A Texas church has chosen a radically different path from many denominations nationwide. Instead of demonizing LGBTQ+ people, the Galileo Church in Fort Worth has opted to support and welcome the community.
The congregation is particularly disturbed by the state legislature’s recently enacted law that bans healthcare providers from treating trans kids and has launched a program to help families get their children the healthcare they need.
“Health care is a human right, and withholding necessary care for trans kids is state-sponsored cruelty. As neighbors to one another, we seek ways to help each other’s families flourish,” the church says on the website for the new program, the North Texas TRANSportation Network.
The church will assist families who need to travel out of state to get treatment for their children with a $1000 grant. Individual donors and organizations fund the group; no public money is used.
The not-for-profit doesn’t require religious beliefs or church participation from applicants. The only qualification is that families must live in the 19-county northern Texas area and have a trans or gender-diverse child.
“I’m a mother, I have three kids so and I have always been able to get the healthcare for my kids that they desperately needed,” Executive Director Cynthia Daniels told CBS News. “So to me it’s just being a good neighbor to a group of people who have been selected to not be able to receive their healthcare and to me that’s devastating.”
Grants are distributed as the funds become available.
Rural areas are very red and cities are largely blue. It was shocking to me that this was a church in Fort Worth, that city was a conservative stronghold through Obama’s presidency. It’s only been in the last few years that it has started turning purple and you could start to feel safe in a public space as LGBT.
There is massive gerry-mandering that helps keep R’s in power. For example, downtown San Antonio and downtown Austin were in a dumbell shaped district that extended down I-35 to water down blue votes.
IIRC, TX was one of the first states to enact early voting, which they recently expanded. We have 2 weeks to vote and polls are required to be open for at least 9 hours the first week and required to be open at least 12 hours the second week and final day of voting. Polls can be open on weekdays from 6 AM-10 PM with different hours on Saturday and Sunday, though typically polls tend to be open from 7 AM - 7 PM through the second week. It’s just infuriating that people won’t go early vote on their way to/from work. I’ve lived all over the state and in all major metro areas beside San Antonio and have never waited more than 10-15 minutes in line to vote. Through most of the day, there is no line at all at polling places until the very last day when the procrastinators come to vote.