On February 27, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued a legal opinion saying that a 2023 state law banning gender-transition medical care for minors also applies to state-licensed mental health providers.
The opinion interprets the law to prohibit providers from offering services intended to help minors socially transition, arguing that such care could violate the statute.
LGBTQ advocates and some medical professionals say the move expands restrictions on transgender youth and could further limit access to mental health support in Texas.
This new restriction comes months after Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed the SB 8 “Bathroom Bill” into effect, which restricts bathroom use by one’s assigned sex at birth.
In addition to targeting transgender Texans, activist Elva Mendoza with the Texas Freedom Network said that the bill doesn’t leave room for intersex people, or for anyone who doesn’t fit into culturally accepted gender stereotypes.
“It uses a definition [of biological sex] that is very black and white and doesn’t reflect the actual biology of many people,” Mendoza told The Texas Newsroom in September. “Not all women have ovaries, not all women have a uterus.”
Needless to say, it has been a harrowing year for being transgender in the state, or having a family member who is trans.
That’s why the video game “Portrait of a Texas Family” was created.
It’s a game with an emotional hook: Players take on the role of a parent raising a trans teenager in Texas.
Image via Portrait of a Texas Family
The video game was created by the independent studio Lookout Drive Games by a team of trans, non-binary, and gender nonconforming game designers. Released in 2022, the game has been making the rounds again online as the Texas legislature debates gender-affirming care for trans youth.
“People seem to have really responded to what our team made and come away feeling what we wanted them to feel, which is the love, care, anxiety, and ultimately, hope, that this family is feeling about navigating society while raising a trans child,” said game director Robert Pigott in an interview with Them.
The visual novel game — which is currently free to download on Itch.io — was inspired by a Twitter thread by mother and activist Amber Briggle.
In the thread, Briggle explained the importance of a “safe folder,” which is a collection of photos, drawings, and letters that prove that a trans child is raised in a happy home. In some court cases, safe folders can be the defining factor on whether parents can keep custody of their child.
In the game, players build a safe folder of their own as they find a picture drawn by their daughter Sofia. Other slice-of-life scenes include a shopping errand, a family trip to the beach, and a tense encounter with a state senator.
“You have to be interactive and choose to play it, to navigate through the concept of the safe folder, the everyday life of a typical family, and how these systems [are] affected by the oppression and anxiety of raising [a] trans child,” Pigott told the Houston Chronicle.
A version of this article originally appeared in the 2024 Gender Edition of the Goodnewspaper.
Header image via Yan Krukau / Pexels
