, which advocates for parental rights and is categorized as an extremist hate organization by the Southern Poverty Law Center, opened its first chapter in NYC last year. Maron spoke on a the group held in January. 

This particular gender resolution is “legally unenforceable and dangerous,” said David Bloomfield, Brooklyn College education, law and public policy professor. A is currently underway in suburban Nassau County, New York, where a attempted to ban trans women and girls from public athletic facilities. 

Bloomfield said Maron was “…exercising her rights as an individual and as an elected official to state her policy preferences, which have been no secret. She’s following through essentially on what her voters asked for,” adding in the past, chancellors such as Richard Carranza have

The gender resolution passed on the same night the council passed another seemingly at odds, one affirming support of LGBTQ students and families. Maron was the only council member to abstain from voting on the resolution in support of LGBTQ students. 

Since December, a petition to have Maron removed from the Stuyvesant High School leadership team has . It circulated after she was quoted in a NY Post article calling an anonymous student author a “coward,” accusing them of “Jew hatred,” calling for their name to be public for their op-ed in the student newspaper.

Many parents and students feel her actions constituted bullying and threaten free speech at the school.

“The mission is the kids. Getting through the classes. Keeping them safe … They just don’t need this added pressure,” said one parent speaking on condition of anonymity. “[Maron] politicizes every situation she can and I feel like any statement she makes is for her own personal gain. It’s not for the school, it’s not for the students.” 

Reem Khalifa, a junior at Stuyvesant, said recent events have been disheartening and made her “fearful for the people around me. Do they recognize and hold the same beliefs?” 

Maron did not return a request for comment. 

“The DOE is trying to shield themselves from liability,” said Healy, “even if that means leaving people in the community vulnerable.” 

North Carolina’s adoption of the “Parents’ Bill of Rights” law has led to school-based policies and practices that discriminate against LGBTQ students, the Campaign for Southern Equality (CSE) alleges in a against the State Board of Education and the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.

The complaint was filed with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division on Tuesday. It contends that the state’s public schools are “systematically marginalizing” LGBTQ students with the mandates included in Senate Bill 49. The law requires educators to alert parents if their child changes their name or pronoun at school. It also restricts instruction about gender identity and sexuality in K-4 classrooms.

“Under the leadership of the North Carolina State Board of Education and the Department of Public Instruction, local school districts are barring LGBTQ-affirming content, outing transgender students, erecting barriers to LGBTQ students receiving needed health care at school as well as support from educators and prohibiting transgender girls from playing athletics consistent with their gender identity,” CSE wrote in its complaint on behalf of LGBTQ students.

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The complaint is critical of Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson for making what CSE contends are “homophobic and transphobic” remarks. The complaint shares several Robinson quotes about homosexuality including in which he said: “There’s no reason anybody anywhere in America should be telling any child about transgenderism, homosexuality, any of that filth.”

CSE is also critical of State Superintendent Catherine Truitt for her support of SB 49 and House Bill 574, the so-called “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act,” which restricts transgender females from playing middle school, high school and college sports.

“While she [Truitt] avoids ranting about “filth,” she agrees with the Lieutenant Governor [Robinson] that transgender people do not really exist,” the complaint states. “ She consistently refers to transgender women as “biological males” and speaks consistently of “gender preference.”

CSE asked federal officials to protect students.

“SBE’s and DPI’s implementation of SB 49 and HB 574 is discriminating against LGBTQ students in North Carolina,” the complaint states. “This discrimination has created a hostile educational environment that harms LGBTQ students on a daily basis and, in so doing, violates Title IX.”

Educators have been left in an impossible position due to SB 49 mandates and a lack of guidance from the state education leaders about how to implement them, the complaint said.

“They [educators] must choose between, on the one hand, following state leaders’ orders or, on the other hand, federal and state legal obligations as well as their professional obligations to their students,” the complaint states.

NCDPI spokeswoman Blair Rhoades told NC Newsline in December that the department provided information about SB 49 to more than 350 participants via a webinar. Rhoades  the department has provide for guidance with the lengthy title: “Parents Guide to Student Achievement (PSGA) Considerations from NCDPI: Based on Parents’ Bill of Rights – SB49; Session Law 2023-106.”

Meanwhile, the complaint included dozens of testimonials from students, parents, educators and other who shared stories about how the mandates are harming students by forcing LGBTQ students back into the closet and preventing them from receiving supportive services.

One high school student reported: “I personally have a supportive family who has put my preferred name in PowerSchool, but my friends are no longer feeling safe going by their preferred name and pronouns because they’re afraid that they will be outed to their families who are not supportive. These friends are scared for their safety and well-being.”

Democratic critics of the law complained that the legislation would have a chilling effect on student and teacher relationships at a time when student mental health is a top concern. But Republican supporters said it grew out of parental concerns about school curriculum parents saw when children were learning from home during the pandemic.

Chapel Hill-Carrboro School member Mike Sharp said SB 49 needs more work.

“I think a logical next step then would be to send this back to the policy committee with a clear directive from us that says: take out the parts of this that are harmful to children, rewrite it, ignore whether you’re breaking SB 49,” Sharp said in testimonials shared by CSE.

