Texas AG Ken Paxton Finally Agrees to Meet One of His Young Transgender Victims

‘It’s Never Too Late,’ Says Amber Briggle, Who Invited Anti-LGBT Official to Dinner With Her 8-Year-Old Son

Three months after filing a lawsuit that effectively seeks to legalize discrimination against transgender schoolchildren, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has agreed to meet with one of the affected families. 

On Sunday, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor granted Paxton’s request for a nationwide injunction barring the Obama administration from acting on its position — which happens to be based on decades of case law — that trans students are protected under Title IX, a 1972 federal law prohibiting discrimination based on sex in education. 

At a press conference announcing the lawsuit in May, Paxton refused to say whether he believes trans students even exist, as documented by Odessa American reporter Nathaniel Miller: 

Later that day, Amber Briggle invited both Paxton and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — who’s also said he doesn’t know any trans people — to meet with her family, including her 8-year-old trans son, MG.  

“Come have dinner with us,” Briggle said at an Equality Texas press conference responding to the lawsuit. “Come to church with us. Come to my son’s basketball games and watch how he interacts with his friends and his little sister. I think you’ll both find there are a lot of similarities to when you were 8-year-old boys.”

During an interview about the judge’s injunction Monday, NBCDFW.com reporter Julie Fine asked Paxton if he’d accept Briggle’s longstanding invitation. 

“I’m happy to do that,” Paxton responded.  

Briggle later told The New Civil Rights Movement she planned to follow up with Paxton’s office Tuesday morning. 

“It’s never too late, though I wish he would have taken me up on my offer last spring when I originally invited him,” Briggle said. “The Texas Legislature is in session soon. This could make a small (but hopefully significant) difference.”  

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