Im not trying to say anything about trans people so don’t paint me in that light I love all people I have friends of many colors genders and religions and again scence it got flagged last time I don’t agree with the law
What I’m trying to say is that trans people should just go I’m not trying to judge them here or make them out to be illegitimate
To add onto this, the executive order (not “law” as I previously wrote) applies to “mandatory reporters”. These are people (teachers, doctors, etc.) who could face significant legal consequences (e.g. jail and career loss) for not reporting child abuse.
EDIT: The Executive Order amounts to violence and child abuse on its own. And the point of the EO is to sponsor this state-sanctioned violence against a minority to feed “red meat” to their voters.
Also - it is highly hypocritical coming from the “political party” that once declared itself “pro-life” and “pro-family” to entertain such a stance that breaks up families and destroys lives.
I don’t think you meant any harm, but lets just say that when you wrote “just go and be a person and try not to draw attention to being trans,” it didn’t land well. It sounds like you’re saying trans people should hide who they are to keep themselves safe. That doesn’t sound like a very nice way to exist. I think you agree that trans people should be free to express their identity as loudly as you or I express our identities. If someone told me not to draw attention to being Jewish (and people have!), I can tell you that wouldn’t sit well with me. I hope you can understand the same is true for any of us, if we were told to hide a part of ourselves that is core to who we are as human beings.
I would just like to add that as important as it is to speak up against this attack on our friends, teammates, and students, it is also important that we in the VEX community continue to respect one another and maintain our community. We may not all see this situation exactly the same way, so I ask that everyone please strive to be open, patient, and understanding with one another and meet others where they are at.
I think it’s much easier to think “just go to Texas, sure they have a law that denies the legitimacy of your existence, but you’ll probably be fine if you just don’t draw attention to yourself” when you’re not the one whose existence is being called illegitimate.
It’s my general philosophy as a straight white middle class cis male that I have absolutely no idea what it’s like to be any kind of disadvantaged or oppressed, and that if people tell me that they are in some way, I should just believe in the validity of their experience since I have nothing else to go on. And it’s very easy to imagine why transgender people would be concerned about going to Texas.
So what I meant was if you were born a boy and you identify as a girl just go as a girl don’t try to change but don’t mention that you were born a boy. Etc
I wasn’t telling anyone to change who they are
I would be concerned too but as far as I can see it’s not illegal to go just uncomfortable and there’s not much vex can do about it. I hope that if a team qualified and wanted to go that they do I hope I quall and get to meet and compete with them. Regardless of anything else
And when the parents get investigated for child abuse, what is the next step?
The bare minimum would be a statement to the effect of “We disagree with the recent decision by the governor bla bla bla committed to ensuring access to all teams regardless of this that and the other bla bla bla while we currently have a contractual obligation to run worlds in Dallas will look elsewhere once it ends bla bla bla as a reminder to all teams, discrimination of any kind is a code of conduct violation and robotics is for everyone”
How would that happen
So, in theory, if a trans student has a teacher as a VRC team coach, that teacher is required, under penalty of law, to report any form of child abuse. The Texas Governor has now listed what amounts to “being nice to trans people under the age of 18” as “child abuse”
well then i suppose its out of recs hands and going would be illegal?
i didn’t put together that robotics coaches would fall into legal ramifications being teachers that’s my bad.
i still think that Texas is a bigger fish than vex and there is not much to be done about it unless supreme cohort over turns law b4 worlds but i doubt that with the 6-3 split.
Or any bigot on another team “reporting” your parents.
If a law is unjust a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so . — Thomas Jefferson
Looking at how the executive order is phrased, it is really going to be difficult for any adults to bring their teams over. The adults are in a lose-lose situation.
But can I understand the difference in a executive order and law? eg. is it mandatory to follow, etc?
This thread should have never left Head Refs.
For the benefit of everyone involved, the RECF needs to work with local authorities to ensure that all students, teachers, parents, & staff are guaranteed safety at this event, Discussing the details of such a sensitive topic with many, many nuances with a forum known to be a little bit immature isn’t going to get anything done.
My understanding is that there are laws determining what exactly constitutes child abuse in Texas
The attorney general of Texas wrote an opinion that those laws as written say various medical procedures/treatments that transgender people often undergo are considered child abuse if performed on children
The governor of Texas then wrote an executive order instructing various Texas government agencies that, according to that legal opinion, they should begin enforcing the existing laws in that way
to answer this question, yes, it is. I asked this question to my mom, who is a lawyer in Texas (but lives in arizona), when i first heard about the governor’s statement, and this was her response.
Texas DFPS (which is their child protection agency) only has jurisdiction for the children who live in Texas. DFPS can take a kid away in emergency circumstances but then they have to work with the original state or country and either have the state or country transfer the jurisdiction over or transfer the kid back to the state’s or countries child protection agency.
given that other states and countries have not adopted this belief of it being child abuse, and that this situation wouldn’t constitute as an emergency, Texas will most likely not do anything about people who are visiting, because it will likely end in a law suit against Texas.
While this may be true, it does not address the issue of trans students who are Texas residents, who are subject to it. I’m also sure that the Texas politicians who created this policy would welcome lawsuits that they can use to fundraise with and stoke the “culture wars”.
Texas is going out of its way towards sponsoring state-sponsored cruelty (this) as well as deputizing the citizenry who commit cruelty that aligns with a certain segment of the population’s preferences.
America, not just Texas, has a long history of cruelty, whether it’s enslavement of Africans, the Trail of Tears, the Chinese Exclusion Act, the Internment of those with Japanese ancestry, the Black Exclusion Laws of Oregon, Redlining in major cities, and the list goes on. That said, one of America’s strengths is its ability to change and grow more open and welcoming.
while this may be true, the politicians are not the ones deciding whether or not it will be enforced/ there will be a lawsuit, and the amount of time it takes to make it law so that it must be enforced is too long for it to be enforced at worlds this year.
it is important to note that all countries, not just America, have a long history of cruelty, but i agree that Texas is wrong in