News & Commentary

Today marks the opening of the 87th Texas Legislative Session — and it signals enormous opportunity and peril for civil liberties in Texas. With a tense national political climate, a pandemic devastating communities across Texas, and lingering racial unrest since the killing of George Floyd, this session will be one of the most challenging — and most important — we have seen in recent history. 

In the past year, we’ve witnessed so many agonizing examples of the brutal reality of systemic racism. We’ve mourned the loss of more than 270,000 American lives from a deadly pandemic. We’ve seen a dramatic shift in the ideological balance at the U.S. Supreme Court, placing abortion access, LGBTQ equality, and voting rights in peril. And threats to our democracy seem to be mounting. 

In the middle of Pride month, the Supreme Court issued a landmark decision in support of LGBTQ rights. The ruling in the case Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia made it clear that it is illegal for employers to fire or otherwise discriminate against someone simply because they are LGBTQ. 

Some people know Pride month as a demonstration of solidarity among members of the LGBTQ+ community and allies. Some people know it as the yearly commemoration of the historic Stonewall riots in 1969 and the first-ever Pride march. Other people know it as a time to engage in political action or to call for social change, like the fight for Black trans lives. 

With everything that is happening in the world right now — you know, like a global pandemic — it might be hard to see the glass as half full. Everyone has had to adjust their lives just three months into the new decade; and folks, it’s been difficult.  

Chris Gallegos is a young man born and raised in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV).Like many other young people, he goes to school, works, and hangs out with his friends. He also visits his girlfriend — who lives across the border in Matamoros, Mexico — on an almost daily basis. For many residents who live in the borderlands, crossing back and forth between the U.S. and Mexico is a part of everyday life.For Chris, it’s a little different. Unlike most other residents who are able to cross back into the U.S. at the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) check points without much fanfare, Chris faces another reality. Chris is transgender, and because of that, he is regularly harassed by CBP agents upon his daily returns to the U.S.

We asked the candidates running for Texas Senate in District 27 about policy reforms they would support if elected to office. Please see their responses below!

Update May 2020: On May 20, the ACLU of Texas defended the free speech and LGBTQ rights of Wimberley parents and students at a special meeting held by the Wimberley Independent School District’s Board of Trustees. At the meeting, the Board of Trustees announced they will no longer be taking legal action against parents who display a rainbow Wimberley Texans logo, a symbol of solidarity with LGBTQ students. A recording of the meeting can be viewed via the school district’s YouTube channel.