Texas teachers forced to deadname trans students with new state law MATTER

A new Texas state law required teachers and other school employees to deadname and misgender trans students.

Speaking to The Texas Tribune on 18 November, trans student Ethan Brignac described his experience at Wylie East High School under the new law. “In the first week of school, when I was kind of trying to convince my teachers to call me Ethan, I was like, ‘Hey, look, it’s still on my ID,’” he said. “Then one of my teachers this year said, ‘Okay, they’re gonna fix that soon.’

Once Senate Bill 12 came into effect, Ethan felt that teachers began slipping his deadline into most interactions. “It was definitely a big change having my deadname kind of sprawled everywhere. It was like, wow, okay, that wasn’t just a social media post I saw, this is real life.”

Senate Bill 12 bans school employees from socially transitioning students, meaning they must use the names and pronouns they were assigned at birth. The law, often called the ‘Parents’ Bill of Rights’, also allows guardians to report school-supported social transitioning to the school board, and prohibits K-12 faculty from referencing LGBTQ+ identities during school hours.