Txtns: Texas Transgender Nondiscrimination Scholars

10/31/2025

Inters*x Awareness Week runs October 26 – November 1

This week is about listening to inters*x people and amplifying their leadership.

Inters*x people are whole, valid, and deserving of care, safety, and empowerment.

Issues that impact the trans community often impact the inters*x community as well. Do not speak over inters*x people to use them as a debate point with no representation - empower them and raise up inters*x voices to work toward collective liberation.

Show up, support inters*x-led work, and the fight to end permanent nonconsensual cosmetic “normalizing” surgeries on kids.

Bodily autonomy belongs to everyone. Always.

*xAwarenessWeek *x *xAwarenessDay *xSolidarity

10/28/2025

👏🏻👏🏻🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🫶🏻🫶🏻👏🏻

The U.S. Virgin Islands just made history, becoming the first U.S. territory to let trans and inters*x residents change their gender markers. This is more than paperwork. it’s recognition, safety, and respect.

10/23/2025

University of Houston cancels its “Confronting Oppression & Injustice” course-a required class for Master of Social Work students that zeroed in on race, gender, class and power. 
No faculty vote. No explanation. What does this say about what education should look like?

The course’s axing is yet another example of curricular censorship at Texas public universities.

10/07/2025

🌟 Big Congratulations to Maria Gonzalez! 🌟

We’re beyond proud to share that our Texas TNS President, Maria Gonzalez, has been named Favorite Female LGBTQ Post-Secondary Educator/Teacher in OutSmart Magazine’s 2025 Readers’ Choice Awards! 🏆💜

Maria’s dedication to education, equity, and inclusion continues to inspire not just her students, but advocates and allies across Texas. Her leadership reminds us that visibility and authenticity can change lives.

👏 Join us in celebrating this incredible recognition!

👉 Read more here:

Celebrating those who make Houston shine.

10/04/2025

09/27/2025

🚨 Academic freedom is under attack at Texas Tech. 🚨

Chancellor Ted Mitchell has issued a memorandum that attempts to erase transgender, inters*x, and gender diverse people from the classroom. This is an unlawful abuse of power and a threat to every Texan’s rights.

Texas Transgender Nondiscrimination Scholars (TxTNS) condemns this baseless action. We stand with students, faculty, and allies fighting back against government-imposed censorship.

📢 To Chancellor Mitchell: reality isn’t binary.
📢 To Texas Tech students and faculty: we see you, we stand with you.

09/23/2025

Texas Transgender Nondiscrimination Scholars Condemns Codification of SB 8
Houston, TX

Texas Transgender Nondiscrimination Scholars (TxTNS) strongly condemns the codification of SB 8, deceptively titled the “Texas Women’s Privacy Act.” This law restricts access to multi-user bathrooms and facilities in public schools, universities, government buildings, shelters, and carceral institutions based on s*x assigned at birth.

SB 8 does not increase safety or privacy. Instead, it licenses surveillance and harassment, deepens inequities, and puts transgender, inters*x, and gender-diverse Texans at greater risk. Cisgender women, girls, and others who do not conform to narrow gender stereotypes will also face profiling and policing.

“SB 8 is rooted in fear and bigotry, not evidence,” said TxTNS. “Research shows inclusive policies do not create safety or privacy risks. This law harms Texans by eroding dignity, undermining trust in public spaces, and compounding generational trauma.”

TxTNS reaffirms its commitments in the face of this legislative attack:
Solidarity & Care: Supporting survivor-centered safety strategies and mutual aid.
⭕️Education: Providing guidance to institutions to comply with the law while minimizing harm, including expanding gender-neutral facilities and curbing profiling.
⭕️Accountability: Documenting and challenging unlawful discrimination and civil-rights violations.
⭕️Collective Liberation: Standing in coalition with movements for racial justice, disability justice, immigrant justice, reproductive freedom, academic freedom, workers’ rights, and q***r and trans liberation.

“SB 8 directly attacks the civil rights of transgender and inters*x Texans, while threatening the safety and privacy of all who don’t fit within the Legislature’s rigid, binary gender ideology” Autumn Lauener, Texas Transgender Nondiscrimination Scholars Vice President stated. “Our communities deserve true safety and meaningful resources, not laws designed to scapegoat and marginalize.”

Read our full statement: https://bit.ly/Txtns-stmt-sb8

09/22/2025

SB 8 (the "bathroom bill") was signed into law today by Governor Abbott. We condemn this attack on the collective freedoms we cherish as Americans, the independence and neighborly care we honor as Texans, and the basic dignity we owe one another as human beings. We continue the call for the collective liberation of all oppressed and marginalized peoples, knowing this work may not be realized in the immediate or even in our lifetimes, but will help future generations find solace, strength, and freedom. We carry forward the legacy of trailblazers, such as Marsha P. Johnson, Audre Lorde, Monica Roberts, Bayard Rustin, and countless others, whose courage built the ground we stand on, the shelter we find, and the future we are determined to make real.

09/02/2025

Texas is forcing state agencies to ignore gender identity.

A new law requires records to reflect only biological s*x. This strips away recognition for trans and gender-diverse Texans in schools, healthcare, and more.

We’ll keep fighting for inclusive policies in education—because our identities aren’t up for debate. 💜

08/19/2025

✨ A Poem from Autumn L. ✨
Our Vice President, Autumn, put into words what so many of us are living through. Her poem is a reflection on the suffocating silence of hate — and a reminder that our voices are needed now more than ever.

Silence will not save us. Speaking out will.

Read her words below/turn your sound up to hear her words, too and let them move you to action. 💜

07/20/2025

💥 DOUBLE ANNOUNCEMENT 💥�

We are honored to welcome two fierce leaders to the 2025 Summit stage:
🎤 Friday: Avery Belyeu, CEO, the Montrose Center �🎤 Saturday: Joelle Bayaa-Uzuri Espeut, Advocacy Director, The Normal Anomaly Inc.
These voices are shaping the future of LGBTQIA+ equity in Texas.�Join us July 25–26.
✨ It’s time to Resist. Rebuild. Rise.�📍 Houston, TX�🔗 Registration is HERE: https://texastns.org/summit/

07/20/2025

📣 Just Announced!�We are thrilled to welcome Avery Belyeu, CEO of the Montrose Center, as our Friday Keynote Speaker at the 2025 Texas Transgender Nondiscrimination Scholars Summit!
🗓 July 25�📍 Houston�

🎟 Register now: https://texastns.org/summit/

Join us as we Resist, Rebuild, and Rise—together.�Let’s make Texas safer and more inclusive for all. 💜