On the risk of sounding like a paranoid conspiracy theorist, I refuse to believe that these things sprang up spontaneously. These legislative and governmental processes are too meticulously crafted. Certain groups and persons took the utmost care in creating these bills with the goal of undermining LGBTQ rights. It's certainly something to think about, as is their possible next step. Whoever they may be, my guess is that these folks won't stop with trying to erase mentions of LGBTQ people in elementary schools or trying to take trans kids away from their affirming parents.
Perhaps this, maybe:
For the luckily uninitiated, this is Terry Schilling, head of a group called the Americans Principles Project. And as so many of us know, when any right-wing group comes on the scene with a name bragging about how pro-American or pro-morality it is, LGBTQ folks just gained another enemy.
Terry and his group have been busy, if he is to be believed. Recently, he was bragging about how his group was instrumental in getting Abbott to issue his transphobic directive. In fact, Schilling claimed that his group spent $750,000 on the effort
“We put together a $750,000 grassroots advocacy campaign with the War Room support, and we put pressure on him right before the election,” Schilling said. “It wasn’t a coincidence that he did this. And Abbott basically instructed all of his state agencies to treat this as child abuse, and it’s now criminal to do this.”Abbott, a champion of the conservative movement, has been accused of not being right wing enough by the Republican Party’s extreme fringes. Such attacks escalated ahead of Tuesday’s Republican gubernatorial primary, which Abbott easily won. In Schilling’s telling, Abbott has been insufficiently harsh on the LGBTQ community.Under Schilling’s leadership, APP—a religious-right organization that has made discriminating against trans kids its main endeavor—launched a Texas state chapter last year and targeted Abbott and other Republicans for not going far enough with the anti-trans legislation they passed. In February, APP released two ads attacking Abbott for failing to “protect our children.”
So if Schilling is to be believed, Texas families with trans children have literally been fearing knocks on their doors because of him. But it's not just about trans people. According to Media Matters, Schilling made the following remark about gay men
“Am I really a snowflake for not wanting to explain butt sex to my kids?”
I suspect that Schilling and his group will be appearing on a future SPLC listing of anti-LGBTQ hate groups. But for now, I would pay at least a little attention to his attack on LGBTQ people who realize after they have entered heterosexual marriages that they need to be honest with themselves and their families.
Don't be surprised if what he wrote ends up in a less hysterical form on some state legislative bill.
