Trans Kids in Greg Abbott’s Texas-Sized Panopticon

Abbott keeps finding new ways to police Texan bodies by outsourcing the job to Texan citizens

Robert Stribley
GEN

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Image from Twitter — Original tweet from NiLee Cyrus

In Texas, a state very concerned with resisting tyranny, you’re free, so free that, you’re not only unencumbered by mask and vaccine mandates, but you’re also free — empowered and incentivized even — to police the bodies of pregnant people and youths who you suspect may be transgender.

Governor Greg Abbott has made great strides in doling out these freedoms. Freedoms, which may (ironically!) feel like tyranny should you be on the receiving end of them. Just 10 months ago, Abbott famously signed into law a policy, which not only encourages you to turn in anyone, who has sought out an abortion or assisted those people, but also promised to reward them with cash money: $10,000, in fact. Essentially, he created a new job statewide: Abortion bounty hunter.

The latest right Abbott has bestowed upon formerly deprived Texans is the right to hunt down, spotlight, and harass young children who may be transgender—as well as those family members, who may seek to help their children experiencing gender dysphoria. The first person, it turned out, to be affected by this rather vicious directive was a mother of a 16-year-old transgender girl. She also happened to be an…

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Published in GEN

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Robert Stribley
Robert Stribley

Written by Robert Stribley

Writer. Photographer. UXer. Creative Director. Interests: immigration, privacy, human rights, design. UX: Technique. Teach: SVA. Aussie/American. He/him.