Last week, Sharp’s board declined to create a procedure to alert parents before allowing a student to use a different name or pronoun at school. It also declined to prohibit instruction about gender identity and sexuality in K-4 classrooms.

Truitt said there could be consequences for not following the law.

“No. Sorry. You may not break the laws you don’t like – even in Chapel Hill. I worked with the legislature to pass the Parents Bill of Rights to protect children and empower parents and it’s unacceptable for Chapel Hill or anyone else to ignore it,” Truitt tweeted last week.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Rob Schofield for questions: info@ncnewsline.com. Follow NC Newsline on and .

In high school, Alice Wade spent a year planning how they would come out as transgender. And to be safe, they planned what to do if it went poorly.

“When I was 15, I made plans for what I would do, and which friend’s house I would go to, and how I would work to make enough money to live on my own if I had to become homeless,” Wade told New Hampshire lawmakers earlier this month.

Wade wanted to do it on their own terms. The process was gradual: first, Wade told their close friends, then a teacher, then their mom. Finally, they felt they could tell their dad. That was crucial, Wade said.

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“While it wasn’t perfect, if my parents had found out before I was ready to tell them, I don’t know if I’d be alive here to give you my testimony,” Wade testified.

The experience of coming out in high school – and the choice of when to inform parents  – is once again at the center of a legislative fight. State Senate Republicans are pushing for a bill this year that would require schools to disclose information to parents who ask for it, echoing efforts in the past two years that have fallen short. LGBTQ rights groups have said the bill could out a student’s sexual orientation or gender identity to their parents before they are ready to tell them.

would require any school staff member to answer any written requests sent by parents for information about their children within 10 days of receiving the request.

School employees who feel that responding to such a request “would put that student at risk of endangerment of physical harm, abuse, or neglect” must file a report to the Division for Children, Youth, and Families within 48 hours, the bill states.

The bill adds that any violation of the requirement to provide the information must be referred to the school board to determine disciplinary action, which can include termination. Under the bill, if a parent isn’t satisfied with the school board’s chosen disciplinary action, they can appeal the decision to the state board of education, which could make its own final call to terminate the staff person.

Sen. Tim Lang, the Sanbornton Republican sponsoring the bill, likened it to the state’s right-to-know law, RSA 91-A. That law requires public officials to produce documents and information when requested by a member of the public, with exceptions for confidentiality.

“This bill extends that to the school setting,” Lang said during a press conference held by Senate Republicans this month.

“The school is obligated to respond in an honest and complete answer, and not hide any information from the parent,” he said.

During a Jan. 3 hearing, some members of the public agreed. Bridgewater’s Aubrey Freedman, who is gay, doesn’t support pronoun changes in school.

“It’s all about honesty,” said Freedman. “Nobody’s outing anybody, (but) if the parents want to ask the school personnel a question, they should be honest. I don’t think that’s a big deal.”

But advocates and young trans people countered that they believed the bill would result in children being outed, and would complicate the trust that teachers are trying to build with students.

Megan Tuttle, president of the National Education Association of New Hampshire, a teachers union, argued that parents and educators already work well together, and that the bill would “fracture” that relationship.

Tuttle said the bill’s disclosure requirements would override the chain of command within schools, and could interfere with collective bargaining agreements. And she cited a recent report by a legislative committee studying the teacher shortage that found that a climate of culture and fear has helped drive educators from the profession.

“We believe Senate Bill 341 would only be an extension of the sort of legislation that the committee found was driving current and prospective educators away from the profession,” she said.

Barrett Christina, executive director of the New Hampshire School Boards Association, took issue with the appeals process to the state Board of Education, whose members are appointed by the governor and Executive Council, calling them “unelected bureaucrats.”

Sara Smith, a retired teacher, also opposed the bill. “I fundamentally believe in honesty, and if anybody asked me to lie I wouldn’t,” she said.

But Smith said as a teacher, her fundamental purpose “was to teach children to think for themselves.” Part of that effort involved building a “scaffolding” and a foundation of trust among students that the teacher would be there for them.

Teachers often have an open door for students to discuss personal issues, Smith said, which can help in the discovery of abuse and neglect issues. “But once this law is enacted, students can no longer expect their teachers to keep confidential issues they have shared with them,” Smith said.

The bill comes on the heels of two major attempts in 2022 and 2023 to pass similar legislation. Each time, the effort was thwarted in the House, which was narrowly dominated by Republicans in the 2021-2022 session and is now nearly evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats.

Opponents to the bills have raised concerns that requiring a school to divulge information to parents about a student’s sexual orientation or gender expression at school could lead to dangerous situations of abuse or neglect if the parents disapprove. Lang said the bill was intended to give an option for school officials to not inform parents and instead file a DCYF report if abuse is likely.

But Chris Erchull, staff attorney at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), said the bill as currently written does not allow school staff the option to stop informing parents, even if they file the DCYF report.

In an interview last week, Lang said he listened to some of the concerns and will be making tweaks to the bill in an upcoming amendment.

Lang plans to add language to make clear that if teachers suspect abuse or harm could result, they do not need to disclose the information to parents, as long as they file a report with DCYF.

And Lang said he would narrow the bill to apply to certified school staff, such as teachers and administrators, and not other staff members like bus drivers or custodians.

