AUSTIN, Texas — Kimberly Shappley used to be a Tea Party Republican, but she was in tears at the Texas State Capitol Tuesday as she spoke out against a new directive that parents be prosecuted as child abusers if they provide gender-affirming care for their sons and daughters.
“People that I know personally, they send me texts that they’re getting calls from Child Protective Services,” said Shappley, who is the mother of an 11-year-old trans child who uses she and her pronouns. “This is really happening. I need you to understand. CPS is already doing this. It’s happening. It’s happening. It’s happening.”
Shappley was part of an event organized by the American Civil Liberties Union, Equality Texas, GLAAD and the producers of the “Mama Bears” documentary that premiered at SXSW this week. The film follows two mothers of LGBTQ children who grew up as evangelical Christians but challenged their beliefs to become gender rights activists working to keep their children safe.
“If I could sit down with the governor, I would ask him to please stop,” 11-year-old Kai Shappley told the crowd, standing on a chair so she could reach the microphone. “I would tell him you’re hurting us. Adults should treat trans kids just like any other kid. It makes me upset because we are the children here.”
Liz Dyer founded the Mama Bears as a Facebook group for moms of LGBTQ kids in 2014, shortly after learning her son was gay. “Naturally I was concerned about his safety and his rights,” Dyer told Spectrum News 1. “My dream was that moms of LGBTQ kids would get connected and not only be inspired to wholeheartedly affirm and celebrate their own kids but also work together and make the world a kinder, safer, more loving place for all LGBTQ people to live.”
Dyer’s son was 19 when he came out as gay in 2007. At the time, Dyer was a Southern Baptist. She is now a progressive Christian.
“I have always believed that if you follow in God’s way, it will make you more healthy,” Dyer said. “What I began to see is that anti-LGBTQ theory was leading people who were embracing it into depression and self loathing and self harm. So to me, if theology is bringing that about, it’s not of God. Something’s wrong and we have to reexamine it.”
Dyer started her group of “cuddly and fierce” Mama Bars with 150 moms in the Dallas area. Today, the group has more than 32,000 mothers of LGBTQ kids, including more than 60 local chapters, nine private groups and several programs that serve the LGBTQ community.
Mama Bears documentary director Daresha Kyi first learned about the group from a 2017 article about Kimberly and Kai Shappley, describing their fight for Kai to use the girls’ bathroom and their involvement with the Mama Bears for support.
“I made this movie specifically because I wanted to address the kinds of attacks that are happening right now,” Kyi said during the rally. “This movie was made for this time right here, right now. As I see it, we are in a battle between love and hatred. This movie is to remind all of us we have to love each other because if we don’t, we are headed to the brink of destruction.”
Seventy-six anti-LGBTQ bills were filed in Texas in 2021, according to Ricardo Martinez, CEO of the political advocacy group Equality Texas. In 2019, there were less than 20.
“This is an escalated attack of unprecedented proportions,” Martinez said. “Since 2021, we’ve been fighting this cruel, relentless and coordinated blitz by fringe extremist politicians who are working overtime to try to erode the support for LGBTQ equality that we’ve worked so hard to gain.”
Last week, a Texas state district judge temporarily blocked Gov. Greg Abbott’s directive to allow state authorities to investigate gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth as child abuse. In February, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued an opinion that some sex-change procedures could be construed as child abuse under Texas Law.
That opinion led to Abbott’s directive to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to “conduct a prompt and through investigation of any reported instances of these abusive procedures in the State of Texas.”
Actor Rafael Silva, who stars on the Fox television series, “9-1-1: Lone Star,” attended the rally and briefly livestreamed the event on his Instagram feed.
“This is a direct attack on the trans community, but this is really an attack on all communities,” Silva told Spectrum News 1. “We are all humans. We are all people.”
Silva, who is openly gay, continued, “We need to be united and come together because when they come for one of us — one of the letters on our community — they come for all of us,” he said.