WATCH: Houston School Superintendent Slams AG Ken Paxton’s Hateful Anti-Trans Crusade

‘Is It Really About the Restroom or Is It About Something Else?’ Asks Leader of Largest School District in Texas

The superintendent of Texas’ largest school district had the perfect response this week when asked about Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s ongoing crusade against transgender schoolchildren. 

On Sunday, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor granted a request from Paxton’s office to temporarily block the Obama administration from implementing guidance saying public schools should allow trans students to use restrooms based on their gender identity

On Monday, newly appointed Houston school district Superintendent Richard Carranza was asked about O’Connor’s decision to issue the preliminary injunction. 

“I think kids are human beings, and I think a human being should be treated like a human being, so I have to look at what they said in particular about the transgender bathroom law,” Carranza told Fusion.net (video above). “I can tell you in my former experience, I spent seven years, almost eight years, in San Francisco. We had transgender bathrooms the entire time I was there, never had one issue, zero reported issues with a transgender restroom, so I think we need to kind of peel the onion. Is it really about the restroom or is it about something else?” 

Carranza’s obvious implication is that the lawsuit has little to do with “the privacy, dignity and safety of students,” as one attorney from Paxton’s office recently put it. Rather, it’s all about politics.

One recent poll showed 75 percent of Texas Republicans believe trans people should be forced to use restrooms according to the gender they were assigned at birth. And by pandering to this right-wing base, Paxton is able to distract from the fact that he’s facing first-degree felony charges for alleged securities fraud, not to mention other scandals that have plagued his office. 

The Houston school district, with some 215,000 students, has an LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination policy and presumably allows trans kids to use restrooms based on their gender identity. However, the city also recently became ground zero for the bathroom wars when voters repealed an Equal Rights Ordinance last year. 

On Tuesday, Paxton filed another hateful lawsuit — this one challenging federal rules prohibiting anti-trans discrimination under the Affordable Care Act. Indeed, if there’s anything more popular in the Texas GOP than persecuting LGBT people, it’s fighting Obamacare. 

Sadly, Carranza is one of the few appointed or elected officials in Texas who’ve spoken out against Paxton’s ongoing, politically motivated war against trans people. 

That will need to change if LGBT advocates and allies are going to beat back anti-trans bills in the upcoming legislative session. 

 

Image: Screenshot via Fusion.net