“I heard what people said,” he said. “I’m adjusting accordingly – the things I think are reasonable requests.”

Linds Jakows, an advocate from their father after being involuntarily outed in high school, said the bill would disrupt a delicate process.

“Many LGBTQ young people feel a strong need to come out to peers first, regardless of whether or not their parents are affirming,” Jakows said. “… This bill doesn’t explicitly name situations related to trans or LGBTQ youth like last year’s bill, but we know the forced outing will be the same.”

The bill is likely to spur months of acrimonious testimony and contentious floor votes. To Lang, the bill is simply about strengthening communication.

“I think we’ve lost sight of the fact that when we talk about trusting adults in the school system, the trust is between the parent and the teacher and the parent and the school system,” Lang said “… And so this bill seeks to make sure that that trust is not eroded.”

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A spokesperson for the company, which describes itself , cited a societal shift toward greater acceptance of LGBTQ youth — rather than criticism of its product — as the impetus for the change as part of a “continuous evaluation and updating process.”

The company, which uses artificial intelligence and human content moderators to sift through billions of student communications each year, has long defended its use of LGBTQ-specific keywords to identify students who might hurt themselves or others. In arguing the targeted monitoring is necessary to save lives, executives have pointed to the prevalence of bullying against LGBTQ youth and data indicating they’re than their straight and cisgender classmates. 

But in practice, Gaggle’s critics argued, the keywords put LGBTQ students at a heightened risk of scrutiny by school officials and, on some occasions, the police. Nearly a third of LGBTQ students said they or someone they know experienced nonconsensual disclosure of their sexual orientation or gender identity — often called outing — as a result of digital activity monitoring, according to released in August by the nonprofit Center for Democracy and Technology. The survey encompassed the impacts of multiple monitoring companies who contract with school districts, such as GoGuardian, Gaggle, Securly and Bark. 

Gaggle’s decision to remove several LGBTQ-specific keywords, including “queer” and “bisexual,” from its dictionary of words that trigger alerts was first reported in . It follows extensive reporting by ĂŰĚŇÓ°ĘÓ into the company’s business practices and sometimes negative effects on students who are caught in its surveillance dragnet. 

Though Gaggle’s software is generally limited to monitoring school-issued accounts, including those by Google and Microsoft, the it can scan through photos on students’ personal cell phones if they plug them into district laptops.

The keyword shift comes at a particularly perilous moment, as Republican lawmakers in multiple states . Legislation has looked to curtail classroom instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity, ban books and classroom curricula featuring LGBTQ themes and prohibit transgender students from receiving gender-affirming health care, participating in school athletics and using restroom facilities that match their gender identities. Such a hostile political climate and pandemic-era disruptions, a recent youth survey by The Trevor Project revealed, has contributed to an uptick in LGBTQ youth who have seriously considered suicide. 

The U.S. Education Department received 453 discrimination complaints involving students’ sexual orientation or gender identity last year, according to data provided to ĂŰĚŇÓ°ĘÓ by its civil rights office. That’s a significant increase from previous years, including in 2021 when federal officials received 249 such complaints. The Trump administration took and complaints dwindled. In 2018, the Education Department received just 57 complaints related to sexual orientation or gender identity discrimination.

The increase in discrimination allegations involving sexual orientation or gender identity are part of , according to data obtained by The New York Times. The total number of complaints for 2021-22 grew to 19,000, a historic high and more than double the previous year. 

In September, ĂŰĚŇÓ°ĘÓ revealed that Gaggle had donated $25,000 to The Trevor Project, the nonprofit that released the recent youth survey and whose advocacy is focused on suicide prevention among LGBTQ youth. The arrangement was framed on Gaggle’s website as a collaboration to “improve mental health outcomes for LGBTQ young people.” 

The revelation was met with swift backlash on social media, with multiple Trevor Project supporters threatening to halt future donations. Within hours, the group announced it had returned the donation, acknowledging concerns about Gaggle “having a role in negatively impacting LGBTQ students.” 

The Trevor Project didn’t respond to requests for comment on Gaggle’s decision to pull certain LGBTQ-specific keywords from its systems. 

In a statement to ĂŰĚŇÓ°ĘÓ, Gaggle spokesperson Paget Hetherington said the company regularly modifies the keywords its software uses to trigger a human review of students’ digital communications. Certain LGBTQ-specific words, she said, are no longer relevant to the 24-year-old company’s efforts to protect students from abuse and were purged late last year.

“At points in time in the not-too-distant past, those words were weaponized by bullies to harass and target members of the LGBTQ+ community, so as part of an effective methodology to combat that discriminatory harassment and violence, those words were once effective tools to help identify dangerous situations,” Hetherington said. “Thankfully, over the past two decades, our society evolved and began a period of widespread acceptance, especially among the K-12 student population that Gaggle serves. With that evolution and acceptance, it has become increasingly rare to see those words used in the negative, harassing context they once were; hence, our decision to take these off our word/phrases list.”

Hetherington said Gaggle will continue to monitor students’ use of the words “faggot,” “lesbo,” and others that are “commonly used as slurs.” A previous review by ĂŰĚŇÓ°ĘÓ found that Gaggle regularly flagged students for harmless speech, like profanity in fictional articles submitted to a school’s literary magazine, and students’ private journals. 

