Watch: Kids 'Transgendering into a Different Sex' Bothers Texas Candidate
Republican candidate for the Texas state House of Representatives Shelley Luther, a former teacher, declared herself to be "not comfortable" with kids who are "transgendering into a different sex." She also suggested that trans students are to blame for the harassment they suffer in school and declared herself "not comfortable with the transgenders," NBC News reported.
Luther said that during her days in the classroom she had been told to respect transgender children and not to allow them to become targets of bullying.
That, she suggested, was unfair to the cisgender kids.
"The kids that they brought in my classroom, when they said that this kid is transgendering into a different sex, that I couldn't have kids laugh at them...like other kids got in trouble for having transgender kids in my class," Luther said.
The Houston Chronicle tweeted a video of Luther's remarks, in which she strung together references to "the Overton window" and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, before declaring, "what we have done is become comfortable with what is okay in our society." (Watch her comments in the tweet, below.)
Eventually, the Republican candidate attempted to tie her comments together by summarizing: "That's why I vote for school choice."
The Houston Chronicle covered Luther's comments in greater detail, recalling that the candidate is a "hair salon owner who was catapulted into political stardom after being jailed for defying a pandemic lockdown order."
Luther was jailed briefly in May, 2020 when she refused to follow a mask mandate from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott at her salon in Dallas.
Equality Texas slammed Luther's comments, with CEO Ricardo Martinez taking the candidate to task for her complaints.
"Lamenting not being able to allow students to laugh at, bully and harass transgender kids isn't leadership, it's cruelty — plain and simple," Martinez declared.
"All children in Texas are guaranteed a public education under the constitution, deserve privacy and the ability to learn in a safe environment."
The Houston Chronicle relayed that Luther emailed the newspaper to claim that she "respected and supported all students." She insisted that bullying "did not occur," but she also claimed that "the topic of gender transition became the top discussion every day in my classroom."
That, she said, was "unfair to the other students."
"We should focus more on learning instead of arguing about which bathroom someone should use," Luther added in her email to the Chronicle.
AOC might well agree.