Lizzo slams anti-transgender policies in Texas
Lizzo's comments come on heels of a judge's decision to block the state from investigating the parents of trans youth for "child abuse."
Lizzo slammed Texas’ recent anti-transgender actions and legislation in a keynote speech at this year’s SXSW festival and the Austin Convention Center.
The Grammy-winning singer, born in Detroit but raised in Houston since age 10, attacked a recent bill seeking to deny transgender youth access to gender-affirming medical care when speaking with host Angela Yee on Sunday, according to Rolling Stone.
“I’m proud to rep Houston but I’m not proud to rep Texan politics right now,” Lizzo said. “There are very regressive laws being passed. They’re taking away the right for young children to have a chance to live authentically as themselves. It’s a violation of human rights. Trans rights are human rights.”
Lizzo’s remarks referred to legislation introduced in Texas last month seeking to prohibit transgender youth from accessing gender-affirming health care treatments, including hormones and puberty blockers. Under the bill, doctors who prescribe such treatments could potentially face the loss of their license if found guilty of violating the law. A similar bill was introduced during last year’s legislative session, but never came to a final vote in the House of Representatives.
Since the failure of the ban on gender-affirming care failed, Republicans in Texas — in the run-up to this November’s elections — have taken drastic steps to achieve the bill’s aims by other means.
Gov. Greg Abbott issued a directive ordering medical professionals and members of the public to report their fellow Texans to state authorities if they have reason to believe that transgender youth may be receiving gender-affirming interventions.
That order also called on the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to launch investigations into parents of transgender children for “child abuse” if they are suspected of allowing their children to access such treatments.
Abbott based his directive on a non-binding legal opinion by Texas’ Republican Attorney General, Ken Paxton, who asserted that surgical interventions (which are rarely performed on children under 18) and hormonal interventions could constitute “abuse,” on the grounds that allowing minors to access gender-affirming care would violate a child’s right to procreate.
But last week, a Texas judge issued an injunction blocking the state, and DFPS specifically, from enforcing Abbott’s order. State District Judge Amy Clark Meachum found that the plaintiffs in an ongoing lawsuit against the state were more than likely to prevail in getting Abbott’s directive overturned because it exceeded the scope of his authority and could be considered unconstitutional.
Lizzo also criticized the state’s anti-abortion laws, including a recent measure that bans abortion after the first six weeks of pregnancy, with no exceptions for rape or incest, and allows members of the public to sue any person who carries out an illegal abortion after the six-week mark for a minimum of $10,000.
“We got a lotta ugly babies y’all need to be handling instead of y’all being in people’s homes and telling them what to do with their bodies and being all up in their uteruses,” Lizzo said. “The abortion ban is atrocious as well. Mind your business. Stay out of my body.”
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