Anti-LGBTQ activists have , and privacy advocates warn that in the era of “Don’t Say Gay” laws and abortion bans, information gleaned from Gaggle and similar services could be weaponized against students.

Gaggle executives have minimized privacy concerns and claim the tool saved more than 1,400 lives last school year. That statistic hasn’t been independently verified and there’s a dearth of research to suggest digital monitoring is an effective school-safety tool. A recent survey found a majority of parents and teachers believe the benefits of student monitoring outweigh privacy concerns. The Vice News documentary included the perspective of a high school student who was flagged by Gaggle for writing a paper titled “Essay on the Reasons Why I Want to Kill Myself but Can’t/Didn’t.” Adults wouldn’t have known she was struggling without Gaggle, she said. 

“I do think that it’s helpful in some ways,” the student said, “but I also kind of think that it’s — I wouldn’t say an invasion of privacy — but if obviously something gets flagged and a person who it wasn’t intended for reads through that, I think that’s kind of uncomfortable.” 

Student surveillance critic Evan Greer, director of the nonprofit digital rights group said the tweaks to Gaggle’s keyword dictionary are unlikely to have a significant effect on LGBTQ teens and blasted the company’s stated justification for the move as being “out of touch” with the state of anti-LGBTQ harassment in schools. Meanwhile, Greer said that LGBTQ youth frequently refer to each other using “reclaimed slurs,” reappropriating words that are generally considered derogatory and remain in Gaggle’s dictionary. 

“This is just like lipstick on a pig — no offense to pigs — but I don’t see how this actually in any meaningful way mitigates the potential for this software to nonconsensually out LGBTQ students to administrators,” Greer said. “I don’t see how it prevents the software from being used to invade the privacy of students in a wide range of other circumstances.”

Gaggle and its competitors — including , and — have faced similar scrutiny in Washington. In April, Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey argued in a report that the tools could be misused to discipline students and warned they could be used disproportionately against students of color and LGBTQ youth. 

In , Gaggle founder and CEO Jeff Patterson said the company cannot test the potential for bias in its system because the software flags student communications anonymously and the company has “no context or background on students,” including their race or sexual orientation. They also said their monitoring services are not meant to be used as a disciplinary tool. 

In the survey released last summer by the Center for Democracy and Technology, however, 78% of teachers reported that digital monitoring tools were used to discipline students. Black and Hispanic students reported being far more likely than white students to get into trouble because of online monitoring. 

In October, the White House cautioned school districts against the “continuous surveillance” of students if monitoring tools are likely to trample students’ rights. It also directed the Education Department to issue guidance to districts on the safe use of artificial intelligence. The guidance is expected to be released early this year.

As an increasing number of districts implement Gaggle for bullying prevention efforts, surveillance critic Greer said the company has failed to consider how adults can cause harm.

“There is now a very visible far-right movement attacking LGBTQ kids, and particularly trans kids and teenagers,” Greer said. “If anything, queer kids are more in the crosshairs today than they were a year ago or two years ago — and that’s why this surveillance is so dangerous.”

If you are in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741. For LGBTQ mental health support, contact The Trevor Project’s toll-free support line at 866-488-7386.

Long considered a swing state, Florida voters fell this year, including in Miami-Dade County, which has long been a Democratic enclave. Just this summer at an education conference in Orlando, former Miami-Dade schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho joked about the state of Florida politics: “The further south you go in Florida, the more north you find yourself.”

But this year, in a political climate defined by social and economic anxiety, DeSantis skated past Crist in Miami-Dade to become the first GOP gubernatorial candidate to secure the county since 2002. In doing so, he positioned himself for a possible 2024 presidential run and a looming showdown for control of the GOP with former President Donald Trump.

“We not only won election,” DeSantis said during his victory speech Tuesday night. “We have rewritten the political map.” 

DeSantis — who rose to national prominence for mask mandates, from participating in girls’ athletics and cracking down on — secured nearly 60% of votes. During his victory speech, he boasted about his response to the pandemic, which , and grievances about schools.

“We chose facts over fear, we chose education over indoctrination, we chose law and order over rioting and disorder,” said DeSantis, who first squeaked into office in 2018. “We fight the woke in the legislature, we fight the woke in the schools, we fight the woke in the corporations. We will never, ever surrender to the woke mob. Florida is where woke goes to die.”

The extent to which DeSantis leaned into education as a political motivator was seen in his decision to endorse 30 candidates in local school board races this year. All six of the DeSantis-backed school board contenders won their runoffs Tuesday, meaning 24 of the 30 candidates the governor supported were victorious, .

The Florida governor’s growing stature hasn’t been lost on Trump, who could announce his third presidential bid as early as next week. During just three days before the midterms, Trump highlighted favorable poll numbers that showed him at the head of the pack in a race for the GOP nomination in 2024. 

“There it is, Trump at 71,” the former president said before laying into the governor with a jab. “Ron De-Sanctimonious at 10%.”

Trump’s name was never invoked by DeSantis on Tuesday who hinted at his larger political ambitions. 

