Is It Health and Human Services Texas Policy To Harass Trans Texans?

Was not happy to hear about the latest instance of anti- trans discrimination in my hometown and who it happened to.

Ana Andrea Molina is the executive director of the Organizacion Latina de Trans en Texas (OLTT), which works to provide services for the trans Latina population.

One of those services is setting up a trans shelter modeled after Casa Ruby in Washington DC called Casa Ana Andrea in Houston's Third Ward just south of the Texas Southern University campus.

On Tuesday she went to the Health and Human Services Texas office at 9450 Harwin Dr. in her capacity as OLTT executive director to gather information about services that her trans Latina clients could access.

While there she needed to use the restroom, and asked where it was so she could handle her business before proceeding with her information gathering business.

She was followed by an employee and the security guard in the Harwin facility, who after she entered the women's restroom decided to play potty Gestapo.  The transphobes continuously banged on the door of the women's restroom ordering her to come out and use the men's room, erroneously citing the failed SB 3 as their justification for being transphobic bigots.

Molina ignored them and didn't come out until after she'd handled her bathroom business and washed her hands.

This is also another example of the transphobic hate speech the Texas Republican Party unleashed while trying and failing twice to pass their anti-trans SB6/3 bill having real world negative impacts on the every day lives of transgender Texans.

But what the transphobes didn't know is that hey messed with someone who is well liked in the Houston advocacy community..

The next day she showed up at that facility accompanied by members of Indivisible Houston to file a complaint with the facility supervisor protesting her treatment.  

I walked in wearing a trans themed t-shirt with 'My Existence Is Resistance' written in Spanish accompanied by four cis feminine allies, and strolled into that same female bathroom with them basically daring them to treat me the same way they'd disrespectfully treated my Latina trans sister.

Someone in that office called HPD, who responded by sending three units to that Harwin location. While two of the HPD officers were polite, one was problematically aggressive, and threatened arrest of everyone if we didn't disperse.

Having gotten the complain form and sending the message we needed to send, we left peacefully .

The Harwin office is in the Texas senate district of Sen. Borris Miles (D-Houston) and Ana happens to be a constituent of his.  She is also in the House district of a longtime friend of the Texas trans community in Rep. Garnet Coleman (D-Houston), who also isn't happy about what transpired, along with Rep Gene Wu (D-Houston) and Sen. Sylvia Garcia (D-Houston).  That office is in Rep. Wu's House district, and he is also a friend of our community.  

People from our local ACLU office are also looking into what happened.

So yeah, they messed with the wrong person., and I'll keep y'all updated as to how this transphobic discrimination story plays out