AUSTIN, Texas — There are currently a dozen bills filed in the 2023 legislative session seeking to regulate health care for transgender youth in Texas. In addition to the state investigating gender-affirming care, Republican lawmakers are now attempting to restrict or criminalize the medical practice. 


What You Need To Know

  • There are a dozen bills in the legislature seeking to regulate health care for transgender kids

  • Equality Texas confirms these Republican laws are scaring families out of the state

  • An Austin mother and father fled Texas to protect their transgender daughter

  • Sponsors of these bills say that gender-affirming care is child abuse

This has caused panic for many families, and some say this type of legislation drove them out of state. Suzanne Sanders and her husband Peter packed up and left their home in Austin this past summer to protect their 11-year-old daughter.

“We really feel like we’re fleeing for our lives because people have such violent reactions to this thing that my child can’t help but be,” Suzanne Sanders said.

Even though the family moved in July, they asked not to reveal their daughter’s identity to protect her privacy. That’s because “Z,” as we will call her, is transgender.

“I was born a male, but my mind was female, so like, I’m not really a male. I just look like it on the outside,” Z said.

We visited their home when they were moving to Oregon back in July. The family just started settling in after moving from New York about four years ago, but then their life took a turn.

“We really were like, we have to get out of here. We have to get out of here soon,” Suzanne Sanders said.

After the Republican Party began focusing on transgender health care, the family says they didn’t feel safe in Texas anymore. Z moved from a public school to a private one because classmates were bullying her.

At one point, Suzanne Sanders said, Z was taken to a hospital from school in an ambulance and the EMT called the police when he found out she was trans.

“It just became more and more apparent that they had a vendetta against trans kids,” she said.

When the state started investigating gender-affirming care as child abuse, they knew it was only going to get worse.

“Just to have the prospect of my daughter being taken away from me for even just one night, I just couldn’t take that risk," Suzanne Sanders said.

“I felt like we were really contributing members of the city, of the neighborhood, of the community, and so to feel like we’re just getting kicked out the door is that much rougher to take,” Peter Sanders said.

Equality Texas CEO Ricardo Martinez said Z’s family is not the only one fleeing the state in fear. He says they don’t know the exact amount of families moving away because of these bills, but they personally know of about 15, so it’s likely much more.

Spectrum News has spoken to other nonprofits and families who have confirmed people are moving out of the state as a direct result of state politics.

“Kids, families should not have to leave Texas to feel safe,” Martinez said. “Texas should be safe for everyone.”

Equality Texas’ bill tracker shows that currently there are 12 bills in the legislature that are targeting gender-affirming care.

Spectrum News reached out to the sponsors of all 12 bills. Two of them responded with written statements.

Senator Bob Hall (R) said:

“I filed SB 249, SB 250, and SCR 3 to address the onslaught of transgender practices that have risen over the past few years, especially focused on prohibiting genital mutilating surgeries, hormone suppressants, and cross-sex hormone treatments of minors…Children who are experiencing gender dysphoria need compassionate help as their body matures, not irreversible surgeries that they will later regret." 

Representative Bryan Slaton (R) wrote:

“HB 42 will designate genital removal surgeries, chemical castration, puberty blockers, and other sex change therapies as child abuse….For years, Texas has failed our children by allowing them to be subjected to cruel child abuse in the form of sex-change surgeries and therapies. This child gender-modification is child abuse, plain and simple. It is finally time that the Texas House, like the Senate, step up and defend innocent children from these bogus medical practices."

The Texas GOP’s own platform outlined in the 2022 state convention agenda says: “We oppose all efforts to validate transgender identity.”

“It would be great if politicians and lawmakers were able to sit down and actually talk to families,” Martinez said. “To understand directly from them why this health care is so essential and lifesaving.”

Peter Sanders says affirming his daughter’s gender-identity is the opposite of child abuse. It’s what has allowed Z to feel comfortable in her own skin.

“The fact that her family and the people closest to her love her and trust her and support her is everything,” he said.

While the bill sponsors underscore they believe they’re protecting those under 18 from life-altering decisions, the American Pediatrics Association and other medical organizations says gender-affirming care is medically necessary health care administered by professionals.

“The government should not stand between a family and their doctor,” Martinez said.

Spectrum News spoke with Z and Suzanne Sanders in a video call at their Oregon home after the 2023 Texas legislative session started.

“I’m just so thankful that I’m not there,” Suzanne Sanders said.

While she says she made the right decision to move, the transition to Oregon has actually been quite hard for Z.

Z tells us, unlike in Texas where she was vocal about being transgender, she’s decided not to tell anyone in Oregon because she just wants to be seen as a “normal kid.”

Suzanne Sanders hopes people can see how much this is hurting families who just want their kids to be happy.

As for Z’s message to people who disagree with her identity:

“If you don’t accept me for who I am, then that’s your loss, because I’m amazing.”