AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

The Florida Senate voted Tuesday to ban the discussion of sexuality and gender identity in schools. The legislation, known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, has faced mounting criticism from Democrats, rights advocates, many students and educators. Meanwhile, the Idaho state House has passed a bill that would criminalize gender-affirming healthcare for trans children and teens. The bill makes it a felony punishable with life in prison for a doctor who provides gender-affirming care, including surgeries and hormone treatments. It would also make it a felony to take trans youth out of the state to receive that care elsewhere. This all comes as a fight escalates in Texas over a directive by the Republican Governor Greg Abbott that orders state welfare officials to launch child abuse investigations against parents who seek gender-affirming care for their trans children.

We go now to Chase Strangio, deputy director for trans justice with the ACLU LGBTQ & HIV Project, the ACLU part of a lawsuit to block the Texas directive. Chase, let’s start with Florida and what happened there.

CHASE STRANGIO: Thanks, Amy, and good morning.

Yeah, so starting specifically with Florida, we now have the so-called Don’t Say Gay bill that heads to Governor DeSantis’s desk. He has indicated his support for the bill. I want to make two just quick points about this piece of legislation as it relates to the legislation and the national context. First, we’re hearing a lot about — from supporters, about how this is really targeting young children in classrooms, with an explicit prohibition in the K-through-3 context. But as a parent of a fourth-grader, you know, what are families like mine supposed to do? What are kids like mine supposed to do? Those are grades where people are urged to talk about their families. So what this does is it erases the possibility that young people can speak about their own lives, their own truth. And that connects to this larger national context where what we’re seeing is a national, well-funded effort to attack and eradicate trans youth and trans lives specifically. And that is not an effect of what we are seeing; that is the intention.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And can you talk a bit more about the context in which this and other bills are being advanced by Republican lawmakers, especially in the case in Florida, where DeSantis clearly is a potential presidential candidate?

CHASE STRANGIO: Yeah, I think what we’re seeing nationally is an effort to leverage and weaponize misinformation, particularly about trans people, to mobilize a political base in the lead-up to 2022 and 2024. And this is happening in statehouses across the country that are deeply gerrymandered, that have shifted incredibly far to the right as a result, in large part, of the Supreme Court’s decision in 2013 to gut the Voting Rights Act with the Shelby County v. Holder decision. So we can’t understand this national context without understanding the voter suppression that is happening, without understanding the efforts to restrict access to reproductive healthcare. There is a dynamic process that is mobilizing state control over people’s bodies through voter suppression structures in order to make it harder for people to survive in the lead-up to major national elections in 2022, the midterms, and then in 2024 with the presidential election. And that’s what we’re seeing from GOP leadership, you know, not just in Florida but also in places like South Dakota and Texas, as well.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Chase, you’re an attorney in the case of Doe v. Abbott in Texas. Can you describe that case and what has happened so far?

CHASE STRANGIO: Yeah, I think we really have to understand that there is an absolute crisis in Texas. Families are being terrorized by Governor Abbott’s completely extralegal and impermissible directive to the child welfare agency to start investigating families and threatening the general public with criminal prosecution if they do not report trans youth and their families to the child welfare agencies. Right now on the ground, we know that families are being investigated solely because they have transgender children. Teachers are being asked to report transgender children and their families to child welfare authorities, and providers have cut off healthcare across the state. So the practical impact is catastrophic, and people are suffering. We filed a lawsuit to try to block this directive. We are currently in court, in state court in Austin, to try to stop the implementation of this directive at every level, and that litigation continues. But the reality is, is that this national conversation and the actions by the Alabama Legislature, the Florida Legislature and executive officials in Texas is having the effect of making it difficult, if not impossible, for trans young people to survive.

AMY GOODMAN: Texas, Chase, are they threatening to take trans children away from their parents?

CHASE STRANGIO: They are threatening to take trans children away from their parents for the sole and exclusive purpose that their parents are loving and supporting them and providing them with medically necessary, doctor-recommended healthcare. I cannot stress this enough. They are coming into homes, investigating families, solely because parents love their kids and are providing care consistent with the recommendations of every major medical association in the United States.

AMY GOODMAN: And the significance of what happened on Friday, the Houston-based Texas Children’s Hospital, the largest pediatric hospital in the country, announcing it’s stopping prescribing gender-affirming hormone therapies?

CHASE STRANGIO: They have cut off care, canceled appointments. And we’re talking about lifesaving necessary care. So we have young people who are relying on this care to stabilize their health and well-being. A lot of this care is time-specific, so they are pulling young people off of care that’s going to force them into their endogenous puberty. The extent of the fear and trauma is unimaginable right now, and there is very little recourse for many people. So we are fighting with everything we have to stop not only the implementation of these directives, but the fallout from them, because it’s not just these large hospitals, but individual providers, because of fear of criminal prosecution if they continue to follow their ethical obligation as doctors to treat their patients.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Chase, we only have about a minute left, but I’m wondering if you could talk about some of the legislation occurring in other states, for instance, in Idaho, Iowa or Utah?

CHASE STRANGIO: Yeah, I think I just want to highlight briefly that both Idaho and Alabama currently have felony bans on healthcare pending. So, if those bills pass — in Alabama, there’s one vote left in the House. In Idaho, it has to make it to the Senate. These are bills that also would be similarly catastrophic for trans people. And we already have such a bill that thankfully we enjoined in Arkansas, but our litigation continues there, and of course there’s dozens of bills across the country still pending.

AMY GOODMAN: And specifically in Idaho, what you are most concerned about happening there?

CHASE STRANGIO: You know, I’m concerned that this bill passes, and all care is cut off. And not only is it cut off, that bill would make it a felony with potential life imprisonment not only to treat people in state, but you take someone out of state to get the treatment. What are families supposed to do? And as a parent, I simply cannot imagine what it must feel like to face criminal prosecution to try to keep your kid alive.

AMY GOODMAN: And how many bills like this have been introduced around the country, Chase?

CHASE STRANGIO: We are facing a context now where over 35 states have introduced bills targeting transgender young people. Thankfully, we are able to stop some of them, but we are continuing to fight to the very end of these legislative sessions because there is an aggressive push to move these quickly through state legislatures.

AMY GOODMAN: We want to get into the details of these, so we’re going to do Part 2 of our discussion with you right now. Chase Strangio, deputy director for trans justice with the ACLU LGBTQ & HIV Project.

That does it for our show. Democracy Now! currently accepting applications for a human resources manager. Learn more and apply at democracynow.org. Democracy Now! produced with Renée Feltz, Mike Burke, Messiah Rhodes, Nermeen Shaikh, María Taracena. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González. Stay safe.