The Texan Podcast - 88th Session Kickoff: Child Gender Modification Policy Panel

Episode Date: February 6, 2023

Get a FREE “Fake News Stops Here” mug when you buy an annual subscription to The Texan: https://go.thetexan.news/mug-fake-news-stops-here-2022/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=weekly_roundup  This panel was about child gender modification policies in Texas. Our reporter, Matt Stringer, moderated the discussion between State Sen. Charles Perry and Reps. Bryan Slaton and Nate Schatzline.Enjoy this content? Be sure to subscribe for similar podcasts and The Texan’s Weekly Roundup — a podcast released every Friday that brings you the latest news in Texas politics.

Howdy folks, Senior Editor Mackenzie DeLulo here. Welcome to a special edition of the Texans Podcast, where we play back a panel discussion with lawmakers that we hosted at our 88th session kickoff event on January 24th. This panel was about child gender modification policies in Texas. Our reporter, Matt Stringer, moderated the discussion between State Senator Charles Perry and State Representatives Brian Slayton and Nate Schatzlein. We hope you enjoy listening to this conversation and be sure to subscribe at thetexan.news to always be the first to have an insider's look at Texas politics and policymaking. I'd like to begin by introducing myself. My name is Matt Stringer, and I'm a reporter here at the

Texan, and I have the honor of serving as the panel moderator today. And it is my honor to, as moderator, to introduce our distinguished panelists. Beginning here to my immediate left is Senator Charles Perry, a Republican from Lubbock, who is also recently named chairman of the Water, Agriculture, and Rural Affairs Committee. So congratulations on your appointment, Chairman. Next to him is Representative Nate Schatzlein from House District 93, a Republican from the edge of Fort Worth, as I have learned. And seated next to him is Representative Brian Slayton, a Mineola Republican from House District 2. Would you please give our panelists a warm welcome?

As with most issues facing the legislature, you will find two sides. In this issue, there are those who say a variety of what they deem gender-affirming care is needed for certain transgender children, including measures ranging from the appearance of the child's apparel to issues that are more medical-related, including the use of puberty-blocking medication and even surgery. Opponents on this issue say that this constitutes child abuse and have filed a variety of bills in response that limit or prohibit the practice in nature. Beginning with you, Senator, can each of you take a minute and give your view on the issue? Minutes, hard to do for a politician,

especially for a senator. But, you know, so I'm going to set the table, I hope, for a really productive and looking forward to that conversation. As you stated, there are two sides. There's two sides to every coin. There's two sides to every issue. And I think sometimes we ignore the reality of the other side,

but I know they for certain ignored the reality of my side. I do this for lots of reasons. One, common sense, science, and I think it's a travesty for a parent to make a decision that is going to be life-changing before a child is understanding what that life-changing decision may be, i.e. puberty blockers, surgeries, and those things. And so at 18, you're on your own in this country as far as those decisions. And if you choose to do that, that's fine. But I think we've fallen into the idea that we know best at every level for all the times for parents. And we buy into that most of the time on our side. That said, I have heard

these parents talk. I've seen them in hearings. I've seen them in testimony. And they truly, truly, I think, believe they're doing what's best for their child. And I look at that from a faith perspective. We were designed basically for the Great Commission, and we also were given kind of a very direct correlation as to what our roles is as man and woman. So I will never support something that undermines the sovereign creator for his creation. And that's really what the heart of the political agenda is from the left, is separation of a creator. So they've got an agenda, but I can tell you in talking to these parents, they believe that they have a child that has fallen into this. Now, that's where I think that we as a legislature have a role,

and that's to hopefully not permit the harm that can come permanently, because statistics bear this out, that if these kids are left alone and go through natural puberty, about 88% of them, I believe, is what the research showed when I was carrying the bill last session. By the way, Senator Hall is carrying this legislation this time. A better piece of legislation, in my opinion. That's not surprising. I was the author of the bill last session. By the way, Senator Hall is carrying this legislation this time. A better piece of legislation, in my opinion. That's not surprising.

I was the author of the one last session. But I think we have to stand up for those that have no voice. I do it in life. I do it in situations. And the parent, if their voice is going to be harmful, and statistics and science back this out, Europe was someone we always look to a lot of times unfortunately to see these vogue or it kind of kind of issues that have service they are now retracting based on science and some things that maybe they were wrong on this

transgender issue maybe they shouldn't be giving it and maybe they do other therapies before those kind of therapies so we're seeing a retread or a retraction, I guess, of some of the conversations that has put the U.S. to the front of this conversation in 60 different places for kids to have this performed on them. And where you compare that to your Europe, there's usually one to three. So we're beginning to see signs catch up with the narrative that maybe this isn't the smartest thing to do. At its core for me, I have a God

that created me the way they created me, and he created me for specific roles. Men and women are a part of that conversation. That's what he designed, and I can't let man override that. It's just a separation from a creator. That's what the big agenda is. If you can push God out one more level, the ultimate holy grail is creation, then you win on the left, and that's what that's about. But the parents involved in this conversation, you've got to be ultra-sensitive because they truly, truly believe they are right on this issue, and I can't let that go. Representative?

