Texas GOP Announces Homosexuality as ‘Abnormal Lifestyle Choice’ in 2022 Platform
The 2022 Texas GOP platform has an entire section called “Homosexuality and Gender Issues,” where they state that homosexuality is an abnormal lifestyle choice. Their platform contains all the beliefs and values of the GOP as well as the issues they’ll be fighting for.
Just when you think Texas can’t get Texas enough, this platform proves you wrong. Surprising to no one, the platform states that they will push for a referendum in the 2023 election for state sovereignty. They also refer to abortion as homicide and want to give protections to medical professionals to reserve the right to deny elective abortion.
The Homosexuality and Gender Issues section of the document states, “We oppose any criminal or civil penalties against those who oppose homosexuality out of faith, conviction, or belief in traditional values.”
The Texas GOP platform also “opposes all efforts to validate transgender identity.” This means prohibiting doctors from giving gender-affirming care to anyone under 21, because the GOP considers it mutilation of healthy body parts. They also want inmates to be housed according to biological sex and are against “the use of taxpayer funds for any type of medical gender dysphoria treatments or sex change operations and/or treatments.”
The platform not only encourages conversion therapy but says it will legally protect those that practice it.
In other words, the Texas GOP party wants to leave LGBTQ citizens in an unprotected and vulnerable state. This extends to targeting any safe spaces queer youth might have, like Drag Queen Story Hour—The Texas GOP platform deems Drag Queen Story Hour as predatory sexual behavior toward minors. According to the platform, the Texas GOP party believes that it should be easier for underage individuals (under 21) to access firearms than gender-affirming care since they explicitly state, “there shall be no gun free zones in Texas.”
With all of these stances on the Texas GOP platform, like rescinding No-Fault Divorce laws along with many others, it feels like stripping away any progress made in the past few decades. There is so much the party wants to restrict and take away, all while their alternatives and resolutions are vague and not tangible for Texans who face these issues day-to-day.
