Like a lot of folks around the country, we’ve been very concerned about the bathroom bounty bills that have sprung up in 7 or 8 states this year. So far, none of these bills have passed into law thanks to all the great work done by the organizations working in each state. At the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) we’ve helped support the local work to defeat them in various ways like providing talking points and messaging strategy. We’ve also been promoting lobbying efforts to our members in each state.

This week I was honored to be invited to come to Austin, TX to support Trans Lobby Day organized by TENT (the Transgender Education Network of Texas). At the Capitol, I was fortunate to spend the afternoon visiting legislators’ offices with a small group of outstanding people who were parents of transgender children. The passion and clarity with which they advocated for their children—and all trans and gender non-conforming children—was both effective and really inspirational.

We all know that it is hard enough being a child or a teenager of any kind. Being a trans teenager can be even harder. And the parents talked with their representative about how passing any of the four bad bills in Texas would make it almost impossible for their children to attend school or fully participate in society.

The day before lobby day, I had the privilege to meet and help train most of the participants. Specifically, I talked about the importance of telling legislators our personal stories and how to do it in a way that will best impact elected officials.

Here is a picture of me and some of the parents and some other advocates as we met with State Representative Diego Bernal, a really strong trans supporter who successfully led the effort to pass a local non-discrimination ordinance in San Antonio a few years ago.

In Texas, the way the legislative calendar is set up, the people who wrote the bills have less than two weeks left to pass the bills or they go away, at least until 2017.

NCTE will continue this year to support the local people who are smartly fighting these bills. And, unfortunately, we be getting prepared to fight them again next year and maybe the year after that. I’m confident that eventually we’ll win and our opponents will stop these dangerous attacks.