Well said, Senator Perry. I'm going to say a non-controversial statement right now. There are only two genders in the United States or anywhere else in the world. And I think this has to be on the forefront of our mind that recognizing that as we go into this really progressive world, we have to understand that we are not, you know, we're calling it gender modification. And the bill that we filed yesterday to outlaw gender modification for minors, which I'm super excited about, we just filed. And I'll talk a little bit about that bill later on. But, you know, it's labeled as gender mod, but what we should really call it is gender mutilation surgery.

And because what we're doing is we're mutilating a child because modifying a gender is not scientifically possible. So at the end of the day, you can mutilate a child and no matter what you do to the physical appearance, they are still the biological sex that they were born with. We have to understand that to allow this to go on as much compassion as we have in our tone and everything that we do and loving these parents. We're also, you know, we're not affirming healthcare. We are affirming mental illness. And we have to understand that when we go into it, that we're dealing with students who, like, like you said, Senator, they truly believe that this is their identity. And I think that's one

of the saddest parts about this entire thing is that we are telling children that their identity is in their sex or in their gender when their identity is nothing of the sort. It's the character of their heart that we should be pointing to. And so I think it's our job. I'm all about parental rights, especially when we talk about education. We talk about making medical choices. Parental rights are first and foremost in our minds, but parental rights end when a child is in danger of being harmed. And this is what we're dealing with on a national level is children are being mutilated. And that's the moment that we step in and say, no more.

We're going to protect children at all costs. Representative Slayton. Thank you. I'm happy to be here. I appreciate the invite and I appreciate everything these Representative Slayton. by how we treat children. And what we're allowing to happen to children is barbaric, and it is, to their life, catastrophic, preventing them from going through a natural process of puberty. I believe it's child abuse. I mean, there's other words I could use, but we can't put that in our bill language. But it's child abuse, and it's child abuse. I mean, there's other words I could use, but we can't put that in our bill language. But it's child abuse, and it's wrong. And where I come from on this, where I view this,

is how I'm a Christian. This is how we should view the authority in our life. You have God's law, nature's law, and man's law. And man's law should not contradict. And that's what we should honor. God created male and female. And we should protect these children. I've told people when I was a youth minister, I remember just seeing how parents would raise their kids and they didn't want their kids to have their heart broken by a boyfriend or girlfriend. They didn't want, they have elbow pads, knee pads, helmets,

everything, right? No scars. And then, you know, they started wanting to make sure every child got a trophy. They didn't want them to know what it was like to lose. And then now we have this going on and it's absolutely insane that we have this overreaction, overprotection of children. I want to almost wrap them in bubble wrap. But the minute a child decides they want to do this, this irreversible barbaric surgery or counseling or chemical castration, everyone's on board. And even the state of Texas is funding the education of this, and it needs to stop. I believe I heard one of you mention parental rights, which kind of ties into this next question, which is there are those who say this is a matter to be left to families and their doctors. Why should the state of Texas intervene?

Senator Perry? The state of Texas has a record of protecting the innocent, the unborn, the voiceless, and I think it was said best that we believe in parental rights, but when the harm to the child is, you know, we have a whole agency we spend billions of dollars on over child protective services, right? So we have a vested interest in making sure that our youth and our children and our young are not subjected to something that is truly beginning to be a conversation that's not as good an idea as what the parents may have thought.

You know, in this conversation, we had the bathroom bill in 17. I was just talking in the back, and everybody laughed at chastised us and made fun of us now we've got kids that are asking for litter boxes in the public school system because they think they're a cat so it's a slippery slope that has no end except for heartache this slope that we're on is nothing but heartache it's heartache for the families it's hard for the kids it's community. It upsets the natural order of things. It completely reverses every scientific, every common sense. It eliminates standards. And so we can't allow an action of a parent to harm a child, first of all, and we have a history of Texas. You know, everybody says it's the woman's choice. No, there's two lives.

Actually, there's three involved in that, but there's two lives in that conversation, the baby and the mom, the dad or whoever the partner was. But we have a history and a commitment to protecting the innocent and the unborn. The innocent is those kids, I believe, in this conversation. I know that parents are going to disagree with that, and I'm okay with that because science and data is on our side on this.

