Advocates, celebrities rally to support LGBTQ rights at Texas Capitol

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Hundreds are expected to attend a rally Monday afternoon at the Texas Capitol, where they'll push for bills protecting the LGBTQ community and criticize the dozens of proposed restrictions now under consideration.

The event, which begins at 12 p.m. on the south steps of the statehouse, is billed as the "All in for Equality Advocacy Day." Organizers include Equality Texas, the Transgender Education Network of Texas, the Texas Freedom Network, the ACLU of Texas, Lambda Legal and the Human Rights Campaign.

According to a news release, some of the speakers will include Jonathan Van Ness, the star of Netflix's "Queer Eye" series, as well as Cynthia Lee Fontaine, an Austin-based drag entertainer who competed on "RuPaul's Drag Race."

Since the Texas legislative session began in January, Equality Texas kept a running tally of the "good bills" that it contends would provide more protections for LGBTQ Texans as well as the "bad bills" that advocates argue would negatively impact the community. The organization's count now comes out to 142 "good" bills and 140 "bad" ones.

This event comes a week after LGBTQ supporters gathered outside the Capitol to draw attention to a couple of Senate bills that they said would be especially harmful to transgender Texans. One proposal would prohibit doctors from giving “procedures and treatments for gender transitioning, gender reassignment” for children under the age of 18. The bill claims that such treatment includes puberty-inhibiting drugs, hormone therapy and surgical interventions.

Supporters of this bill argue this bill is meant to protect children. However, parents with transgender kids are concerned about losing access to healthcare options in the state.

Throughout the session so far, Equality Texas is using its social media accounts to call attention to upcoming legislative committee hearings where lawmakers are discussing specific bills and sharing ways for LGBTQ people and their allies can have their voices heard in the process, like how to testify at these meetings.

This is a developing story, so KXAN will update this story with more information once the rally Monday afternoon concludes.