Texas family moves so trans teen can escape anti-LGTBQ laws: ‘I’d rather be out than dead’

Texas part of wave of Republican states cracking down on trans youth

Texas LGBTQ+ youth say they would rather leave than face their home state’s recent onslaught of anti-trans legislation.

“There’s not really any other way to progress forward,” Luna, 14, who is trans, told The Texas Newsroom. “They clearly want us out, or dead. So, I’d rather be out than dead.”

Luna, who came out in 2021, is moving with her family to Boston.

Corbin, 16, who is also trans, told KERA News last month he’s also considering leaving the Lone Star State.

“Me and my friend groups, we’re getting ready as much as we can,” he said. “It’s a difficult, long process to figure out what you want to do … Because it’s not safe enough to stay, but we don’t want to give them what they want.”

In June, Texas joined the at least 18 other states that have banned gender-affirming care for minors.

The state is the most populous so far to take the step, which outlaws treatments supported by every major medical organisation in the US, including the American Medical Association.

Trans rights advocates have said they’ll seek to challenge the new law in court.

“We will be filing a lawsuit to protect transgender youth in Texas from being stripped of access to healthcare that keeps them healthy and alive,” Lambda Legal, the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, and the Transgender Law Center told The Independent in a statement.

The changes in Texas law appear to have caused disruptions at local hospitals.

In May, teen patients in Austin lost access to gender-affirming care, after the state of Texas began investigating the Dell Children’s Medical Center, seemingly in response to video from the dubious right-wing hidden camera outfit Project Veritas.

“The last couple days have been going through the feelings of not wanting to leave a home and a community and schools that we love,” a mother whose child was receiving treatment there told The Texas Tribune. “But then how much stress would be lifted and what a relief it would be to be in a place where this wasn’t a question — that part, I think, can’t be underestimated.”