Sorry, LGBTQ+ Kids, Greg Abbott's Got An Election To Win
These people would sell their own mothers to hold on to power.
It's a great day to shit on LGBTQ kids in Texas!
Well, that's every day in Texas, to be fair. But today they are doing it in spectacularly nasty fashion by disabling a state website that linked to a suicide hotline for LGBTQ+ kids in foster care because it might jeopardize Gov. Greg Abbott's electoral prospects.
Sorry about your mental health, kids, but we can't be using state resources to help you when Ol' Greg's got a primary challenger.
And what a beaut that challenger is! Check out Don Huffines, the real estate developer hoping to wrest the GOP nomination from Abbott next year.
It’s offensive to see @GregAbbott_TX use our tax dollars to advocate for transgender ideology. This must end.… https: //t.co/Q6SSbAfjn5
— Don Huffines (@Don Huffines) 1630438725.0
Whaddaya got, weirdo?
Gov. Abbott's political appointees that are running the Department of Family and Protective and Children's Services have put out — and it's been on their website – some very disturbing information about our youth. They are promoting transgender sexual policies to Texas youth.
Well, no.
As the Houston Chronicle reports, the site linked to a suicide prevention hotline and resources to help keep LGBTQ+ kids safe and healthy, particularly those in foster care, whom the state has a moral and legal responsibility to protect and care for. But acknowledging that these kids exist and deserve to be treated as human is apparently a bridge too far for Don Huffines.
It's gender identity and sexual orientation and — let me just read this to you. They're talking about helping empower and celebrate lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, allied, non-heterosexual behavior. And it goes on and on.
I mean, really? This is Texas. These are not Texas values. These are not Republican Party values. But these are obviously Greg Abbott's values.
Wow , you are thinking, what an absolute piece of shit! Luckily no one's going to pay attention to a raging crank like that.
But you would be wrong. Because after Huffines's screed went live on August 31, Texas DFPS employees immediately freaked out and pulled down the website for the the entire Texas Youth Connection division, which helps kids 16 and older access resources as they transition out of foster care. And it's still down.
Here's what the site looks like this morning.
Texas Youth Connection website
And thanks to digging by the Chronicle , we know exactly why.
"FYI. This is starting blow up on Twitter," media relations director Marissa Gonzalez emailed DFPS communications director Patrick Crimmins just minutes after Huffines's post went live.
"Please note we may need to take that page down, or somehow revise content," Crimmins emailed the web director. And then the whole site got cancel cultured, because taking care of kids is apparently "not Texas values."
Which ain't exactly news to anyone who's been paying attention , but it is pretty goddamn filthy.
"We aren't surprised that state employees who are loyal to Greg Abbott had to scramble after we called their perverse actions out," Huffines crowed. "I promised Texans I would get rid of that website, and I kept that promise."
Which is consistent with the level of discourse from a subliterate nutter whose pinned tweet boasts of his intention to "use Article I, Section 10 of the US Constitution to secure the Texas Border. I will never ask permission from the federal government." The provision in question specifically delimits the power of the states over commerce and foreign affairs, but go off, asshole.
Meanwhile, people who actually care about kids are horrified at this attack on some of the most vulnerable kids on earth who have an elevated risk for both suicide and homelessness.
"The state is responsible for these kids' lives, yet it intentionally removed a way for them to find help when they need it the most," Equality Texas CEO Ricardo Martinez told the Chronicle . "This action is unconscionable, and it reminds us that political aspirations are part of every attack on LGBTQ+ kids in Texas, including the fabricated debates and dozens of anti-transgender bills targeting them this year. These precious kids deserve so much better than the way this state is treating them."
Yes, they bloody well do. For fucking shame, Texas.
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you're not gay. a politically involved gay person would have strung enough together between their local Stonewall Chapter, the Trevor Project and the Human Rights Campaign to what this thread is about and would also teach you not to mansplain to Texans. you're just saying you are because you think that identifying with a marginalized group will win you points--WHICH IS TOTALLY HOMOPHOBIC OF YOU in addition to being super fucking sexist. unfortunately for you, this is not the first time I have encountered this. FUCK ALL THE WAY OFF.
you understand me not at all because you have yet to LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE.
you are 100% dismissive of your lack of knowledge on this issue. you don't care about this issue because your first response to me indicated you thought Texas voters were a waste of time and therefore the LGBTQ+ kids and adults affected by the decisions our elected officials make can, in your opinion, get fucked. you should be ashamed and that is why I am shaming you.
but you're too arrogant to understand from your white boy perch in Michigan that you really really really need to FUCK ALL THE WAY OFF WITH YOUR BULLSHIT.
stop telling me you do care and you do know when you have made sure I know you're lying.