TEXAS, USA — Attorney General Ken Paxton is now suing the Biden Administration as he continues his push, with Governor Greg Abbott, to investigate some parents of transgender teens for potential child abuse.
The effort in Texas is taking place as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is expected to sign, what critics call, the "Don’t Say Gay" bill.
The Florida bill will, in part, ban lessons in sexual orientation or gender identity in Florida schools from Kindergarten to the third grade.
DeSantis questions the critics of the bill.
“We’re going to make sure that parents are able to send their kids to kindergarten without having some of this stuff injected into their school curriculum,” said DeSantis.
Shevrin Jones is Florida’s first openly gay state senator.
“While we’re trying to spend time in trying to legislate people’s lives, we should be trying to legislate to protect, especially our children in the LGBTQ community,” Senator Jones said. “While the Governor may think that this is his political win, this is his political red meat that he wants to use to go to his base. The Governor did not win, actually you lose. Anytime you do anything to hurt the marginalized community, you always lose.”
“All it does, is state what is talked about, what's appropriate in the classroom to teach,” said Florida Republican Representative Joe Harding.
Cece Cox is the CEO for the Resource Center. The Resource Center provides support for the LGBTQIA community in North Texas.
“The LGBTQIA community feels under attack because it is,” Cox said. “When people feel like they are less than or they are invisible, or they can’t be who they are, it takes a psychological toll.”
On Friday, in Texas, a judge will determine whether the state can investigate some parents of transgender teens for potential child abuse.
“The government needs to stay out of private decisions between parents, medical providers, and their children,” Cox said. “Stop using the LGBTQIA community as a pawn. Stop kicking us around.”