Those that went through this transitioning at 30 and 40 and 50 years old, if they're fortunate enough to live, because the health issues they incur subsequent to this transition at a later age is really horrendous on people, and they're saying, well, we wish we would have never done that. And we seem to just ignore those conversations when it's convenient Texas is going to protect its kids plain and simple when parents are I won't use the term irresponsible because they believe that they're doing the responsible thing but we've got to look at the facts the data and the science and say that's not going to work and step in. Representative? I think Senator Perry said it best in the beginning when he was talking about,

you know, Europe is seeing the backlash and really the result of doing this, that this is leading to higher rates of depression, higher suicide rates. You know, one of the most recent statistics is that children that deal with gender dysphoria, by the time they reach the age of 18, 90 to 94% of them are now comfortable with their current born gender. And I think that's so important to understand the mental processing of children. You know, someone asked me while I was on the campaign trail, who they don't, you know, identify as a straight male. And they walked up to me and they said, do you approve of my lifestyle? And I kind of laughed and I said, I don't approve of my own five-year-old's lifestyle. I don't approve of many people's lifestyle.

But the reality is I'm called to protect people. That's what we're here to, to protect liberty and then to protect those that can't protect themselves so we have to understand that this is really comes down to making sure that our children are not making permanent decisions in a moment of emotion because children are driven by emotion that many of some of our legislators are driven by emotion me me as well at times you know so it's got we have to understand that these permanent decisions, we look at, you know, some of these surgeries that we're talking about, whether it be, you know, a mastectomy or whatever it is that removing genitalia on a child, some of them you cannot go back. And we are changing the very biological structure that God created them to be over a

moment and an emotion and quite honestly, a fad in current American culture. And we have to understand that culture should not dictate the way that we treat our children, whether that whatever your worldview is. I'm a Christian. And so I believe the word of God has to. We have to honor them from the very beginning. And by honor them, we mean protect them. And so looking at this, you know, the bill that I filed for banning gender modification for minors, not only does it give the ability for the Texas Medical Association to remove that license of the physician, it also challenges their liability insurance, but it also labels it as child abuse. And I think that this is a big deal because looking

at, you know, the parents that are doing that, you're right, you know, Senator Perry, many of them have the right intent. But I'm going to tell you this, child abuse happens every day regardless of the intent of the parent that's doing it. And so we have to understand that we can't look at the emotions of the parent and be so sensitive to them that we miss out on protecting an entire generation that's being mutilated on a daily basis. Representative Slayton. So in regard to parental rights, so CPS obviously exists, and somebody might need to compile a list of things that children have been taking away from their parents.

I've heard reports that, you know, CPS was called because someone's kids were playing out after dark. That's the world we live in. Letting the kids play after dark, you could have CPS called. In fact, you can have CPS called, I guess, on anything because they can turn you in anonymous. But with this, I mean, with gender modification, whether it's the counseling, the prescription drugs, or the actual surgeries, the fact that we're letting children do this,

parents, in a lot of ways, I believe, manipulating the child to go through this, we protect children. CPS attempts to do that, protects children. And we have, we do it in other issues. We absolutely can do it in this one. And then one question I've proposed to some people, one of my ethics professors in seminary talked about when you're discussing something like this, one good question to ask is, what if you're wrong? And you ask it to both sides. So what if they are wrong, right? Someone who believes in doing this to children, letting them go through all these procedures, what if they're wrong? Well, if they're wrong, that, you know, it's not a good thing, they have ruined a child's life. and the child didn't make the decision

because they're not an adult. So what if I'm wrong? What if I'm wrong? The child has to wait till they're an adult to do these things to themselves. You see, what that child wants or a person wants, if they want to go through gender modification, if you believe like me and gentlemen up here and others, when you're an adult, you can do that. But the other side is completely destructive, irreversible, and it destroys a child's life. Moving on to the next question. How common or prevalent of an issue is this?

Specifically, do we have data regarding the issue? Senator. I'm going to answer. I don't know how prevalent it is you know and the mic gets the narrative of the day right so if you listen to the national tenor the White House tenor if you listen to those that come and testify because truthfully you do draw that segment of the population into the hearing so if you believe all of that just from that bubble you would think

it's a lot I don't believe it to be true. I live in a very conservative area of the state in the country. I can't tell you I can find more than five people that have come to my office to have a conversation about transgender or kids in that transitioning period. So I don't think it's as near as prevalent as the people pushing the narrative would want you to believe it is. So I don't think it's as near as prevalent as the people pushing the narrative would want you to believe it is. So I don't have any data to tell you what that looks like. I've heard statistics as low as 3% or under. I've heard statistics as high as 9%. I don't know. But I think it's all a matter of who's polling, the questions you ask, and what stage you catch people. All kids are curious. All kids are going to have thoughts and things.

