This week, I gave public testimony at the Texas Senate Committee on Education on why Senate Bill 12 is harmful to transgender students.

The hearing covered several of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s “interim charges” (policy priorities) - kind of a checkup on how these bills or topics were going between legislative sessions.

Well, I’ll tell ya how they’re going - they suck!

SB12 (passed into law in 2025) is a nuclear bomb of a bill that includes parents’ rights, a DEI ban, “Don’t Say Gay,” education censorship, staff training censorship, and about a million other shitty things.

This committee is mostly Republicans, and probably nothing I could say would change their minds.

But this is what democracy looks like: holding lawmakers accountable by using our voices in a public hearing. Everyone had 2 minutes for their testimonies, and here's what I said:

My name is Mandy Giles and I’m speaking on SB 12.

As the CEO of the organization Parents of Trans Youth, I work with families all over the state whose children have been harmed by SB12.

“Assisting with a student’s social transition” has been interpreted in many schools to mean that school staff must ignore the name and pronouns a transgender student goes by, even if the student’s parents support using that name.

Calling someone by the name they want to be called is such an easy act of respect and consideration. Disregarding the name a student goes by is not “assisting” with anything except humiliating them.

Diego is a first grader in a Houston area elementary school. He is transgender, and his mother asked me to tell you his story:

When she told Diego’s assistant principal that it was important to their family that school staff use their son's new name and pronouns, the staff member’s response was that she had never dealt with this issue and didn’t know how to support them and their son. Because of this lack of knowledge, support, and respect - Diego had to switch schools & leave many close friends behind.

School administrators feared liability and punishment for simply respecting Diego’s identity, even though his parents asked the school to accept his name and pronouns.

SB 12 dictates that school staff NOT be trained on the particular issues faced by transgender students and how to best support them and their families.

Diego’s situation is just the tip of the iceberg of how SB 12 disrespects and disregards thousands and thousands of Texas students - erasing their identities based on race, ethnicity, gender identity, and sexual orientation.

Please listen to families like Diego’s and strike this harmful diversity ban next session.

Mandy Giles (she/her)
Founder and CEO
​Parents of Trans Youth​

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