AUSTIN, Texas — When lawmakers reconvene in Austin later this month for the third special legislative session of 2021, one of the items they will be addressing is legislation that restricts how transgender students can participate in sports. 

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has made it a priority for lawmakers to pass GOP legislation that requires transgender students to play on sports teams that correspond with the gender assigned to them at birth rather than their gender identity. 

Similar bills failed to make it past the finish line in the regular session and the first two special sessions earlier this year. 

Republicans say the bill is about preserving fairness in girls' sports, but LGBTQ activists and families of transgender students have strongly opposed and testified against the sports bill - along with other anti-transgender legislation - for months, saying it perpetuates harmful stigmas and discriminates against trans children. 

"I think there was a true sense of panic and terror, hearing parents cry and beg for them to just leave us alone. Hearing medical experts in these committee hearings say that these bills are not medically necessary and in fact they're incredibly harmful to the mental health of transgender children and their families, and seeing our Texas lawmakers just simply not care," said Annaliese Cothran, parent of a transgender child. 

Cothran is one of many parents of transgender children who has regularly testified in front of the legislature this year. 

Since the spring, Rebekah Bryant has made multiple trips from Houston to Austin to testify against anti-transgender legislation. 

“I said to my husband, I said, we have to do something we can't, we can't allow this. And so we’ve been in the fight ever since," said Bryant. 

For months, the governor has made it a priority to pass legislation that requires transgender students to play on sports teams that correspond with their gender assigned at birth. 

“Trans kids already, they already have the deck stacked against them, you know. Because society doesn't accept them in general, they are at risk for depression and attempting suicide, and kids will talk, especially if they're athletes, [they] will point to sports being the thing that saves them in high school, that got them through. And this bill is going to take away her opportunity to have that balance in life," said Bryant. 

"It's actually a really important part of most kids' lives. We learn about, you know, what it means to be a good teammate, what it means to be a good sport, there are so many good values that you pick up, being able to participate in sports. And so trying to segregate an entire population so that they don't get to learn those critical values and life experiences that other kids get to learn, that's really challenging to face as parents," said Cothran. 

Over the summer, Bryant’s 8-year-old trans daughter Sunny decided to share her story with lawmakers herself. 

In her testimony, Sunny said, "I am 8 years old, and I love playing sports. I am also a trans girl, though I would rather not have to tell you that. But here I am. This is my first time speaking in public about this. My mom has done most of the talking before, but you didn't listen to her, so I figured I could do better. I really like baseball, soccer, tennis and gymnastics. I've been playing on girls' sports teams, and even dance teams, since I was 4 years old, and nobody cared that I was trans. I've been with the same classmates for three years and they didn't know I was trans until this year, when my mom had to speak at the Capitol. They love me just the same because kids my age don't care about that stuff- kids care about what's in your heart. Only old people can’t see that. So please, let me play, let me run get dirty, and most importantly, have fun."

But having to fight for transgender rights for months on end takes a toll financially and emotionally. 

“We cannot normalize having kids have to beg for their rights at the Capitol. That's so profoundly saddening to me," said Ricardo Martinez, CEO of Equality Texas. "Every single time we go into the Capitol to defend our humanity, it takes something from you. And you give up so much in the process of having to defend your humanity. You're losing a day of work, you're spending money to come from different cities across Texas to tell lawmakers to stop attacking our kids.”

Now, the governor included the issue on the third special session agenda, after the bill failed to pass in earlier sessions. 

“We're disappointed that it hasn't gotten passed, but he is answering the call of thousands of female athletes in the state of Texas that really are standing up for their title nine rights to have fair play in sports," said Mary Castle, senior policy adviser with Texas Values. 

Supporters of the bill say it’s necessary to protect female athletes.

“We really are sticking up for fairness and really are sticking up for what we think is right," said Castle. "What we're seeing is that there's a threat of biological males competing at all levels, whether it's middle school and high school, but also the collegiate level. So all those protections are needed."

But opponents and LGBTQ activists say it’s a harmful attack on transgender children, and they’re not backing down. 

“As a mom of a transgender kid, we're exhausted having to show up to these to do advocacy yet for another session, but more broadly as a Texan, I'm just angry," said Cothran. "If a bill has not passed in three legislative sessions, that should be a wake-up call that that is not what Texans want.”

"It feels unsafe to be living in Texas right now… [but] I’m a seventh generation Texan, and I'm not gonna leave. I'm gonna fight this out. But it is terrifying knowing that just around the corner, they could pass a bill that will just change the course of our life," said Bryant. 

“Our battle cry is that when you attack one Texan, you attack all Texans and our community is not ready to bow out and to back down from this fight," said Martinez.