But when you have a parent that encourages whatever curiosity that is or you're around a system that supports those curiosities, you know, as we go down this road of inclusion and tolerance for everything and our public schools adopt that, those kids are going to be more influenced, right? Kids are a product of their environment a lot of times. I can tell you the state budget of almost 300 billion plus all funds. If I could make a magic wand and make parents be responsible tomorrow, we could probably cut that in half. We deal with irresponsible parents. Parents have an obligation to teach and direct and educate on things that are proven and reliable and unchanging. This is a dangerous path.

I don't know what the statistic is on how many people are tied up in this. Representative Schlesling. Yeah, so I was a youth pastor for 10 years, worked in the public education system. I was a football coach. Pretty much everything that me and my wife have done in our life has been centered around helping minors. And so, you know, we've got a lot of, you know, firsthand experience with conversations with parents, with students. And I'll tell you this, you know, whatever the data is, I agree, I live in a very conservative

part of Texas as well in North Fort Worth. But I'm looking at the data and I'll tell you what really matters is there's an increase in a drive and an intel for this type of lifestyle and behavior. And I think, you know, our children are incredibly impressionable where they're looking for role models. And so as we see the increase of social media activity from the trans movement and everything going on, we're also going to see an increase in students who identify in these behaviors because all students are looking to belong. You know, you look back into the 1700s and you can't find one thing about a student saying in the 1700s anywhere in the world that they wanted to play in the NFL because the NFL didn't exist. And so now we have to look at this create this false falsified universe that's been

created around the trans trans movement is in in, you know, coming into every single avenue of these children's lives or children's lives, whether it be through TikTok, whether it be through Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, you name it, which I know Representative Patterson is working on a bill to combat some of these social media companies right now, which I think is incredibly important because our children are being indoctrinated on a daily basis. You mix that in with now organizations reaching out to our children's public school educators and saying, hey, I want you to affirm them on a daily basis with their preferred pronouns, but I don't want you to tell the parents you can use their biological name there. We see it. The education system right now is undermining our parents. We see social media is undermining our parents. There's a federal agenda against our

children. I think we have to understand that with as impressionable as our children are, we've got to go on the offense here. We've got to start protecting kids because I can promise you there's a culture that's trying to attack them, whether we want to admit it or not. And so you mentioned data. I'd like to share one big thing that, you know, it was from the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey. And I'm sure there are even more recent updates from here. But what they show is people who deal with gender dysphoria are 4.9 times more likely to attempt suicide. And, you know, this is a statistic that many on the left love to quote. They love to talk about it, the fact of, oh, this is a statistic that many in the left love to quote. They love to talk

about the fact of, oh, this is what culture is bullying them. Let me give you an even greater statistic that it shows that people who go through gender transitioning surgeries are 19 times more likely to die by suicide. And this right here shows that the answer is not to affirm mental illness. The answer is to not to affirm mental illness. The answer is to help people with mental illness. And I think we've gotten it backwards. And I think it's time for especially conservatives across our state to rise up and lead in this area and show that our children are going to come first. And we're going to put their health, their mental health, before we put their preference.

Because children don't know what they want. And that's why we have to protect them while they're still being formed and while their mind is still developing. Thank you. Representative Slayton. Yes. So how prevalent is it? Well, that's a part of the tactic the left likes to use, as I've been trying to address this issue. The first thing they say is, well, is it even happening? And then when you can show them that it is happening, then they say, well, how prevalent is it? And then once you show them how much, then it's like, well, isn't it the parents,

you know, parents and the child's decision. It's not like answering that question will suffice those that support it. I want to make sure to say that. Also, just so I'm clear, the number I put on, you know, is too many and that we need to protect children from this. The number that I'm at is one. If one child is being subjected to this, I'm on board if it's happening to the same as it's happening to 20,000. No child should ever go through this. They should be able to grow up, become an adult, and then make decisions to be a contributing member to society. And this is not helping them whenever you're taking out healthy body parts.

