Hi there,

My name is Tori, and I’m a non-binary teenager living in Texas. I’ve been working with Jessica, who originally started this petition, to get the word out about Governor Abbott’s attacks on trans kids in my state. Jessica recently transferred her petition over to me, so that someone on the ground can raise their voice on this issue. 

Given the news that Texas has begun investigating parents (among them an employee of the state protective services agency who has a 16-year-old transgender kid), I feel strongly that we need to keep pushing this campaign forward. Look out for actions from me in the coming days!

Meanwhile, Jessica asked me to share this with you all:

Dear Tori and family, and signatories of the Greg Abbott trans rights in Texas petition

It has been an honor to have the opportunity of working with all of you since I started this petition last week. I am very pleased to announce that another petition was started by an LGBT child and their parents in Texas and that, thanks to the coordination and incredible support from Juliana Britto at change.org, the family and I have agreed that they will be taking over the petition due to their location and direct involvement in this issue back home in Texas.

I am a transgender female. I am 39 years old. I have been out for three years and medically transitioning for two. I live in the only African country to offer constitutional protection against discrimination based on sex, gender and sexual orientation. One of the sections of the act states that no person may be subject to harassment and defines harassment as:

“Unwanted conduct which is persistent or serious and demeans, humiliates or creates a hostile or intimidating environment or is calculated to induce submission by actual or threatened adverse consequences and which is related to- (a) sex, gender or sexual orientation, or (b) a person’s membership or presumed membership of a group identified by one or more of the prohibited grounds or a characteristic associated with such group.”

The above is not a privilege, it is a right.

It is really scary when one person's right is a privilege that someone else across the world, in a country that calls themselves "The Land of the Free" does not enjoy. It is really scary when politicians take actions because they are motivated by megalomaniac ambitions that put the people whom they are meant to protect in harms way. It is really scary when a human's life is worth less than a vote. It is even scarier when that human is a child, the very future of our world. This behavior from the few who are supposed to protect the many is  pure evil.

When I read the article on reddit about what Greg Abbott was doing to transgender youth in Texas I realized that if I did not do more than just add another comment to a blog post, then other powerful bigots like him would think that it is acceptable to treat transgender people, and those who support them, in this way and I cannot stand by and watch that happen. And no one else who calls themselves a decent human being should be able to do so either.

I want to thank each and every single one of you for touching my heart in a way that words cannot explain through your support in this campaign. We must not give up and we must continue to spread the word of this petition far and wide. People like Greg Abbott cannot get away with doing things like this and the only power we have is standing together and fighting against this tyranny together.

"Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all -- the apathy of human beings" Helen Keller

All my love,

Jessica Ryan