Eight-year-old trans girl says transphobic Texas lawmakers ‘are just scared of us’
Sunny Bryant and her mum, Bekah, have travelled hundreds of miles to testify against anti-trans legislation in Texas. The eight-year-old says believes lawmakers are ‘just scared of us’. (Provided)
A brave trans girl and her family have spoken out in defiance of Texas legislation that would ban transgender students in school sports.
Governor Greg Abbott is poised to sign House Bill 25 which would bar trans youth from participating on school sports teams that align with their gender identity. The reviled bill cleared the Republican-controlled House 76-54 last week and passed in the Senate 19-12.
It returned to the House for reconciliation on some amendments to the legislation before it was approved a final time 76-61. The bill is now on Abbott’s desk, and the governor has indicated that he intends to sign it. If he does, Texas will become the 10th state to enact an anti-trans sports ban.
Sunny Bryant and her mum, Bekah, told ABC13 that they’ve travelled several times from their home in Houston to the state capitol in Austin – an over 160-mile journey – to speak out against the legislation which unfairly targets the trans community.
The eight-year-old described how it was a “kind of emotional” experience speaking before lawmakers earlier this month, admitting that she was “really nervous”.
She told ABC13 that she believed lawmakers pushing the bill are “just scared” of the LGBT+ community and need to interact with more trans people.
“What is in my heart is that I think I should be able to play sports, because I’m a girl, too,” Sunny said. “I think they’re just scared of us, and they need more trans people in their life.”
Her mother Bekah described the bill as a “solution in search of a problem” as there have been no “lawsuits in the state of Texas” or “any cases” claiming that trans kids have unfairly benefited in school sports compared to their cisgender competitors.
“The population of trans kids is so small,” Bekah said. “That means she’d be the only girl in the locker room, the only girl on the team. And she won’t have that community.”
Bekah told PinkNews that the Bryant family aren’t giving up even though they “feel defeated by the signing of this bill”, and they’ll keep fighting for Sunny’s rights and the rights of other trans youth.
She previously told PinkNews that the waves of attacks against the trans community is “weighing us down” as a state and is “hurting actual Texans”.
Bekah said she has advocated against the anti-trans bill alongside Sunny at great expense to their mental wellbeing. She added that her family will do “whatever it takes to keep us safe” even if it meant uprooting their entire family to do so.
“We will give up our dream careers, we will move away from grandma if that’s what it’s gonna take,” she said.