“I believe the survival of the American experiment requires a revival of true American principles,” he said. “Florida has proved that it can be done. We offer a ray of hope that better days still lie ahead.”

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has joined a coalition of 16 attorneys general from across the country in filing an opposing Florida’s “Parental Rights in Education Act,” otherwise known as the “Don’t Say Gay” law.

Nessel, a Democrat who is Michigan’s first openly gay top statewide official, says that the law, which prevents classroom discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity, poses a serious threat to LGBTQ+ students who she says are particularly vulnerable to discrimination.

“This bill is an affront not just to educators, but also to LGBTQ+ students, especially those who may already be experiencing the stigmatizing effect of their identity at school,” Nessel said. “This bill is not motivated by the desire to limit inappropriate content in classrooms. It is meant to have a chilling effect on how educators do their jobs and may also violate the First Amendment rights of students and teachers alike. I gladly join my colleagues on this brief and hope it discourages other states, including Michigan, from considering similar legislation.”

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The law is being challenged in federal district court by a group of students, parents, teachers and organizations seeking to prevent its enforcement by alleging that it violates, among other things, the Equal Protection Clause and the First Amendment.

The law entirely bans “classroom instruction” on sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through Grade 3 while also requiring the state education agency write new classroom instructions for standards that must be followed by grades four through 12.

Opponents say that because the law does not define many of its key terms, like “classroom instruction,” it is forcing Florida teachers to censor themselves out of fear of prosecution. That fear is further compounded by the fact that the law also allows a parent to bring a civil claim against a school district to enforce its prohibitions.

There are two main points in the brief.

“Florida’s law is extreme,” it states. “Although Florida claims the Act is intended to protect children and preserve parental choice, the attorneys general have curricula in place that allow for age-appropriate discussion of LGBTQ+ issues while respecting parental views on the topic.”

“The law is causing significant harms to students, parents, teachers, and other states,” claims the brief. “Non-inclusive educational environments have severe negative health impacts on LGBTQ+ students, resulting in increased rates of mental health disorders and suicide attempts. These harms extend to youth not just in Florida, but throughout the country.”

Nessel is joining the amicus brief alongside Attorneys General from New Jersey, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New York and Oregon.

This article originally appeared in , a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. 

Attorney General and more than 20 other attorneys general are challenging the federal Food and Nutrition Service’s new policy that recipients of food assistance funds update their nondiscrimination policies to protect LGBTQ people.

In May, the U.S. Department of Agriculture it was expanding its interpretation of discrimination based on sex. As a result, state agencies and programs that receive funding from the Food and Nutrition Service were ordered to “investigate allegations of discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation” and to update their policies to specifically prohibit discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation.

Paxton and his counterparts claim the guidance issued by the USDA is “unlawful” because states were not consulted and did not have an opportunity to provide feedback, in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act. They also argue that the USDA is , which extended sexual discrimination in the workplace to include discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation.

“[It] will inevitably result in regulatory chaos that threatens essential nutritional services to some of the most vulnerable citizens,” Paxton’s office said in a .

Earlier this month, Paxton and others sent to President Joe Biden arguing against the guidance issued by the USDA and asking him to withdraw it.

“USDA is committed to administering all its programs with equity and fairness, and serving those in need with the highest dignity. A key step in advancing these principles is rooting out discrimination in any form — including discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity,” said Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack in the press release from May.

Tuesday’s lawsuit was filed in the Eastern District of Tennessee Knoxville Division.

This article originally appeared in , a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.

“We were just shocked and frankly a little bit alarmed at the low levels around teachers’ responses about the LGBTQ students in their classrooms and schools,” said Evan Stone, co-CEO of the organization, popularly known as E4E. “With the rates of bullying and mental health issues, this is a population where teachers are particularly concerned about engagement in school and, as a result, academic achievement.”

show a sharp decline in educators’ perceptions of how well schools are serving LGBTQ youth. In a , 41% of respondents said their schools often meet these students’ needs, a number that fell to 31% and 22% this year. 

Stone attributed the rising reluctance to address sexual orientation and gender identity to the surge in anti-LGBTQ legislation like Florida’s new “Don’t Say Gay” law. “There has been a chilling effect across the country on teachers’ comfort talking about issues of gender and sexuality,” he said. “Teachers are nervous about parents’ reactions, or nervous about what they can or should say.” 

Hundreds of bills targeting LGBTQ Americans have been introduced in state legislatures this year, many aimed at transgender youth. Past experiences in states and districts that try to limit what educators can say to students show that teachers often fear the policies prohibit them from intervening when students are bullied.

Research consistently finds that LGBTQ students subjected to in-school bullying and victimization have poorer educational outcomes, including lower attendance, grade-point averages and rates of college enrollment, than their heterosexual, cis-gendered peers. If LGBTQ students are specifically named in anti-harassment policies, they are more likely to be protected in school. 

Even teachers in states where gay rights have not been a political flashpoint have expressed fear, Stone added, pointing to responses to the survey’s findings among members of an E4E teacher leadership council.

