Gov. Greg Abbott has asked the Texas Education Agency to investigate after a local Moms for Liberty chapter claimed that teachers at Houston ISD’s Bellaire High School were “socially transitioning” a student.
Denise Bell, chair of Moms for Liberty’s Harris County chapter, spoke on behalf of an anonymous HISD mother during Thursday’s school board meeting.
She stated that the mother was “shocked” to learn that Bellaire teachers had been calling an unnamed junior by a different name and pronoun.
“This goes against our Christian faith, the advice of her therapist, and quite frankly, common sense,” Bell told me. “We met with her teachers, counselors, and the principal with no success. “HISD is purposefully and secretively transitioning minors.”
Bell stated that on the first day of ninth grade, the theater teacher sent home a sheet requesting the student’s name and pronouns.
However, she stated that since then, multiple teachers have used the student’s preferred name and pronouns, which differ from those listed on the sheet.
“One teacher even went as far as to cross out my daughter’s legal name that she had written on her paper and write her chosen name in red ink,” Bell told me. “This occurred without our knowledge and certainly without our consent.”
During a “social transition,” transgender or nonbinary people choose a name, pronouns, or appearance to ensure their gender expression corresponds to their gender identity.
The practice differs from a medical transition, in which someone undergoes hormone therapy or surgery to reflect their gender identity.
Moms for Liberty, a conservative group dedicated to promoting liberty, parental rights, and the “survival of America,” posted a video of Bell speaking on its X account, which has over 196,000 followers. X is a social media platform that was previously known as Twitter.
The national organization has frequently targeted LGBTQ issues in K-12 schools, such as limiting discussions about gender identity and sexuality in schools or removing “inappropriate” LGBTQ-themed books from classrooms.
The organization’s video of the HISD board meeting had over 145,000 views as of Sunday afternoon.
“What this high school in HISD is doing is completely abhorrent!!” the Harris County Moms for Liberty wrote on X. “This child is being groomed and harmed, and their parental rights have been violated. They must implement a policy to stop and prevent this from happening again.”
Abbott later posted the organization’s video to his X account, claiming that the alleged incident was “another reason why parents deserve school choice” and that “no parent should have to endure this.”
He made the remarks about a week after his State of the State address, in which he stated, “Any educator who tells students that boys can be girls should be fired on the spot.”
“No school should be involved in ‘transitioning’ a child,” wrote Abbott. “If this is not already illegal, it will become so after this session. “I have directed the TEA to look into this matter.”
It is unclear what policy or rule the state’s largest district may be investigated for violating, or what specific alleged actions Abbott seeks to make illegal. HISD, the TEA, and Abbott did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday.
Some Republican-led states, such as Idaho and Arkansas, have recently passed legislation prohibiting public school teachers from using a student’s preferred name or pronoun that does not correspond to their birth gender.
While Texas has passed several laws limiting transgender children’s rights, such as a ban on playing on school sports teams aligned with their gender identity or access to puberty blockers and hormone therapies, the state has no policies prohibiting students from using their preferred pronouns or names.
HISD’s policies and recommendations on student pronoun use are unclear, but two suburban Houston-area school districts, Katy and Cypress-Fairbanks ISDs, have passed policies requiring staff to notify parents if their child requests to use a name or pronoun at school that differs from their sex at birth, even if the student does not want their parents to know.
In May, the US Department of Education’s Civil Rights Office opened an investigation into whether Katy ISD’s policy violated student civil rights in response to a complaint from Students Engaged in Advancing Texas, which is still ongoing.
