(UnitedVoice.com) – Republican states across the country have begun enacting laws to protect children from gender-affirming care. Texas is one that has taken action. That allegedly made one of its cities the target of a cybercrime.
Cyberattack
On June 23, the City of Fort Worth’s Information Technology Solutions Department was notified of a post claiming the city website was hacked. Cybercriminals stole information from a website the city uses to post work orders. Then they posted the information online for the public to see.
Authorities believe the hackers stole the workers’ login credentials. Fortunately, it doesn’t appear that there is any sensitive information shared online.
The city held a news conference on June 24 to discuss the matter. The city’s IT Director, Kevin Gunn, said the information that was posted online included “photographs, spreadsheets, invoices for work performed, PDF documents, emails between staff,” and info related to the work orders. He told the public it doesn’t appear any other websites or information was leaked.
Motive
The hackers explained why they were posting the information online, saying it was the result of the state’s position on transgender healthcare. A group called SeigeSec posted a message on Twitter claiming it decided to target the Lonestar State because it was one of the largest to ban gender-affirming care.
At the beginning of June, Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) signed Senate Bill 14 into law. The legislation prohibits doctors from prescribing puberty blockers or other hormone therapies. The law also bans kids from undergoing gender transition surgery. Kids already receiving gender-affirming hormone therapy will have to be taken off it slowly.
The law is set to go into effect on September 1.
Opposition
Critics of the law have vowed to stop it from going into effect. The executive director of the Transgender Education Network of Texas, Emmett Schelling, claimed, “Cruelty has always been the point.” He criticized the governor for signing the legislation during Pride Month.
Other states have passed similar bans only to have courts stop them from going into effect. At the beginning of June, a federal court temporarily blocked Florida’s ban on transgender healthcare from going into effect. On June 28, federal judges in Kentucky and Tennessee temporarily blocked those laws too. However, the judge in Tennessee allowed a ban on minors undergoing gender surgery to remain in place. The ruling came just eight days after another court blocked the Arkansas ban from going into effect.
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