You're preventing a natural and good thing, puberty from occurring. So, and it is, I mean, it's more prevalent than you would think is probably the best way I would answer that, Matthew, because we know what's happening. There's people that bring their children here to support what they're doing to their child, to the Capitol. Senator Perry set through the testimony of all that. Then there's people that are coming out saying, hey, I was transitioned and I regret it. You see their stories. But one way you know how prevalent this is in the state of Texas is our state budget funds medical institutions that have syllabi to teach this to young medical professionals, where they can observe part of the requirements is to observe whether it's the counseling of the child, whether it's prescription

medication or procedure. So if they're teaching it to our young medical professionals with our tax dollars, it's prevalent. It's happening. So the idea of acting like it's not happening, oh, it's happening, and everyone in here, your tax dollars are helping fund it and keep it going. That's what's happening right now. That's actually a segue into our next question, which is pertaining to how are taxpayer dollars being used in this issue? I know on our previous panel discussion, there was a little bit of discussion about in grade schools, it going towards curriculums. Representative Slayton just mentioned higher education. Turning to you, Senator Perry, what instances are you aware of in which taxpayer funds are being used in this issue? Well, I think Representative Slayton said it best.

Our higher eds have co-opted and adopted. Don't get me started on some of that narrative. But especially in the medical profession, they take a hypocrite oath to do no harm, which I find is kind of hypocritical of this issue. But our young educators' minds are no different than our kids'. You know, kids go to college, they're very impressionable. I will tell you, on the little kid's side, they love attention, right? So anything that gets them or garners their attention from all levels be it public school parents or other things they're going to migrate to that because kids want attention so there's

an element of that booking through and i will just say it purely and i have five grandkids but if your kids are on social media and they're under six years old without supervision shame on y'all there's not a whole lot of things that come out of social media that's positive. And we've had testimony of suicide, bullying, and cyberbullying, and I hear testimony. My son was at 3 a.m. and killed himself today because he was on the cyber internet, right? So there's just a lot of things parents should do. But back to your question. I think you're going to see this legislation hone in on some of the narrative. I think Lieutenant Governor said it best in his inaugural address.

They're graduating country haters, expatriates, anti-capitalism and loving socialism, and the whole narrative that that includes is part of this conversation. Our higher eds are producing people because we've allowed faculty advisors to become part of the HR system. They're making decisions on who gets to be the teacher in the classroom. And you've got to remember your human nature. It's really kind of cool to be against something. And it also plays to the sinful, awful side of mankind that, you know, if you don't have any rules, you can be whatever you want to be today. So you throw all that into the spiritual battle that's going on out there. We are graduating teachers, and my wife's a teacher of 30 years, but truly the new teacher in the classroom doesn't see the moral aspect or that fundamental background unless they're coming out of a different type

system than what I'm aware of today. But our highers have bought in co-opted all of this narrative and they're producing teachers that go into a classroom and they promote all of the stuff that we're talking about today in the name of tolerance and inclusion and loving on the kids and that's really not loving on the kids you know kids need boundaries kids need rules kids need things are absolutes in order to be a productive person going forward. And they need to hang on to something that's not going to change. And by giving them this idea that they can be anything they want, any day they want, and change their identity, we're doing a real disservice. Actually, we're destroying the country one kid at a time.

So it's our higher ed. It's going to be a 10-year conversation. I mean, we've got to go to the policy aspects of how you reverse or change the narrative. The tenure conversation. I will tell you, though, in my district, having conversations with superintendents, I had a teacher that had a certain display of a particular political issue today, in today's time, is rainbow, and they were talking in terms of things that I think most people would agree that's not what a teacher is supposed to be doing. My district pulled all that information out of their rooms. So you can plug into your local school boards and superintendents and demand

that those teachers don't do this or you'll pull your kids and that's why you see homeschool and other things probably getting a very detailed conversation this time, but we've got to change the teachings. And I'm not asking them to all be Christians. I wish they were. I think that's the only path. John tells me that. But they can't be an advocate for something that's at its very darkest and deepest level, fundamentally undermines our civilization. Representative? It's so good. I agree with everything that was just said. I think looking at it, we talk about higher education a lot. Let's talk about just at the very fundamental level of public education right now. Number one, I just want to say we need education freedom here in the United States,

and we need to lead the way in that in Texas. And our parents need to be able to decide where their taxpayer dollars are funding because I'm going to tell you this, competition has never hurt any industry And our parents need to be able to decide where their taxpayer dollars are funding. Because I'm going to tell you this, competition has never hurt any industry in the United States of America. And the public education system is no different. They need to have competition because right now they're owned. And they're owned by an agenda that, quite frankly, is against our children. We look at some of these curriculums that are coming in and the blatant sexualization of our kids at a very young age, you know, as young as three years old is where we found in the classroom of these children being sexualized. And I don't know about you, but I don't

want my child being sexualized at this age. That's not something that we want to submit unto them. Their minds aren't ready for that. You know, this is really where we get back to. We don't need indoctrination, but we need to go back to the roots of education in Texas. And so we talk about taxpayer money coming in. This is why I'm a school choice advocate. We've got to get school choice in the state of Texas so that our parents can have the final say in their child's education. And so looking at this, when we look at the education system, let me just say it like this. There is no greater position of authority than a school board member in your local community. If anything deserves your vote, your attention, your block walking, your campaigning, it's your school board elections.