“Because of the culture of fear that’s been created, teachers are afraid to have these conversations with their students,” Leona Fowler, a teacher in Queens, New York, is quoted as saying in a report on the findings. “They have to find subtle ways to bring it up, to challenge gender stereotypes and censorship. But we don’t have the support, resources or curriculum to know how to do that effectively.” 

was administered in January and February to a nationally representative sample of 1,000 teachers, 77% of whom were white, as well as an additional 300 teachers of color. In contrast to the one-third of teachers overall who said gender and sexual orientation should not be taught, 97% of Black, Latino and Indigenous teachers said LGBTQ issues should be discussed in class, and 69% said their schools were failing their queer students. 

Respondents in the national sample overall said their schools met the needs of students with disabilities and students of color half the time, homeless students and foster youth a third of the time and English learners 37% of the time. 

Support for teaching LGBTQ subjects ranked lowest among 14 topics polled, with 99% of teachers saying the Civil War should be taught and 78% saying systemic racism should be discussed in schools.  

Teachers of color were more likely to support introducing LGBTQ history in earlier grades, with 75% saying middle school was an appropriate time, versus 42% of the national sample. Just 18% of both groups approved of instruction in elementary grades, while 65% and 60%, respectively, favored high school. None of the educators of color in the supplemental sample believed their school didn’t enroll any LGBTQ students. 

The disparity between the views of teachers of color and the majority white sample did not surprise Stone, who said the numbers mirror past polls. “In general — and this is true across multiple years of the survey — that our [Black, Latino and Indigenous] teachers are more likely to say their schools are struggling and not supporting all groups of students. And I would say they have a more realistic lens on what achievement looks like in their buildings.”

The poll also revealed discrepancies in teacher views by age, with 32% of those 50 and older opposing instruction covering gender and sexual orientation, as opposed to 18% of educators younger than 30. 

The University of California Los Angeles’ Williams Institute estimates 10% of Americans ages 13 to 17 identify as something other than heterosexual or cis-gendered. In June, President Joe Biden issued an executive order bolstering LGBTQ rights that called for greater collection of data on queer students’ experiences in school.  

Among educators who want to teach LGBTQ history and culture, Stone said E4E leaders hear concerns that a pervasive lack of training and classroom materials leave teachers unsure they can address topics accurately and respectfully. “When we have follow-up conversations with educators, what they’re saying is the reason it’s not happening is [they] haven’t been supported,” he said. “We don’t have the curriculum, we don’t have the tools and teachers are worried they’re going to do it wrong.”

An of teachers and school and district leaders administered in November and December found even softer teacher support for teaching LGBTQ topics, with 57% saying instruction is appropriate. 

The E4E report directs educators who want guidance on inclusive teaching and resources for meeting LGBTQ students’ needs to GLSEN, a national school clearinghouse on addressing sexual orientation and gender identity in schools. 

Disclosure: Walton Family Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Joyce Foundation and the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies provide financial support to Educators for Excellence and ĂŰĚŇÓ°ĘÓ.

Hunter, a 17-year-old from suburban Houston, was so nervous his aching stomach prevented him from falling asleep. So after practicing in front of a mirror over and again, he overcame crippling anxiety and told his parents a secret he’d kept hidden for years.

He came out as transgender, a revelation that was met with violent rejection. His mother hit him in the face, he said, while his brother’s reaction cut like a knife: No matter what, he told Hunter, he would never be a boy. With his worst fears validated, Hunter, who was 12 at the time, grabbed a razor blade and slit his wrist. 

Depression, anxiety and gender dysphoria — a clinical level of distress when someone’s gender identity differs from their sex assigned at birth — prompted a years-long battle with self-harm and suicidal ideation that nearly cost Hunter his life. Yet he said involuntary placement in a psychiatric hospital didn’t help. Instead, it was gender-affirming health care, including puberty blockers, that saved him. 

Today, Hunter faces a new threat and his health care remains in legal limbo as the Texas governor and attorney general seek to define puberty blockers and other forms of gender-affirming care as child abuse. 

Critics argue the move puts children’s lives at risk. 

“I’m scared because they say it’s child abuse and I hate when they say it’s child abuse because it’s not. It’s not child abuse at all,” said Hunter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to fears he could become the subject of a state investigation. Hunter knows all too well the harms of being mistreated because he’s lived through them himself. “My child abuse was not like what they’re saying. My child abuse was horrible.”

Transgender youth experience higher rates of mental health challenges than their cisgender classmates and are far more likely to die by suicide. A suggests that gender-affirming medical care improves mental health outcomes for transgender teens. Meanwhile, blocking access to that care “has been shown to increase youths’ risk for suicidal ideation and other negative mental health outcomes,” . 

Because Hunter is in the foster care system, he’s at the mercy of the state for gender-affirming treatment — even as the state has openly declared itself hostile to that very care.

Last month, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued an opinion that . 

“The Texas Family Code is clear — causing or permitting substantial harm to the child or the child’s growth and development is child abuse,” Paxton wrote. “Courts have held that an unnecessary surgical procedure that removes a healthy body part from a child can constitute a real and significant injury or damage to the child.”

Acting on that memo, the state Department of Family and Protective Services to launch “a prompt and thorough investigation of any reported instances of these abusive procedures,” and child protective services opened nine inquiries into the parents of transgender teens. 

