AUSTIN - Jonathan Bow once was one of Texas' most prominent public servants, spending 10 years as assistant attorney general and another decade as the head of a state agency. On the eve of retirement last summer, Bow made the paramount decision of coming out to employees, friends and the world, as transgender.

After 57 years living outwardly as a man, Jonathan would become Claire.

"The people of Texas, conservative as they are, have really embraced me," Bow, now a transgender rights activist, said while relaxing between meetings at the state Capitol. "But when you start talking about the laws in the state of Texas, the laws in the state of Texas are almost uniformly hostile."

The perception of gay and lesbian Americans has shifted exponentially in recent years, leading to greater acceptance and, now, pending a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, the possible legalization of same-sex unions across the country. The battle for transgender rights is just beginning, however. It promises in many ways to be a much tougher and longer fight.

"I think a lot of conversations very recently have centered around gay rights because that has been the issue in the courts for quite some time," said University of Illinois lecturer Sara Benson, an expert on laws affecting the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, or LGBT, community. "But we haven't heard much in a while about the transgender legal issues, and I think that is going to be one of the next battlegrounds in the civil rights movement."

That is especially true in places like Texas, a conservative bastion that continues to fiercely defend its same-sex marriage ban, where tradition is championed just as much as individualism. As celebrities like Olympic gold medalist Bruce Jenner and actress Laverne Cox seek to bring transgender issues to the mainstream, Texas is battling against the movement toward acceptance.

There is no single definition for "transgender." Broadly, it refers to someone who identifies as a different gender than their sex at birth. How someone exhibits his or her gender depends on the individual. Some people make no outward physical changes, while others undergo extensive hormone therapy and surgery to change their sex to match their gender identity. People identify as a transgender man, meaning they were not born male but identify that way, transgender woman, or as "gender fluid" - somewhere in between. Sexual orientation is a separate question. For example, a trans woman may be attracted to men, or consider herself a lesbian and be attracted to women.

It is nearly impossible to estimate the number of transgender Americans. A 2011 study put the number at somewhere around 700,000, a number that is likely to grow as Americans develop a greater understanding of what it means to be transgender.

As their numbers grow, so do their support networks, especially in large urban areas. Houston has a number of locations, like the LGBT clinic The Montrose Center, that offer counseling for issues such as substance abuse and domestic violence specifically for transgender Texans. There are also a number of support groups across the state that cater to trans Texans and their families, and the Dallas Children's Medical Center in February unveiled the region's first pediatric program for transgender children.

Keep 'our people alive'

A number of Texas' largest cities, including Houston and San Antonio, have passed local nondiscrimination ordinances to provide protections for transgender individuals in such areas as employment and housing. While the state continues to defend its 2005 ban on gay marriage, a recent court victory for transgender Texans means they legally can marry someone of the opposite sex, provided they present proof they have undergone a sex-change operation.

Texas still has a long way to go to catch up to the likes of California and other states whose local and state leaders actively work to extend equal rights to their transgender citizens.

"I would say that we're probably in the middle, towards the bottom," said Lou Weaver, the transgender outreach specialist for LGBT rights group Texas Wins. "Obviously, it could be worse, but we're not doing well as a state at all."

Many agree one of the greatest barriers for many transgender Texans at this time is finding employment. Texas is one of 33 states in which it is legal to fire, or refuse to hire, someone for being transgender, Weaver said. There also are no state laws protecting transgender Texans from school bullying or housing discrimination. Many do not have access to necessary physical and mental health services, or the funds or insurance coverage for medical services to assist with transition.

"Rates of discrimination were alarming in Texas, indicating widespread discrimination based on gender identity," read a 2011 report from the National Center for Transgender Equality. One in 10 respondents reported living on less than $10,000 a year, with one in four reporting they lost a job or were denied a promotion because they were transgender. Nearly half reported physical assault at school and verbal harassment in public places; 41 percent said they had attempted suicide at least once, 26 times the average for the general population.

The statistics are even bleaker for transgender Texans of color, who are far more likely to experience violence in their everyday lives. The Texas transgender community is actively working to reverse this trend, this weekend convening its annual conference in Dallas for black transgender men and women from across the county.

"The absolute, most prominent issue is our black and Hispanic transgender women being murdered and nothing being done about it," said Colt Keo-Meier, a transgender man and licensed psychologist practicing in Houston. "That's our No. 1 issue, keeping our people alive."

State law does not include gender identity in its hate crime statute, making it impossible to track how many Texans are targeted for being transgender.

"Right now, there's no consistency in justice," said Bow, who said the "disproportionate treatment" transgender Texans receive largely is due to conflicting protections under the law. Transgender people are "tolerated," she said, often because they're ignored.

Bow and Caomhán Ó Raghallaigh, a former legislative staffer who transitioned from female to male during the 2013 session, said they hoped this would be the year lawmakers would make it easier for transgender Texans to change the gender listed on their identifying documents, such as birth certificates and driver's licenses. Right now, they said, the process is complicated and costly, and the decision is up to the individual will of the judge assigned to the case.

Finally at peace

Legislation by Houston Democrat Garnet Coleman to ease this process has gone nowhere, however, and attracted little attention. Meanwhile, conservative interest groups have pushed a slate of anti-transgender bills that would require Texans to use only the bathroom that corresponds to their "biological sex." Two bills by Rep. Gilbert Pena, R-Pasadena, would go further to allow students to sue and receive $2,000 in relief if they identify a transgender student who uses a bathroom that does not correspond to his or her born sex.

Lawmakers in eight other states filed similar so-called "bathroom" bills this year. The Texas proposals are unlikely to get a hearing, especially with less than a month left in the 2015 session.

"You're taking a population that already had a lot of problems with self-esteem to begin with, and taking years to come to terms with who they are inside, and shoving them off a cliff," said Ó Raghallaigh, who hopes that telling his and others' transition stories will help "debunk all those fear stories."

"I know if I cannot finish transition, I will be dead, probably by my own hand," he said. "I'm talking about looking in the mirror and not recognizing myself. I didn't recognize myself for 50 years." Bow said after making the biggest shift of her life to become Claire, she finally feels at peace: "I wouldn't change a thing."