Transgender staffer navigates Texas Capitol with guarded care amid rising hostilities

Join The Transient, The Texas Tribune’s day by day e-newsletter that retains readers on top of things on probably the most important Texas information.

---

For Mo Jenkins, working within the Texas Capitol is a dichotomy: in a single second, a Home consultant could also be rallying in opposition to transgender rights, and within the subsequent the identical lawmaker will cease by Jenkins’ workplace for a pleasant chat.

The phenomenon isn’t shocking, Jenkins mentioned, however it may be complicated. As considered one of only some overtly transgender staffers working within the state Capitol, the duality comes with the work she now does as chief of employees for a freshman lawmaker.

“It’s very ironic in a way, to watch members essentially say that you’re not human and deserve to not have health care and not exist in public, to them then wishing you a happy birthday and clapping you on your back, or coming to your office and eating your gumbo,” Jenkins mentioned.

However within the 5 years Jenkins has labored within the Capitol, anti-trans legislators have made important headway of their efforts to each prohibit the rights of trans folks and make their presence extra vocal throughout state and federal workplaces. In Texas, lawmakers are making second passes at earlier restrictions, like entry to loos, and going additional than earlier than, like increasing bans on funding for gender transition care.

Even because the unfold of laws that would impression main facets of her life grows, Jenkins desires to stay part of the legislative course of whereas she wrestles to work with these whom she says actively disrespect her.

“A thing that I’ve struggled with a lot more, especially as a chief, is how do you find common ground with someone who does not even believe in your existence?” Jenkins mentioned.

“The ugliest session”

When the 2017 ban aiming to limit which loos trans folks can use failed within the Legislature, Jenkins was nonetheless a excessive schooler in Dickinson and felt largely unconcerned about it. “Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed,” was how Jenkins described her youthful self who started with an internship with former state Rep. Abel Herrero, D-Robstown, in 2019.

Since that first internship, Jenkins has served a wide range of roles: committee clerk and director and legislative aide. In a number of circumstances, she has been the primary trans particular person to serve in these positions, together with her present place as chief of employees for Rep. Lauren Ashley Simmons, D-Houston.

However as Jenkins moved up within the Capitol, far-right lawmakers did, too, gaining important floor within the Legislature and throughout the nation. Legal guidelines like Senate Payments 14 and 15 in 2023 froze gender transition medical look after minors and restricted trans athletes from competing on sure faculty sports activities groups. Extra payments going additional have been filed just lately.

With the 2025 session nicely underway, the 26-year-old mentioned she’s by no means seen the Capitol in such a divisive state. Past coverage shifting extra aggressively in opposition to trans folks, the stress within the Capitol is now palpable, and Jenkins and different LGBTQ+ staffers are uncertain if they’re even welcome in sure representatives’ workplaces.

“It is very ugly, and it’s scary, because you’re walking around this building and you kind of don’t know who your friends are anymore,” Jenkins mentioned.

State lawmakers have filed 59 completely different payments — greater than every other state within the nation — that purpose to additional prohibit what trans Texans have entry to, in accordance with the American Civil Liberties Union. The payments have an effect on all the things from proscribing out-of-state collegiate trans athletes from competing in Texas to creating civil penalties for applications with “restricted ideological programs,” together with gender id.

Rep. Brian Harrison, R-Midlothian, filed a invoice within the Home that may ban state funding from getting used for gender-affirming surgical procedure or treatment that advocates have mentioned unnecessarily bars trans Texans from receiving care. Harrison mentioned him being referred to as anti-trans due to the invoice is unfair, because it stems from monetary incentive, not disrespect.

“I don’t actually view that bill from that perspective. Bills like that, for me, they don’t come with any bearing or judgment on how you feel about those things,” Harrison mentioned in an interview Thursday with the Tribune.

Along with his personal invoice, Harrison signed onto one other toilet restriction invoice, becoming a member of 77 different representatives, which quantities to a majority of the chamber. Home Invoice 239 targets loos in public buildings, together with the Capitol, and would high-quality folks $5,000 for breaking the provisions. The invoice additionally would take away trans inmates from prisons matching their figuring out gender and has a clause that may make it unlawful for courts to file injunctions in opposition to it.

The adjustments have materialized exterior the Capitol’s partitions, as nicely. In 2024, the Division of Public Security started blocking trans Texans from altering the listed gender marker on their driver’s licenses. An govt order issued on President Donald Trump’s first day in workplace additionally prevents federal IDs from having the listed gender be modified.

