UPDATE: The Pflugerville ISD Board of Trustees refused Thursday night to rescind a new policy providing access to health insurance benefits for unmarried domestic partners of district employees. After hearing public testimony, the board voted 5-1 to uphold the policy. It goes into effect on January 1. From an Austin American-Statesman report: “We’ve worked really […]
LGBTQIA+ Rights
In the last decade, the fight for LGBTQIA+ equality has made incredible progress. Marriage equality is now the law of the land and workplace discrimination on the basis of sex includes protections for gender identity and sexual orientation. However, the fight for true LGBTQIA+ equality is far from over. Texas still has no statewide law protecting LGBTQIA+ people from discrimination meaning people can be denied a place to live or refused service at a business simply because of who they are or whom they love.
Today, far-right extremists and politicians continue their attacks on LGBTQIA+ Texans, especially transgender children and adults. Their hate is loud. But our love is louder.
We at TFN will fight for the LGBTQIA+ community at every turn, because our vision is a Texas that’s truly for all.
Resources
Liberty Institute/Texas Values Caught Misleading Again, This Time on Proposed Adoption Bill
Free Market Foundation Liberty Institute Texas Values, a far-right group from Plano that opposes separation of church and state and equal rights for gay families, has been caught — again — playing loose with the facts. In a television interview on November 19, Jonathan Saenz — the lawyer/lobbyist who heads Texas Values — claimed that […]
RR Groups Angry Over GOP Senator’s Support of Equality and Dignity for LGBT Texans
Religious-right groups in Texas are furious (surprise!) that Republican state Senator John Carona of Dallas has dared suggest that gay and lesbian Texans should be treated with dignity and equality. In an interview this week with the Dallas Voice, Carona expressed his support for legislation barring job discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, […]
Texas GOP Congressman Accuses Democratic Opponent of Baby-Killing, Rejecting God
In a repulsive attempt to use faith, fear and smears as political weapons, freshman Republican Congressman Francisco “Quico” Canseco of San Antonio is trying to persuade voters that he has Jesus on his side in his re-election campaign against a fellow Roman Catholic he says votes to kill babies. Canseco’s campaign has been bombarding voters […]
Play Dramatizes the Sacrifices Behind Passage of the Texas Hate Crimes Law
A play about the long and ultimately successful efforts to pass a hate crimes bill in Texas is premiering this weekend in Austin. The play, Just Outside Redemption by Dennis Bailey, was inspired by the work of Dianne Hardy-Garcia, the executive director of the Lesbian/Gay Rights Lobby of Texas (now Equality Texas) in the 1990s […]