This Family Is Leaving Texas Because of Anti-Trans Bills

Leon Rey, a transgender boy from Texas, has a farewell message for Gov. Greg Abbott and other Republican legislators seeking to pass a raft of bans and restrictions aimed at trans youth in the state.

“If these laws were passed before I came out as transgender, I probably would not love myself and might not be alive,” Leon told The Daily Beast, via his mother Camille. “Sometimes, when people don’t love themselves, they kill themselves.”

Leon is determined to live a happy, full life. He loves basketball, swimming, and when he is older, he wants to be an engineer or a mathematician. But he has also heard other kids saying of trans children: “Freaks, all of you freaks.” Being transgender is hard, he recently said to his mother (their full, moving conversation is printed below).

“Is it hard because of being trans, or hard because of the way people treat you?” Camille asked her 8-year-old son.

“The way people treat me,” said Leon. “I need support.”

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