Among those who supported the move is Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project, a conservative think tank in Virginia. Ultimately, he said he wants the state to ban gender-affirming care and to go “after the doctors and the pharmaceutical companies that are pushing this on kids.” 

“We want kids to feel comfortable in their own bodies. We want them to accept themselves for who God made them to be and for who they are,” Schilling said. In February, prior to Abbott’s order, the American Principles Project prodded the governor to take action, accusing him of failing to protect children. “It’s abusive to remove the body parts of a child if it’s not necessary, and I don’t believe it’s necessary and I do believe it’s wrong.”

After the parents of a transgender child and a psychologist filed suit, Travis County Judge Amy Clark Meachum issued a temporary injunction and declared Abbott’s order was “beyond the scope of his authority and unconstitutional,” and stated that he was likely to lose in a trial scheduled for July. Representatives for Paxton, Abbott and the family services department, which employs one of the parents who’s suing, didn’t respond to requests for comment. 

Abbott’s order is part of a broader national push among conservatives to stifle youth access to gender-affirming care and resources. In Florida, legislation dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill would restrict classroom instruction on “sexual orientation or gender identity.” During a virtual roundtable on Thursday, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona blasted the legislation in Florida and elsewhere. 

“Laws around the country, including in Florida, have targeted and sought to bully some of our most vulnerable students and families, and create division in our schools,” Cardona said. “This administration won’t stand for bullying or discrimination of any kind.” 

The legal fight in Texas is far from over and teens like Hunter remain in uncertain territory. Paxton that the “Democrat judge’s order permitting child abuse is frozen,” and that investigations could carry on. On Thursday, the American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal, which sued to stop Abbott’s order, asked an appeals court to to ensure the statewide temporary injunction remains in place during the appeals process. 

“The targeting of Texas families of transgender youth is unconstitutional and wrong, as the district court’s order made clear,” Brian Klosterboer, an ACLU of Texas staff attorney, said in a media release. He said the state “should stop these cruel and senseless investigations and focus on addressing real problems plaguing” the state’s child protective services. 

‘State of terror’

The suicide and self-harm crisis facing LGBTQ youth is more than a data point to Hunter. Initially, he said that he started cutting because it “made me feel safe for some reason.” 

“It made my anger go away and my pain go away,” he said. “Then, after I kept doing it, it made me fall into depression and that got worse.” 

While suicide is the second-leading cause of death among all teens, rates are particularly stark for LGBTQ youth. 

In by The Trevor Project, a national nonprofit focused on suicide prevention among LGBTQ youth, more than half of transgender and nonbinary youth reported “seriously considering attempting suicide” in the past year. The situation was particularly bleak for youth who reported experiencing discrimination. Research suggests as many as . 

Amy Green, the group’s vice president of research, said the efforts in Texas and elsewhere are already “taking a toll on the mental health” of transgender youth. She by her group and Morning Consult in which 85 percent of transgender and nonbinary youth reported that “recent debates about state laws restricting the rights of transgender people have negative impacted their mental health.” In , more than half of transgender adolescents reported experiencing “long-term mental health problems” compared to just 17 percent of their cisgender peers. 

For Hunter, gender-affirming care became a positive force for his mental health. These days, he said his self-harm and suicidal ideation have grown infrequent. Instead, he sees a future where he’s comfortable in his own skin. 

“On the inside, everything is just normal and my mental health is normal,” he said of that hoped-for day. “I don’t cry any more, no more suicidal thoughts.”

Research suggests that other transgender youth have had similar experiences. that gender-affirming care can reduce anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation and gender dysphoria, which can start as young as 7.

Among the child welfare groups fighting Abbott’s order is Disability Rights Texas, which provides legal representation and advocacy for Texans with disabilities. In , the group argued that gender-affirming care is medically necessary — especially for transgender teens with disabilities. In a 2018 report, the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund found that 59 percent of transgender youth have long-term mental health needs, with family and community rejection being a key driver.  

Meredith Parekh, the supervising attorney at Disability Rights Texas’ foster care division, said efforts to define gender-affirming care as child abuse is “an absurd premise on its face.” As an attorney who represents children in the foster care system, she has firsthand knowledge about the state of child abuse in Texas. Parents who consent to gender-affirming care at their child’s request, she said, are “attuned to their child’s needs” and are acting in stark contrast from parents who are “willfully ignoring what their child needs.”  

“The idea that these parents who are paying attention and trying to do their best by their children by following well accepted, prevailing medical advice is just ludicrous,” she said. Instead, she accused Abbott of attempting to “drive these children and their families underground.”

Beyond the parents with transgender children who have faced CPS investigations, Parekh said Abbott’s order has had a “chilling effect” on all transgender youth receiving gender-affirming care that’s placed them “in a state of terror.” 

“As attorneys who represent kiddos, our job is to make sure we get these kids to adulthood, to make sure these children are protected and safe and loved and cherished,” she said. “We cannot do that if we are burying them.”

‘Bad guys’

Schilling, of the American Principles Project, acknowledged that he’s never talked to a transgender teen about their gender-affirming health care. He cheered recent developments that have already limited access to such care as a result of Abbott’s order. He noted that the due to the directive. Preventing health care providers from providing gender-affirming care, he said, “is ultimately the goal.” 

