By Mar Ayala-Ortiz, Editor in Chief
January, 2022
On October 25, 2021, Governor Greg Abbott signed a bill, HB25, that will require student athletes to play in the sports teams that align with their gender assigned at birth. Meaning that Texas’ public schools will have to restrict transgender athletes from playing the sport they want under their preferred gender identity. This bill is to be effective January 18, 2022.
Two weeks before, the Austin Transportation Department installed a rainbow crosswalk at the intersection of Fourth and Colorado Street. A sign of acceptance for National Coming Out Day after years of advocating for this project. But is this really true of Texas anymore? With this anti-transgender bill, HB25, it seems that our government is more concerned with restricting our trans youth.
What this bill does is target transgender students. Not only will this leave a mental scar making students wonder if their identity is valid, but actively put them in danger. Other students may ostracize transgender peers for just wanting to do what they want to do while also feeling comfortable in their skin. It is quite saddening hearing out families who have spoken up to congress and yet were still faced with this bill. Right now, many families are facing the consequences of the bill as many schools are requiring that students show their birth certificate if they want to play a sport to ensure that they are playing with the gender they were assigned at birth.
“This to me is typical Texas. Texas has a reputation of being backward in its thinking,” says Benjamin Runnels, KAC Composition teacher and faculty sponsor of the school’s Gender and Sexuality Alliance. “I don’t think that they are taking into consideration just how hurtful this particular bill is because it’s hard enough being a teenager with all those expectations. Going to school, trying to fit in, and knowing that you’re transgender and having to find a way to embrace that and then having the school you go to say that you’re not who you know you are and you can’t do the things that you like to do… they don’t take into consideration the individual… I think it’s a travesty on part of the lawmakers.”
Although KIPP is its own district, there is only so much that schools can do themselves to actually help students feel accepted. School districts could get in a lot of trouble if they were to refute this law in any way. “What I would like to see in every district in the state of Texas (is) go screw you, we’re doing it anyway and include those students where those students want to be participating. And maybe if every school district did it then you know the governor wouldn’t really know what to do at that point… that’s what I would like to see happen… One of the jobs of the school district is to take care of all the students,” mentions Runnels. It is clear that what these lawmakers are doing are just isolating and belittling their identity. Making them targets of bullying and overall can make students feel depressed or show signs of gender dysphoria.
“I wish I could pat ‘em on the back and say, might not be right now, might not be in four years, but someday it’s gonna be okay,” Runnels adds on. Students are always welcomed to find safe spaces in clubs such as Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA) or talk to other fellow staff who may identify within the LGBTQIA+ community. Although it may seem like a lost battle for transgender students, especially our young athletes in Texas, we encourage students to keep sharing their stories, especially to amplify the voices of our queer youth.
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