Texas HB1686

Texas House Bill 1686, Monday, March 27th, 2023

Texas HB1686 stops the gender transition of minors. This includes puberty blockers, wrong sex hormones, and surgeries. There are exceptions to be made when a verifiable medical condition comes into play, such as being intersex or having a precocious puberty. In short, it will become illegal in Texas to use medical drugs and surgery for an illness of the mind when it comes to children if this bill passes.

This bill was heard after the Senate bill on which I testified as well. SB14, or Senate bill 14, is the sister bill, which passed in the Senate and moved into the house. My testimony is below.

The Beginning

I arrived in Austin, Texas the day before the bill was heard. I slept for a few hours, but it's always hard to get sleep before I testify.

We left at 7:30 in the morning to arrive at the capital a bit before 8:00. Multiple bills were being heard that day, and we listened in. The hearing for HB1686 didn't begin until around 10:30am. All of the bills were about public health.

Before the hearing began, the detransitioners were invited to a private conference room, where we could hide from the trans rights activists and people who were outside screaming.

The TRAs were holding an “all day vigil.” I watched as an occult ritual took place. Trans-identifying people threw herbs and/or salt on the ground and walked in circles around small children. One child appeared to be only 2 or 3 years old. This happened all day and was very frightening.

The bill was heard in a small room. There was an overflow room for guests to stand in and watch the hearing on a large TV. The room where the hearing was held was full of people, both sitting and standing, by the time HB1686 was proceeding.

The Representatives

The bill was proposed by representative Tom Oliverson. He was a very smart, thorough, and kind person during the hearing. He was not disrespectful to anyone, he laid out the bill well, and asked a lot of questions. He initiated important discussion and debate with all of the invited testimony.

Some of the representatives, however, were not so respectful. In particular, representative Jolanda Jones, was an issue. As the bill was presented, she began by saying that her side deserved to be heard, and then corrected herself and said that all sides deserved to be heard, and that we should show respect to one another. However, every time someone who agreed with the bill spoke, she left the room, and it did not listen. When she did decide to be present, she brought a friend to sit beside her, not another representative, and chatted with them the entire time. She spent her time laughing and playing on her phone.

This image is a twitter screenshot. The original poster is another detransitioning woman who testified. Jolanda is her state rep.

More behavior included asking rude and personal questions to detransitioners, and mocking proponents for the bill. She laughed, asked leading questions, and clarified what other representatives meant for them after they asked questions to cause confusion and delusion. She spoke often of herself, her law experience, her gayness, and made personal attacks against anyone who disagreed with her. She asked questions that had nothing to do with the bill and only anything to do with herself. For example, she asked a doctor, who had made a statement years earlier about adoption by gay couples, if he thought she could get married and adopt. That had nothing to do with this bill. It was another selfish attempt to talk about herself and cause chaos.

The representatives also did not follow the queue. Invited testimony was supposed to speak first, however, when the other side began to get rowdy and feel jealous for some reason, they created a fuss, and public testimony began to be heard before invited testimony had finished. People from public testimony spoke before I did. Many of the detransitioners, including myself, stayed at the Capitol for over 13 hours, and we deal with chronic pain. It was very difficult and felt like they were trying to push us out.

Noteworthy Opposition

One of the most notable people in the opposition, who spoke and answered questions for over an hour in a very narcissistic way, was a trans-identifying person with an MD and PHD. She, who identified it as a man, was incredibly condescending and dismissive of anything negative.

A self-proclaimed only child, she was over indulged, given special clothes and privileges, and grew up to be a narcissist.

One of the worst things she said was that people on our side, and the detransitioners, were willfully ignorant. No one who has lived this is ignorant to the harm it causes. It is our real lives, and we lived it.

A screenshot of a tweet by Abel Garcia, detransitioner.

Another interesting testimony was one from an adult endocrinologist who could not answer the question, “What is a woman?” She also believes that men can give birth. “Men giving birth" was spoken in reference to trans identified men. However, testosterone causes sterilization in females, and if they do manage to become pregnant before this occurs, birth defects are common.

Almost every single proponent and opponent were asked these two questions. Everyone who was in favor of the bill could answer the questions. People against the bill could not.

It is frightening to think that someone, a doctor, and endocrinologist, or a psychologist, who cannot define what a woman is, is prescribing cross sex hormones, puberty blockers, and surgeries to children.

In the evening, a 9-year-old testified in favor of the bill, reading off a statement written by his mother. It was pitiful…. And far past his bedtime.

