Civil rights organizations send allegation letter to U.N. over Texas’ anti-LGBTQ laws
Equality Texas, the ACLU of Texas, GLAAD and the Human Rights Campaign, with the support of the Human Rights Clinic at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law, today (Monday, Jan.
22) submitted a Joint Allegation Letter to 17 independent experts, working groups and special rapporteurs at the United Nations “about the human rights crisis facing LGBTQIA+ Texans,” according to a press release from Equality Texas.
Noting that a record-breaking number of anti-LGBTQ bills — more than 140 — were filed in the 2023 Texas legislative session, the press release said, “Texans are now struggling with a collection of new laws that eliminate medical freedom for trans youth, censor school libraries, ban trans athletes from participating in collegiate sports, end DEI practices at public universities, threaten drag performance and undermine local government’s already limited power. “Together these laws are a systemic attack on the fundamental rights, dignities, and identities of LGBTQIA+ persons that opens the gates for discrimination by both public and private actors,” it continued. “The state’s discrimination has gone unchecked to the point that state officials are now policing other states with unconstitutional laws.
Just as state laws must defer to federal laws, so, too, the Constitution states that they must yield to international treaties that have been ratified by the federal government.” The Joint Allegation Letter focuses on seven bills that “intentionally target or disproportionately impact LGBTQIA+ Texans,” the press release said.