That's coming from another elected official. There's nothing more important. Our school board in particular, we were able to flip almost every seat inside of that school board. And I used every bit of the authority or influence that I had to do so because these are our children at stake. And then we've got, you know, incredible competition with our private schools, some of our charter schools that I've had conversations with. They're not, you know, teaching things that are relating to the sexualization of our kids that truly lead to the mind-altering, you know, moments where students decide that they no longer identify as their God-given gender. And it's all plants. These are small seeds that are planted in early

days, and they lead to, you know, fruit that really isn't something that we want to see inside of our children. So then moving back to the higher education system, this is where we've got to, number one, teach our children to think critically and to challenge because your child has the authority to walk in. And let me tell you something. Some of you parents in this room are funding some of these universities with tuition right now. And I just want to say, if you're funding it, you have the right to have a say in it. And every taxpayer in this room has a right to have a say of what UT Austin teaches. And so we need to be vocal about that. We need to be auditing these classrooms and making sure that

our next generation is not being indoctrinated, but they're actually being educated. And I'll finish it with this. You know, we talked about school choice a little bit. This is school choice, I think, awareness week. And, you know, this is something that we have to look at. I had, I won't say who, but I had a rural district Republican come to me advocating against school choice. Probably, I don't know, this was six to nine months ago. And I just, I told him, I said, what are you against school choice? And he said, well, this isn't affecting my district. This isn't affecting my district. And it was one of the greatest moments because I just looked at him and I said, give it 10 years. Give it 10 years. And I promise that every single teacher inside of your rural district is going to be coming from a UT Austin where they will

have been indoctrinated into these belief systems. And you might be 10 years behind, but if we wait 10 years to do something to give education freedom back to our parents, it's going to be too late for our urban and suburban districts. So we have to do something in the 88th legislature. Representative Slayton, would you like to expand on the taxpayer funding usage? Yeah. So we've talked about higher education and medical schools. So three to four sessions ago, House Bill 10, 11, and 12 were passed, and it had to do with mental health in the schools. So I'll just tell you the way I see that bill and how it could play out. You can get a great school board, you have a great superintendent and teachers not teaching any of this, but if your school district contracts with a mental health facility or company and I want to remind you how our curriculum is in

schools all of our curriculum comes from where San Francisco Chicago New York and that's what they try to do they try to grow a big company and then they try to sell the product to the school districts and everybody's getting it from the same companies, okay? I believe they're doing the same thing with mental health. And so you could have, this is absolutely possible, you could have things that are illegal in Texas being taught or pushing children towards that without the teacher or the parent knowing. Because if you're going to rely on that mental health professional to talk to the child and you don't know what that company stands for, you don't know if that company supports. Maybe they're in the state of Washington and they can do late-term abortions.

They're giving kids pamphlets about you could go to Washington. We could help you get there. Or if we were to ban gender modification of children. But this this company that's contracted with the school says, let me help you get across the state line to New Mexico or wherever. So it is absolutely something we have to watch out for. And that's, you know, that's just in a contract with a third party to do the mental health and it's still taxpayer supported, but most people aren't paying attention

to what those contracts are and what that company is teaching. Thank you, Representative. And I'm going to rotate the next question back to lead off with you. The state of California recently passed a sanctuary state type law. In your view, what should or could the state of Texas do to respond on this issue? I've had well why doesn't the governor just get the Texas Rangers and we go get those

kids and protect them from what's going on there but I know that's probably not allowed I think we need to seriously consider what we do with the state of California and it should affect some of our relationship. Like I said, when we started, how a person treats a child tells you a lot about that person. How a state treats children teaches you a lot about that state. And I don't know what we can do. California is a sovereign state and they're able to do those things. We need to fix laws here and we need to rein in some judges. You know, there's the judge that just, you know, made the ruling, allowed James Younger to go to California. And right before that bill became law. And so it's very difficult trying to figure

out what to do because we can't tell California what to do, and they can't tell us what to do, or at least while I'm here, I'm not going to let them do that. But we need to find a way to protect children, and we need to also remember how they're choosing to treat children when it comes to any type of agreement and things we have. We need to consider not being as friendly. Let's stay friendly, keep the door open, but let's back off on some things and maybe encourage them to change their policies towards children. Thank you. Representative Schoethleland, your thoughts? Yeah, you know, I think the power of states is incredibly powerful. We chose to live in the

