Anti-LGBTQ+ Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), who is currently running for reelection, has been called out for photoshopping a trans Pride flag into an ad released by his opponent, state Rep. Gina Hinojosa (D).
The original ad, posted by Hinojosa, involved a video of the candidate speaking with a second grader about her school shutting down. A blurry American flag appears in the foreground. Abbott then posted a screenshot from the conversation. In it, the American flag has been replaced with a far less blurry trans flag.
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“Gina wants to turn your local public school into a gender transition camp,” Abbott wrote alongside the photo, despite the fact that the conversation she was having with the second grader had absolutely nothing to do with trans rights. Abbott did not disclose in the post that the photo had been altered.
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Abbott, who has made terrorizing the trans community a cornerstone of his time as governor, has now made Hinojosa’s support for trans rights central to his campaign against her.
Hinojosa voted against Texas’s gender-affirming care ban, which bars trans youth not only from gender-affirming surgery, which is almost never performed on minors anyway, but also from receiving safe, effective, and reversible treatments like puberty blockers.
She also opposed House Bill 1106, which passed last year and says a parent’s refusal to affirm a child’s LGBTQ+ identity does not constitute neglect or abuse.
Nevertheless, Hinojosa’s website lists her priorities as saving Texas public schools, lowering the cost of living, and ending “costly data center madness.” She doesn’t even mention LGBTQ+ rights.
Not only that, but Hinojosa even ran an ad assuring voters she is not “too woke” and that her pronouns “are Mom, Texan, and soon to be: Governor.” The ad earned her criticism from trans advocates, many of whom voice their continued support for her but begged her not to disrespect trans identities by manipulating the meaning of pronouns.
“Just saying your pronouns are she/her would be perfect,” wrote one commenter. “The Texas transgender community needs transparent support. Listening your pronouns as things that aren’t even pronouns is not helpful. I still support you, but I hope your team does better for trans Texans in the future.”
That hasn’t stopped Abbott from making outlandish claims about Hinojosa’s alleged obsession with “transing” children. Nicknaming her “Gender Bender Gina,” he claims she supports “harmful, life-altering gender modification surgeries on our Texas children.”
A statement from Abbott’s press secretary earlier this week claimed, “Radical Gina would rather trans your kids than protect them, educate them, or prepare them for a successful future.”
A poll released this week showed Abbott and Hinojosa tied, each with 47% support, even though Abbott has raised significantly more money than Hinojosa. Many have suggested Abbott is turning to anti-trans attacks out of fear that Hinojosa is gaining so much ground.
“Greg Abbott doesn’t want to talk about record high gas prices or the rising costs of healthcare, housing, and groceries,” Texas Democrat Party spokesman Jacob Long told Texas Scorecard. “So what does he do? He resorts to old culture war politics because he doesn’t have anything else to run on and is trying to distract voters from who’s really making life more expensive: the billionaires and big corporations lining his pockets.”
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