Partners in Ethical Care was live tweeting the event, and became a useful resource.

The delusion of the child was encouraged by the representatives and the crowd, just as by his mother and family. This child is headed down the path to lifelong medicalization, just for being gender non-conforming. He will end up sterile and in pain.

There was also the testimony of a Hispanic father with a trans identified daughter, he called “Libby.” Libby displayed a gender non-conforming behavior from a young age, and was medicalized by his parents for it. Instead of just accepting the behavior and the child the way he was, the parents feel the need to inject him with puberty blockers, and this will be followed by hormones and surgery.

Another tweet by Abel Garcia with commentary.

The majority of children who are gender non-conforming and behave in these ways grow out of it by adulthood.

The father spoke of uprooting his entire family and moving out of Texas to be able to continue to medicalize the child.

Multiple doctors, pediatricians, endocrinologists, and psychologists said that they would use the loophole in the bill and refer patients across state lines to help them continue to receive “gender affirming care.”

Noteworthy Proponents

Several detransitioners spoke, including Abel Garcia, Soren, Corrina Cohn, myself, and others. Both Abel and Soren are Texas residents. Other proponents, including doctors, psychologists, and parents of trans-identifying children also spoke passionately in favor of the bill.

Corrina Cohn, a wonderful person who was irreversibly harmed by gender medicine, was heard. We have spoken personally and testified together in the past. I like Corrina very much.

Corrina was diagnosed with gender dysphoria at age 15. Medical intervention did not begin until 18, but the side effects were still severe, highlighting how much more severe they are for children. If an adult cannot recover, how can a child?

Corrina says that Democrats and Republicans should work together to close the gap between them and find a solution for GNC people that is better than the sterilization and mutilation of children.

Another detransitioner, Soren, was full of brilliant and compassionate ideas for how to help gender non-conforming children. She spoke about trauma informed therapy, and the harms of only validation and affirmation.

After a botched “top” surgery, wherein she was left alone in the ER for over 8 hours with no pain medication, she realized that there was no need to use a scalpole to be herself. She was ignored by doctors after being irreversibly harmed by them, and of course, there is no going back.

Soren said that as medicalization bans take effect, there needs to be a safety net for the children who will no longer receive or become unable to receive this care. Transgenderism comes with high rates of comorbidities, and these children need and deserve help.

Abel Garcia, a 26-year-old detransitioner who underwent a breast implant and removal, spoke about his trauma and what led to his transition. He grew up in a traditional, Mexican household where masculinity and other sexist values were strongly upheld, which he did not feel like he could live up to.

After coming out to his father, his father decided to take him to Mexico to visit a prostitute “to cure him”, leading Able down the path of medicalization like the rest of us.

Abel is now experiencing extreme and debilitating side effects with which no doctor will help him. He has been abandoned by doctors and the community that once called him family. Abel has also never even seen an endocrinologist, despite being prescribed testosterone blockers and estrogen.

I told my story, starting at 12 years old when I had diagnoses of anorexia, OCD, depression, and anxiety, all of which would evolve into an eventual borderline personality disorder diagnosis. At 15 years old, the trans community found me and convinced me that all of my problems were because I was born in the wrong body. For me, medicalization began at 17 years old. I had not completed puberty due to the eating disorder.

Only representative Oliverson asked me any questions.

Another brilliant speaker was Jeanette Cooper, a loving mother so has lost contact with her child due to gender affirming care.

“We cannot be silent. We know too much.”

Jeanette's testimony was absolutely heart-wrenching. She works with thousands of parents who hold the line and give their children mental health care and do not affirm them.

She spoke about both the mental and psychological harms of affirmation and what follows. She also spoke about what happens when a child is not affirmed, which is usually desistance.

The Public

As previously mentioned, many trans-identified people were holding an all-day vigil. They even had priests who did not believe that people were made perfectly, but that some were born into the wrong bodies.

Lots of the protesters were holding signs. Most of them were screaming. It was a sight and sound to behold, mass psychosis on display.

The LGBTQ+ group called it a “fight for their lives” rally. But no one is saying that trans people can't exist. No one is trying to kill or even harm them. (Usually, trans-identified people attack gender critical people, which why the detransitioners had to be hidden away for our own safety.) All this bill does is prevent the irreversible harm of gender medicine from happening to minors who cannot consent.

According to a tweet by representative Ann Johnson, over 2,500 people signed up to oppose the bill I'm public testimony. She would not say how many people opposed the bill.