Apple, who came out as transgender at 13, testified before the Texas Legislature while in Austin in August,opposing a bill that would have classified certain kinds of gender-affirming health care as a form of child abuse. He returned to the capital on Sunday to speak on a panel at the South by Southwest festival.
“These government officials are supposed to protect our rights, but now they’re talking about how my existence is child abuse and I need to be removed from my family and put in the foster care system,” said Apple, noting that his family had been loving and supportive during his gender transition. “I’m still in high school, and I worry about the day that one of my teachers may report me to DFPS. That’s a horrible situation to live through when you’re trying to make it through senior year.”
Against a consensus of medical experts, Attorney General Ken Paxton has asked the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services — itself long criticized for its treatment of children in foster care — to open child abuse investigations into families whose children have used puberty blockers or received hormone therapy and other gender-affirming treatments. A state judge on Friday temporarily blocked Gov. Greg Abbott’s administration from backing up that request, finding that the governor’s directive was unconstitutional and exceeded his authority.
“I feel I can’t do anything,” Apple said. “I am at the mercy of powerful people who don’t want to understand me. They want to put a political agenda on my body, on whom I am as a person. I’m worried about the day someone weaponizes that against me.”
While stating that trans youths were being “used as political footballs,” Marra predicted that social conservatives had “overplayed their hand,” alienating voters who see children’s medical care as a private matter for families to decide on, without government interference.