“The real bad guys are not necessarily the parents who are often exploited as well,” he said. “Big pharma is a bad guy here, these gender clinics are a bad guy here.”

He acknowledged that transgender youth face a heightened risk of suicide, a reality he said is is driven by “the fact they feel uncomfortable in their own bodies.” 

“My heart really goes out to these kids just as much as my heart goes out to anyone else who feels uncomfortable in their own bodies, you know, anorexic people, people that struggle with keeping weight off,” Schilling said. Instead of treatments like hormone therapy, he said, people should focus on “making kids accept their body and getting them to feel comfortable in their own body” because they are made in God’s image.  

Motivating his advocacy, he said, are the stories of people who came to regret their decision to transition. Children, he said “don’t always make the best decisions,” and “sometimes they’re little jerks and sometimes they exaggerate and sometimes they do crazy things.’ Stories of people who decided to “detransition,” he said, are “horrific.” 

Estimates on the proportion of people who decide to detransition are as high as 13 percent. Some people who detransition do experience regret, but by Jack Turban, a chief fellow in child and adolescent psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine, found they’re in the minority. Instead, four-fifths of those who detransitioned attributed their decision to external factors like family pressure, non-affirming school environments and an increased vulnerability to violence. 

“For most people,” Turban said in a media release, “it appears detransition is forced upon them.”

‘Let them be happy’

For Hunter, gender-affirming care has been critical to improving his medical care. Why, he asked, would anyone want to take that away from him? 

Gender-affirming care is “mostly for the kids to be happier,” Hunter said. “If they’re sadder when you say it’s child abuse, why would you want them to be sadder? Let them be happy.” 

For him, regret isn’t part of the equation. Asked whether adolescents are too young to advocate for themselves, Hunter offered a response that centered on individual rights. 

“They know what they want. You should just do it for them and see how it goes,” he said. “Let them figure it out by themselves. It’s their choice, not yours.”

For Hunter, Abbott’s order has already had a chilling effect. He plans to begin testosterone therapy but has decided to wait until his 18th birthday. He said he’s worried about potential health ramifications if he goes onto testosterone, but is forced to stop. Should his gender-affirming care get cut off altogether, Hunter predicts a future with deteriorating mental health. 

“My suicidal thoughts would start again,” he said. “I would just be staying in my room cooped up, doing nothing, losing interest in everything. I’d be drowning in my own guilt and sorrow.” 

If you are in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741. For LGBTQ mental health support, contact The Trevor Project’s toll-free support line at 866-488-7386.

Legislation that would limit transgender students’ participation in school sports advanced out of a Senate committee on Monday after similar legislation during the regular session.

With no Democratic members present after dozens of , in an attempt to halt GOP-backed , six Republicans on the Senate Health and Human Services Committee still had a quorum and held their first public hearing on two bills during the days-old special legislative session. Gov. added the issue to lawmakers’ agenda when he called the special session.

Sen. , R-Lubbock, who is also vice chair of the committee and who authored and , said the bills would protect cisgender women’s rights to compete in their desired sports.

Both of the bills would require student athletes to participate on sports teams that correspond with the student’s sex assigned at birth or listed on their official birth certificate at or near the time of birth. SB 32 would impact sports at K-12 public schools, while SB 2 covers both K-12 and public colleges and universities.

“It reminds us that it’s not OK to destroy the dreams of one for the benefit of another,” Perry said during the committee hearing, arguing that transgender boys and men could take opportunities away from cisgender girls and women.

Advocates for transgender athletes and other opponents of the bill argued that there was little evidence that transgender athletes were joining sports teams.

Maddox Hilgers, who identifies as nonbinary and is a graduate student at the University of Houston, implored the committee to halt the legislation.

“This argument that transgender athletes will take over women’s sports is ridiculous, because there just not enough transgender girls to do that,” Hilgers said.

The University Interscholastic League of Texas — which oversees and governs high school athletics in Texas — currently requires the gender of students be “determined based on a student’s birth certificate.”

But the UIL recognizes changes made to a student’s birth certificate, including when a transgender person has the gender on their birth certificate changed to correspond with their gender identity, said Jamey Harrison, the UIL deputy director. But SB 2 and SB 32 would no longer allow that.

During the regular legislative session, Lt. Gov. made similar legislation a priority, with sailing through the Senate chamber. The bill ultimately died after the House for passing all Senate bills in the lower chamber.

Cassie Villela of San Antonio was one of many parents with transgender children who showed up again on Monday after testifying before the Legislature during the regular session. Bills considered earlier this year — but that were not part of Monday’s committee hearing — sought to restrict or punish transition-related health care, like puberty blockers, for children.

“My husband and I are just doing our best to give my daughter the support that she needs,” Villela told the senators while testifying against the sports bills. “We struggled for the last few years to figure out what that looks like.”

Villela said her 7-year-old daughter, who is trangender, already has a difficult road navigating obstacles such as discrimination “without having to justify her existence to the Texas Legislature.”

Villella said she came to the Capitol more than five times during the regular session to testify and talk with legislators individually about bills affecting transgender youth.

“I think they don’t see people’s lived experiences with it, the reality of it,” Villela said.

Allyson Waller is a reporter , the only member-supported, digital-first, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.

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