Texas is Actively Persecuting Families with Trans Kids: We Go to the Front Lines

The governor and attorney general of Texas are ruthlessly persecuting families with trans kids. They have declared that if a family supports their transgender child, that they are to be investigated for child abuse, and the child is to be removed from their home. Two disctrict attorneys for the counties that include Dallas and Houston have refused to adhere to the order. A judge in a third county put a hold on the order for that particular county. The order is active in all other Texas counties and families are being targetted. Today we talk to Ricardo Martinez, the CEO of Equality Texas. Equality Texas is the main organization on the front lines in Texas fighting for the rights of LGBTQ+ families. Ricardo joined Equality Texas as its CEO in December of 2019. Prior to Equality Texas, Ricardo served at Stand for Children where he lead a national organizing and constituent engagement effort for five years. Immediately prior to his tenure at Stand for Children, he spent several years with GLSEN; initially as Senior Manager of Field Services on the national team in NYC and later as the President of the Phoenix Chapter. Under Ricardo’s leadership, GLSEN Phoenix was an instrumental coalition partner in overturning Arizona’s “no promo homo” law, which prohibited K-12 schools from including LGBTQ representation, content, and history in their curriculum. Equality Texas emerged in 2006 from the previous Lesbian/Gay Rights Lobby of Texas. It reflected the strength and diversity of the coalition galvanized during the campaign to defeat proposition #2, Texas’ so-called “defense of marriage” amendment to the state constitution. Equality Texas is now the state’s leading advocacy organization defending the rights of LGBTQ Texans against attack, with tens of thousands of members across the state. With Co-host Brody Levesque