Monks Jazz Club
Fight for Your Rights
RECEIVED Sun., March 26, 2023
Dear Editor,
This legislative session is a really scary time to be a Texan. The bills we are seeing right now at the state level are the next step in an ongoing war against queer people by the Texas GOP.
What should worry Texans the most – regardless of how many gay and trans people in our lives will be affected personally – is that these bills are targeting not just queer people but also censoring people’s professions. Doctors, teachers, lawyers, librarians, psychiatrists, and psychologists will be targeted, fired, and stripped of their licenses to practice.
The GOP are writing these laws that target queer people very vaguely so that they can CHOOSE who to prosecute. They want to weaponize these bills against anyone in social, political, or economic spaces that threaten their special interests or the entrenched Republican power in this state.
The fact that these bills are purposefully not defining “queerness,” “gayness,” “transness,” etc. should be very alarming to everyone who has been to Burning Man, SXSW, Cheer Up Charlies, or attend bachelor/bachelorette parties.
All Texans are entitled to our constitutional rights to "life liberty and the pursuit of happiness" and our First Amendment rights to freedom of speech, press, and assembly. If we let our state government purposefully and maliciously infringe on these rights, that sets a dangerous precedent for the validity of everyone's civil rights. Every Texan has a stake in this fight. We need to protect the rights of our neighbors, or face our own loss of the rights to express, assemble, and speak in the near future.
This legislative session is a really scary time to be a Texan. The bills we are seeing right now at the state level are the next step in an ongoing war against queer people by the Texas GOP.
What should worry Texans the most – regardless of how many gay and trans people in our lives will be affected personally – is that these bills are targeting not just queer people but also censoring people’s professions. Doctors, teachers, lawyers, librarians, psychiatrists, and psychologists will be targeted, fired, and stripped of their licenses to practice.
The GOP are writing these laws that target queer people very vaguely so that they can CHOOSE who to prosecute. They want to weaponize these bills against anyone in social, political, or economic spaces that threaten their special interests or the entrenched Republican power in this state.
The fact that these bills are purposefully not defining “queerness,” “gayness,” “transness,” etc. should be very alarming to everyone who has been to Burning Man, SXSW, Cheer Up Charlies, or attend bachelor/bachelorette parties.
All Texans are entitled to our constitutional rights to "life liberty and the pursuit of happiness" and our First Amendment rights to freedom of speech, press, and assembly. If we let our state government purposefully and maliciously infringe on these rights, that sets a dangerous precedent for the validity of everyone's civil rights. Every Texan has a stake in this fight. We need to protect the rights of our neighbors, or face our own loss of the rights to express, assemble, and speak in the near future.
Sophia Mirto