great state of Texas. My wife and I, for a number of years, lived in California. And when our children got old enough to get into school, we left that place and came back to God's country, where we were from. And so, you know, and looking at this, one of the things that I noticed when I was in California is that the majority of parents are not on board with this. They just don't know that they can fight the way that Texans do. And, you know, coming back to the issue of Texas, we have to focus on policy here. And this is why, you know, HB 1532 is the bill that I just put forth last night. I think that we have to focus on one major thing here is that, you know, as a legislature, we're pretty good in times of

putting forth bills that have no teeth. And this has to be something that shifts in the atmosphere a little bit in the Texas legislature to where we can't just put forth bills that sound good or tickle the ears of our constituents. We've got to put forth bills that actually get things done and actually leverage the power to protect kids. And so this is why, you know, my bill specifically, it doesn't just go after a doctor's ability to have liability insurance. It doesn't just go after their medical license. We have to go after the fact that this is in fact child abuse. We have to call it what it is. Don't let anyone change your narrative. Don't let anyone change the way that you say it. And the reason that that's so important is because, just to make a clear distinction, if we only go after the physicians inside of

legislation like this, then what we allow is what was just referred to, a parent taking across state lines and getting that surgery done in New Mexico or done in California or done in whatever state that allows it. And what happens is we still have children being transitioned in the state of Texas, but we get to, as a legislature, say, oh, we don't do that here in Texas. That's just not true. We're abdicating our role as legislators to protect our children by having a nice piece of paper that says, oh, looky, looky, what I did, when in reality, if we're being completely honest, we have to go at the root of this issue and make sure that the children are protected, not just that the doctors are facing consequences for doing this in the state of Texas. I want to end with this one piece when

we're talking about the different states' issues. One of the things that we could get attacked the most on is, oh, you're attacking doctors. No, no, no, we're protecting doctors. We're making sure that doctors can follow their Hippocratic oath and making sure that they have the Texas legislator backing them up when they refuse to do these surgeries because I think we have some great physicians

that do not want to be engaged in activity like this. Senator Perry, and then we'll pose the last question. Well, I'd say it this way. First of all, my heart breaks because truthfully, there's no win here. You've got a parent that's told a kid they should do this, and anything we do that changes that direction, we run the risk of both alienating kids and parents for life. I do agree that it's time for hard measures. We need to put people in jail and call it child abuse. My bill did that. And I'm not suggesting to you that's going to fix this issue. It's a matter of the heart, and it's better who you seek your guidance from and who you base

your standards on. And, you know, every day we ought to be on knees praying for the morality and the loss of a compass that is dictated by the guy that created us. And that's where the real solution comes from, but we're also told we're living in a fallen world, and these are the days we're to see. They're just going to get worse. And that distresses me, but I'm told to run the race and fight the fight. So on a civil level, we, in criminal, we can actually put legislation in place that will criminalize the parent.

Don't forget, there's a child that's been involved in that parental household and supervision and oversight for however many years that is, one year up to 17, 18. So I'm sickened and heartbroken for the child, for the parent, and from a legislative perspective, there's really no win here because it's a different issue and we don't fix hearts legislators don't policies that fix hearts God fixes hearts so we have some real

ground to make up as Christians we've sat on the sidelines we've let this stuff evolve life got busy we know what the right thing to do is we know how you solve problems and we know where you get

your answers to to fix the problems from but in a civil world or in a moral secular system that we live in, we're not going to solve them today. But remember, everything we do still doesn't fix the pieces. Now, we may save a child from mutilation or physical changes that they have no control over when they get to adults and regret them. So we've got to do the best we can.

The policy of the day is the best we can and that's got to have some really teeth in it. I do agree it's gonna be hard, gonna be hard conversation but man it's it's it's heartbreak. You know I'm reminded Paul didn't have the skills fall off until he did a walk. So you got to treat those people that haven't seen the light and I know that's gonna sound harsh to some and but I'm one of those guys John it's pretty clear there's one way one path one road and so we as a Christian folk need to step into this arena in a very bold courageous convicted and graceful way loving way to try to bend the narrative

back and God can do anything if you ask it. But we are going to make a law here that's going to, I think it'll pass this session. I really do. I'm fairly confident it's going to get through the process. But gosh, we've left some heartbreak behind and it breaks my heart. Senator, I'm going to rotate to you to pose the last question, which you kind of segued into. Do you believe there is support in both chambers to pass a bill this legislative session? And if so, what do you think that bill would look like? I think there's an appetite to pass a bill. I cannot predict what the final outcome looks like. You know, we've got a pretty stout starting point right child abuse jail time loss of license loss of

