Regardless of Talarico’s recent statements on trans people, Paxton cannot be rewarded for the extreme suffering he’s inflicted on me and tens of thousands of Texan trans kids.

On February 22nd, 2022, Texas made national headlines when it announced investigations into several trans kids’ families over potential child abuse. Gender-affirming care—which was still legal for minors at the time—“constituted child abuse,” the state argued, and “to protect Texas children” from that abuse, it was willing to pull families apart. To most trans Americans and their allies, the news is often remembered as an outrage, a dramatic escalation in the push to target the healthcare access of trans youth.