AUSTIN — While state lawmakers continue to allow child mutilation operations in Texas, the Republican-controlled Texas House of Representatives is now celebrating activists who support those and other barbaric practices.
On Monday, the House voted to sweepingly approve a list of resolutions—a common occurrence in which they congratulate certain Texans for special achievements, memorialize those who’ve passed away, and highlight other noteworthy events.
On Monday’s list, however, several Democrat lawmakers (namely State Reps. Mary Gonzalez, Jessica Gonzalez, Erin Zwiener, and Julie Johnson) inserted nearly two dozen troubling resolutions to applaud individuals who promote abusive sexual behavior, legalization of baby killing, and disfiguring experimentation on children.
For instance, take the resolution for Adri Perez, a policy and advocacy strategist for the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas. Perez “establish[ed] West Fund, the first fund dedicated to providing access to abortions and reproductive choices for residents of West Texas.”
The House resolution congratulated Perez for that work as well as leading the organization’s “Sexuality & Gender Equality Team,” which specifically teaches LGBT ideology to Texas families—telling children they can disfigure their bodies to pretend to be the opposite biological sex.
“RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 87th Texas Legislature … hereby honor Adri Perez for working in behalf of the LGBTQIA+ communities in Texas; and, be it further RESOLVED, That an official copy of this resolution be prepared for Adri Perez as an expression of high regard by the Texas House of Representatives,” the resolution reads.
Another example is the resolution for Ricardo Martinez, the chief executive officer for Equality Texas, an organization that recently fought against protections for high school female athletes. The newly enacted state law simply says male students are not allowed to compete on designated female sports teams, a law intended to safeguard young women as they face new threats to their athletic opportunities and scholarships.
Martinez, however, called it a “cruel and grotesque ban” and said boys who pretend to be girls should be allowed on the girls’ teams.
“[T]his year Texas lawmakers have rushed to introduce a record high number of bills targeting the trans community, including trying to ban trans girls participating with other girls in school sports,” Martinez said.
Also consider the resolutions for Emmett Schelling and Andrea Segovia, executive directors of the respective Transgender Education Network of Texas and Gender Infinity organizations. Both of them fought in the state Legislature earlier this year to keep disfiguring experimentation operations on minors legal in Texas.
That issue largely traced back to the nationally known child abuse case of James Younger, a 9 year-old Dallas-area boy whose mother wanted to force him—against his father’s wishes—to take sterilizing drugs and eventually be castrated.
Republican lawmakers proposed numerous laws earlier this year to ban the mutilation practices, and though the protections were a Republican Party of Texas priority and supported by nearly 2 million Texans in the 2020 GOP primary election, House Republican leadership killed the effort—and has since repeatedly refused to pass the protections into law.
Additionally, state officials, including Gov. Greg Abbott, have repeatedly raised questions with their responses and lack of action on the issue this year.
Meanwhile, Martinez of Equality Texas recently dubbed the protections a “non-issue,” “fearmongering,” and a “fictitious [emergency]”—and the Republican-controlled Texas House simply applauded.
“[T]he House of Representatives of the 87th Texas Legislature … hereby commend Ricardo Martinez for his service to LGBTQIA+ communities and extend to him sincere best wishes for continued success in his important work,” reads his resolution.
“RESOLVED, That an official copy of this resolution be prepared for [these activists] as an expression of high regard by the Texas House of Representatives,” all of the nearly two dozen resolutions similarly read.
Though 50-plus Republican lawmakers recorded their opposition to the resolutions in the House Journal after the documents were approved, not a single lawmaker verbally objected when the resolutions were brought up and passed in the House on Monday.