Jenkins has a U.S. passport that lists her as a lady, however her state-issued identification lists her as a person. She says the disparity has been worrying for her, however up to now it’s been with out challenge.

The Texas Capitol isn’t the one place pushing extra restrictions on trans folks. Nationally, these efforts have been ignited by a brand new presidential administration throwing its weight behind the trigger, proscribing who can play on faculty sports activities groups and asserting that the nation acknowledges solely two genders.

Nearly 400 payments that may have an effect on trans folks have been filed in state legislatures throughout the nation, in accordance with the ACLU.

Even amid the growing animosity towards a elementary a part of her id, Jenkins mentioned she has “only honor and reverence” for the Capitol. Her political profession and fervour for public service are guided by her personal life experiences: her mom died of coronary heart failure in 2012, and Jenkins mentioned she was homeless after dwelling on her personal for over a 12 months whereas in class earlier than being adopted by her greatest good friend’s household. Jenkins mentioned her id as a trans lady is only one piece of her life — not even the biggest — that shapes her objectives in politics.

“I care a lot more about health care. I care a lot more about higher education and access to higher education. I care about homelessness because I used to be homeless when I was a teen,” Jenkins mentioned. “There’s a lot more that I care about or am knowledgeable about.”

However the public sentiment shifting additional away from trans folks doesn’t simply concern Jenkins as an individual. It additionally bleeds into her job. There are little moments that instill hope — a lighthearted dialog or a shared meal with Republican staffers — however there are divides widening, as nicely, particularly amongst a brand new, extra conservative class of representatives.

“Especially as a lot more conservative representatives have gotten elected, it’s a lot harder to maintain those relationships that I built with their predecessors and those offices,” Jenkins mentioned. “A lot of my focus has had to really hone in on lobbyists and some of those mid-to-senior staff on really trying to let them know, ‘Hey, I’m a person. I’m also a resource.’”

These with antagonistic views on trans folks aren’t the one individuals who want reminding, Jenkins mentioned. After Herrero introduced his retirement and Jenkins was trying to find new alternatives, a lawmaker approached her about being their chief of employees solely as a result of Jenkins was trans. Jenkins says that have was degrading within the face of her wealth of expertise.

“It is something that I’ve repeatedly said to Democrats and to Republicans alike: don’t obsess over the fact that I’m trans, or that there are trans people here, but obsess over the fact [that] we do really good work,” Jenkins mentioned.

For Simmons, a freshman consultant with a background in union organizing however with fewer Capitol inroads, Jenkins’ id was by no means a thought within the hiring course of. Moderately, Jenkins’ expertise from years within the Capitol is what guided Simmons to rent her.

“It was really about just having somebody who had that institutional knowledge and those relationships, and aligned with the direction that I wanted to take the office and our values in our district,” Simmons mentioned.

Security issues within the Capitol

There are two household restrooms within the Capitol Extension, throughout from one another on the backside ground. Jenkins, who makes use of solely these gender-neutral loos relatively than the ladies’s restroom, dreaded having to go from Herrero’s fourth-floor workplace down six flooring simply to really feel protected.

“Every little thing that I do, I’m always thinking, how is it going to be perceived? How would people relay this? How are people going to talk about this?” Jenkins mentioned. “I wish that I could just walk through the world and never have to think about it.”

With Simmons’ workplace situated within the extension, Jenkins is glad a restroom is only one ground away. However the concern of being harassed or accused of improper habits is a lingering concern for Jenkins, and one she extends to different trans staffers within the Capitol who could select to make use of the gendered loos.

A refocus on toilet use was bolstered Within the U.S. Congress, when Rep. Nancy Mace, R-South Carolina, filed a invoice that handed searching for a toilet restriction within the Capitol. Mace mentioned in a November interview with media shops the ban “absolutely” focused the Home’s first overtly trans lawmaker, Rep. Sarah McBride.

Some legislators in Texas are searching for to emulate Mace’s restrictions, as 20 representatives co-authored an modification to the Home guidelines that may equally prohibit toilet utilization. Harrison, one of many co-authors of the modification, mentioned he was annoyed Texas couldn’t observe in Congress’ footsteps.

“It is outrageous to me that leadership in the Texas government has not managed to do what the leadership in the federal government has, which is require you use the bathroom that comports with your gender,” Harrison mentioned.

