Texas Candidate Challenging Gov Abbot Promises To End Trans Surgeries For Minors

• Texas gubernatorial candidate Don Huffines is promising to end transgender surgeries for minors in his primary challenge to Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
• “Transitionary therapy and genital mutilation surgery on children is legal in Texas,” Huffines tweeted Thursday. “This is absurd, and when I am governor we will put an end to all of it.”
• The former Texas state senator accompanied his tweet with an endorsement by Jeff Younger — the father of a 7-year-old child at the center of a national controversy over transgender children.

Texas gubernatorial candidate Don Huffines is promising to end transgender surgeries for minors in his primary challenge to Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

“Transitionary therapy and genital mutilation surgery on children is legal in Texas,” Huffines tweeted Thursday. “This is absurd, and when I am governor we will put an end to all of it.”

The former Texas state senator accompanied his tweet with a video of Jeff Younger — the father of a 7-year-old child at the center of a national controversy over transgender children. James Younger’s mother claimed the 7-year-old is transgender, that James had expressed to his parents that he wished he were a girl, and that the child’s gender identity should be affirmed by wearing dresses, being treated as a girl and being called “Luna.”

A Texas jury initially decided in October 2019 that Jeff Younger could not stop James Younger’s social gender transition to a girl, but Judge Kim Cooks of Texas’s 255th district ruled shortly after that both parents would have joint guardianship over the child.

“My ex-wife has been trying to sexually transition my son since the age of 3,” Jeff Younger said in a Don Huffines campaign video. “She wants him to be a girl. I’m fighting for my son’s life because our politicians refuse to ban the barbaric practice of transition therapy, puberty blockers, and even genital mutilation surgery on kids.”

WATCH:

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“Two years ago, after receiving a massive amount of pressure about his silence on this abuse, Greg Abbott tweeted this,” Younger said, showing an October 2019 tweet in which Abbott  announced that the Texas Attorney General’s Office and the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services were looking into details of James Younger’s case.  

“Since that tweet, Abbott hasn’t said or done a thing about my son’s case,” Younger said. “Last week, Republicans even killed legislation that would ban sex change surgeries on children right here in Texas.”

A bill that would ban transition treatments for minors, House Bill 1399, missed a key deadline last week for consideration by the Texas house of representatives, but the state senate’s version of the bill, Senate Bill 1311, still has time to be approved before the end of the legislative session May 31, the Texas Tribune reported.

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Younger accused Abbott of “endangering Texas children” through his “silence and inaction,” but said that “from the beginning, Don Huffines has stood with me to protect Texas children.”

“As governor, I will end the barbaric practice of these abusive therapies on two year olds and the mutilation of Texas children will come to the end,” Huffines said as the video concluded. “We are out of time. No more excuses.”

Huffines told the Daily Caller News Foundation Thursday that Abbott has a history of “avoiding social issues.”

“For example, he still refuses to take a public position on whether men should be allowed to compete in women’s sports,” Huffines said. “His silence on the issue of sex change surgeries for minors reveals that he lacks the necessary conviction to lead Texas.”

Abbott, who did not immediately responded to a request for comment from the DCNF, has promised to sign a bill banning biological males from women’s sports if the bill passes the Texas legislature.