insurance so those are all things that are real and I think practically speaking need to happen how that morphs through the system but I I'm confident enough that this this dialogue has finally reached the kitchen table. Parents are saying, did you hear there's this furry thing going on in our school district today? Did you hear Johnny is now wanting to be called John East in the school system? So what we've been talking about in Texas as a legislature for years has finally come home to roost at the dinner table. And I think parents are finally getting a sense of it, and they're going going to their school board so I think there is a momentum here that's never existed before because they see it you see it on tv see it on commercials you see it everywhere you

go and so I think that there is a movement afoot if you will at the grassroots that are finally that guy that's not the guy that's making a living paying a mortgage is finally getting a little whim because John came home and said this is what's going on in the locker room, Dad. So there's finally some momentum out there. I can't predict what it looks like. I know where the Senate's at. It's going to pass Senator Hall's 249 and 250, I'm assuming, off the Senate floor. That's not an indictment or a reflection of where the House is going to be.

I'm just telling you I think there's a good chance a bill will get through the process, what its final outcome looks like. I'm not a predictor or forecaster. And if I tell you what it's going to be, I'm absolutely 99% going to be wrong. Turning to our House members, Representative Slachland. I've been a state rep for 13 days and 23 hours now. So to say what will pass would be truly a guess at this point for me. I think what I do know for sure is, you know, like Senator Perry said, like there is an appetite for this in the House. There is a, you know, a real urgency to get something done to be able to

protect kids. And, you know, here's what I'm here to say is we're going to have a lot of House members that have opinions on this very issue. I'm for incremental steps. And I'm the type of person that we're going to go for the whole shebang and make sure we're protecting kids. But if all we can get past is an incremental step, then I'm going to vote in favor of that incremental step because I think that's vital that we take the steps

because we need to increase our protection for kids. And so I think it's incredibly encouraging to hear Senator Perry talk about where they're at in the Senate. I can't wait to see how we can move forward with this legislation. I think ultimately, too, we have to look at children as the greatest part about Texas. If we're not protecting kids, why are we even here? Why know, why are we even doing what we're doing? This is what we came to do, and that is to protect the liberties of our children, to make sure that they can live in the same prosperous Texas that many of us in this room

were a part of. And so understanding that, you know, while we're going to take incremental steps, we're going to go for the whole thing. And I'm very, very hopeful that I think that the Republicans inside the Texas House are going to be with me on that. Thank you. Representative Slayton, you've been around in the House a little bit longer. What is your perspective? Well, I want to first make sure I say again, thank you to the Texas Senate and Senator Perry for their courageous leadership last session, sending two bills over. Speaks a lot to their character and their determination to protect children.

And I appreciate y'all doing that, and y'all should tell them thank you. Now, as far as what bills and support, let me try to get through that. So let me first talk about support. I have spoken with several House members, mainly Republican, and I have not had one Republican member tell me they are not for this. I haven't had one tell me that they're not in support in some level or all the way banning gender modification of children. The support is there, and the support was there last session as well. Now, what we're looking at, many of you know the pro-life fight, right? Every session, there's 10 bills filed, and some are smaller steps, bigger steps, I mean, in between. That is what we are getting into. We've seen more members filing bills this session in the House, and that's good. But we are going to be in a battle for years to

come. And there's going to be battles here, just like in the pro-life movement, to take away license, to try to find some way to prevent it, to call it child abuse and end it all around. I mean, there's going to be a fight from now for the next 10 years because no matter what the bill looks like, and if we pass it, there's not one bill we're going to pass that's going to stop this. There are people that wake up every day determined to change the gender and confuse a child. And if we pass a bill, they're not going to stop. They're going to try to find a loophole or a way around. We will be in this battle for a long, long, long time. And so, you know, I will say this as far as passing in the House, you know, as I congratulated the Senate on what they did, your past behaviors helps you see what current behavior is going to be

or future behavior is going to be. And basically in the Texas House, like I say, the support's there. So we will pass a bill if Speaker Phelan wants to, if Chairman Burroughs wants to, and Chairman Click wants to. That is how we will get it passed. Like I say, I believe the supports there are the members. I just don't know overall where our leadership is on this issue. Gentlemen, that concludes our discussion. Let's give our panelists a round of applause. Thank you so proud to have you standing with us as we seek to provide real journalism in an age of disinformation. We're paid for exclusively by readers like you. So it's important we all do our part to support the Texan by subscribing and telling your friends about us.

God bless you and God bless Texas.