Lizzo slams Texas’ ‘regressive’ anti-trans, anti-abortion laws: ‘Trans rights are human rights’
Lizzo slams ‘regressive’ bills being passed in Texas during SXSW talk (Lorne Thomson/Redferns)
Lizzo has slammed “regressive” bills on trans and reproductive rights in Texas, stating that she is “not proud to rep Texan politics”.
During her keynote speech as part of this year’s South by Southwest festival, the singer said that while she is proud to be from Houston, a swathe of bills attacking medical care and the dignity of Texas’ trans community are a “violation of human rights”.
Lizzo was referencing a bigoted effort by Texas governor Greg Abbott, who referred to puberty blockers as “child abuse”, to limit trans youth from accessing gender-affirming medical care.
Abbott, bolstered by a non-binding judgement by Texas attorney general Ken Paxton, ordered the state’s Department of Family and Protective Services to “conduct prompt and thorough investigations of any reported instances of Texas children being subjected to abusive gender-transitioning procedures”.
The harmful policy has even led families of transgender kids to flee the state in order to access healthcare.
Lizzo slammed the politicians in her speech, saying: “I’m proud to rep Houston but I’m not proud to rep Texan politics right now. There are very regressive laws being passed.
“They’re taking away the right for young children to have a chance to live authentically as themselves. It’s a violation of human rights. Trans rights are human rights.”
.@lizzo delivered a Keynote for the ages at #SXSW 2022 today! pic.twitter.com/2UT3WJm6SY
— SXSW (@sxsw) March 13, 2022
The singer also criticised the state’s heavily restrictive laws around abortion, which is currently banned in the state after around six weeks of pregnancy, often before people know they are even pregnant.
The Texas law makes no exceptions in cases of rape or incest, and threatens anyone who provides or facilitates an abortion in the state.
Lizzo said: “We got a lotta ugly babies y’all need to be handling instead of y’all being in people’s homes and telling them what to do with their bodies and being all up in their uteruses.
“The abortion ban is atrocious as well. Mind your business. Stay out of my body.”
The president himself has stepped in to denounce the Texan bills, with Joe Biden calling Abbott and Paxton’s campaign targeting trans children “cynical and dangerous”.
In a statement released on 2 March, Biden called the anti-trans campaign from Texas’s top lawmakers “government overreach at its worst”. He added that Abbott’s actions have “terrified” families in Texas as well as across the country.
He said: “Like so many anti-transgender attacks proliferating in states across the country, the governor’s actions callously threaten to harm children and their families just to score political points…
“These actions are terrifying many families in Texas and beyond. And they must stop.”