However homosexual and gender nonconforming employees have been within the Capitol lengthy earlier than Jenkins or any would-be toilet bans, and have labored to assist form the state with or with out recognition, Jenkins mentioned. As somebody who’s outspoken about her trans id, having others round her is a welcome consolation.

“I think it’s also about finding your tribe and creating small pockets of joy,” Jenkins mentioned. “There are a lot of LGBT staffers — whether they’re out or not. We’re all in the building.”

These moments of reprieve, nevertheless, can also include moments of pressure. Jenkins mentioned a “flash in the pan” of concern got here in mid-February when Rep. Andy Hopper, R-Decatur, went on a podcast alongside considered one of his staffers, Claire Frugia. Throughout the podcast, Frugia mentioned she encountered a male staffer in one of many Capitol loos. Neither Hopper nor Frugia explicitly said the particular person within the restroom, whom they didn’t establish, is transgender, however Frugia mentioned the staffer had “a new identity he had constructed.”

Hopper mentioned through the podcast no criticism was formally filed, however that he reached out to the Home Administration Committee chair, Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Value, whom he mentioned promised to fireplace the staffer who used the lavatory if it occurred once more. A spokesperson for Hopper referred the Tribune to a assertion from the consultant on the incident, and Geren’s workplace didn’t reply to a number of requests for touch upon whether or not trans staffers may very well be fired for utilizing restrooms not corresponding with their assigned gender at beginning.

Per week after the podcast aired, Lt. Gov Dan Patrick referenced Frugia’s story in a submit on X, seemingly espousing his personal help for a loo ban for the Capitol.

“We will follow that rule in all Capitol bathrooms,” Patrick mentioned within the submit. “President Trump issued an executive order stating that there are two sexes in America: male and female. We’ve known that in Texas for a long time, and I’m glad we finally have a president who recognizes that.”

Patrick’s workplace didn’t reply to questions from the Tribune to make clear whether or not the submit represented an official rule or coverage place within the Capitol. Jenkins, who was knowledgeable by a fellow staffer about Hopper’s grievance to Geren out of concern, mentioned that she was not concerned within the incident, as she makes use of solely the household restrooms within the extension.

“All I’m asking for is respect”

In Jenkins’ small workplace deep within the Capitol’s extension, she has 4 plaques: three on her shelf, and one on her desk, every displaying a title she’s held within the constructing. It’s an intentional show meant to remind herself of how lengthy she’s served within the Capitol — and disarm any assumptions folks could have once they step into her workplace.

“If you’re off-put by the fact that I’m trans, the fact that I’m Black, I’m a woman, the fact that I’m young — subtle reminder: you can look up there and see, ‘Okay, hold on, she’s been here.’”

For Jenkins, her connection to the Capitol and the Texas Legislature runs deeper than her job. Jenkins’ transitions — from teenager to grownup, from scholar to skilled, from privately trans to public — are inseparable from the Capitol that’s changing into more and more hostile to her very existence, she mentioned. Working in a Legislature that has scrutinized her existence has influenced her transition, particularly after legal guidelines like SB 14 and 15 had been handed in 2023.

Incidents just like the one with Hopper’s staffer, or others on the nationwide scale with U.S. Rep. McBride, make Jenkins and her household apprehensive for her security at instances. Regardless of the issues from her household and associates, Jenkins is solely unable to tug herself away from working within the Capitol. To her, working alongside the state’s representatives is one of the best factor she will be able to do to make life safer for everybody else in Texas.

“I really believe in public service, and so for me, I’m willing to make the sacrifices if it means that I can make anybody’s life better,” Jenkins mentioned.

With committee assignments in and the Home’s 60-day restriction on passing payments quickly coming to an finish, Jenkins mentioned she’s prepped and able to dig into the demanding work of the 2 committees on which Simmons sits. To do the work nicely, Jenkins is hoping lawmakers can put respect for his or her friends forward of their political beliefs.

“Even if you think that my being is an ‘ism’ — like, ‘a transgenderism,’ whatever you think it is — I, as a human being, have been through a lot of different things,” Jenkins mentioned. “So all I’m asking for is respect. At the end of the day, that’s all that I want.”

---

We are able to’t wait to welcome you to the fifteenth annual Texas Tribune Pageant, Texas’ breakout concepts and politics occasion taking place Nov. 13–15 in downtown Austin. Step contained in the conversations shaping the way forward for training, the economic system, well being care, vitality, know-how, public security, tradition, the humanities and a lot extra.

Hear from our CEO, Sonal Shah, on TribFest 2025.

TribFest 2025 is introduced by JPMorganChase.