> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # ‘I Feel Like A Hunted Creature’: Rural Trans & Queer Texans React To A Propaganda-Ridden Election - URL: https://www.thebarbedwire.com/i-feel-like-a-hunted-creature-rural-trans-queer-texans-react-to-a-propaganda-ridden-election/ - Published: 2026-10-30T18:56:06.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-30T18:56:06.000Z - Description: “It’s kind of terrifying because I know all my neighbors are getting [the mailers].” - Author: Kit O'Connell - Tags: Queer Texas, Culture, Texas Politics The 2026 midterm elections remain nail-bitingly close in Texas, as the final week of early voting closes, but it’s also an election rife with tension and fear for queer and trans voters. “\[Voting\] is always a bit scary because, frankly, I don’t like reminding the state of Texas that I exist,” said April Ortiz, a transgender math professor, wife and mother who lives with her family in rural South Texas. Ortiz resides in the same part of the state where she grew up: Medina County, west of San Antonio. She’s also a writer; she first came out publicly in 2023 via [an essay published in the *Texas Observer*](https://www.texasobserver.org/i-am-a-trans-texan/?ref=thebarbedwire.com)*.* During this election, Ortiz and other LGBTQ+ Texas voters have watched as Republicans flood the airwaves, postal mail and social media with anti-transgender propaganda, and even Democrats seem to be weakening their positions on trans rights. At the same time, she’s painfully aware that far more than her own future hangs in the balance in this election, especially for immigrants who are vulnerable to President Donald Trump’s ruthless, unprecedented deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. She and others from marginalized groups also face uncertainty when it comes to voting itself, thanks to intensified voter ID requirements in Texas and intense scrutiny by an American right-wing intent on searching for voter fraud, however vanishingly rare it may be. Ortiz, who is Hispanic and autistic, has frequently traveled near the border with Mexico and recounted a traumatic experience in which she was stopped while traveling through a border patrol checkpoint, searched and accused of smuggling contraband. “That's just the tip of the iceberg for my interactions with law enforcement,” she told *The Barbed Wire.* “I just know how easy it is for people to get caught up in the wrong end of the criminal justice system and how hard it is to escape that.” According to [a survey produced by the Human Rights Campaign](https://www.hrc.org/resources/lgbtq-2026-midterms?ref=thebarbedwire.com), civil rights and equality for LGBTQ+ people, women, people of color, and other marginalized groups is the most important issue for LGBTQ+ voters, followed by the economy and cost of living, government accountability, maintaining a functioning democracy, and accessibility of healthcare. Ortiz said her top priorities for this election included criminal justice reform, improved access to reproductive healthcare, and “ending the terror against immigrants,” all of which have motivated her choices at the ballot box in the past. Ortiz expressed some hope that Democrats will act on these issues, if elected. “I do feel that there’s so much work to be done and, honestly, voting is a very small part of that,” Ortiz said. However, she said it’s been hard to focus her attention around those topics when there’s been so much vitriol and hate directed towards transgender people. Like most voters, she and her family members in the state received a steady stream of Republican mailers. Her mother received a copy of the “Texas Transgender Student Union” flyer, a now [infamous piece of anti-trans disinformation](https://www.texasobserver.org/ken-paxton-james-talarico-texas-senate-october-surprises-pure-disinformation/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) from a Wyoming shell company posing as a Texas student group. As reported by [Steven Monacelli at *The Texas Observer*](https://texasobserver.org/revealed-gop-group-behind-mysterious-trans-student-messages?ref=thebarbedwire.com), court records link similar text messages sent this month to the Republican Women’s Caucus Fund and a man named John Braun. The group [denied involvement](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/10/29/texas-transgender-texts-sender-republican-caucus/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) with either the mailing or text through their spokesperson. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4e/33/4e33350c-149c-451f-b54d-ac6957d94879/content/images/2026/10/Trans-Mailer-2.jpg) As reported in [our Big & Bright newsletter](https://www.thebarbedwire.com/seeing-myself-in-republicans-hate-2/), [millions of these flyers](https://www.kut.org/politics/2026-10-28/transgender-texts-mail-court-hearing-austin?ref=thebarbedwire.com) have flooded Texas, where they became the subject of widespread media speculation about their origins, resulted in serious threats against multiple LGBTQ+ nonprofits, and led to ongoing legal action. Although her mother is supportive of trans rights, Ortiz knows that others who received the mailer do not feel so positively about her existence. “It's kind of terrifying because I know all my neighbors are getting them, and I'm in a tiny town,” she told us. “I'm just trying to live here, and I feel like a hunted creature.” Even Democrats seem, in some cases, to be weakening their support for trans people in the face of this onslaught. Ortiz highlighted a controversial advertisement by gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa which contained a [joke about pronouns](https://ginafortexas.com/2026/09/new-ad-pronouns-hinojosa-fights-for-working-families-abbott-runs-same-old-playbook/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), while U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico seemed to [walk back previous support for trans folks](https://www.advocate.com/politics/national/james-talarico-trans-athletes-2677841392?ref=thebarbedwire.com) as well. These were followed by an [escalating series of anti-trans advertisements](https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/iowa-dem-josh-turek-releases-anti?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and pronouncements from Democratic candidates elsewhere in the U.S. "That's an escalation that's taken place within the space of a few weeks of the party that I vote for,” Ortiz said. “And if they don't have my back, who does have my back?” --- Even the simple act of voting can be fraught for trans Texans, who may have documentation which doesn’t match their gender identity or presentation. Ortiz told us she was scared that her identity would be questioned at the polls, although she eventually voted early without issue. However, not all trans voters may be so lucky. It’s one of many potential hurdles being closely tracked by nonpartisan election monitors with the [Election Protection Coalition](https://866ourvote.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com), a mass effort by nonprofits nationwide to maintain free and fair elections. The organization maintains a toll-free hotline, 866-OUR-VOTE, which voters can call or text to report incidents at the polls or just to get their questions answered. Kimiya Factory, a senior national coordinator with the [Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law](https://www.lawyerscommittee.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) (a member of the Election Protection Coalition), said trans people and others from the LGBTQ+ community deserve to feel safe casting their vote. “We do see a number of calls with voters who are confused about the current legal landscape in Texas,” Factory told *The Barbed Wire*. “So we have seen, as a result of legislative sessions concurrently in recent years, mass voter confusion.” As long as they have a valid voter registration, she said, trans people in Texas should be able to painlessly vote even if their appearance or other aspects of their gender presentation don’t match the name on their documentation. Volunteers at the 866-OUR-VOTE hotline are equipped to help trans and queer voters. “Texas is in the top in the nation for confusing and ever-changing voter ID laws, so we make sure that we're equipped to support LGBTQIA+ voters who have questions about this issue,” Factory said. [Voters for Trans Equality](https://www.transvote.org/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) and the ACLU of Texas have also created [guides to voting while transgender](https://www.instagram.com/p/DepOkZ8F7jl/?ref=thebarbedwire.com). Of course, trans voters aren’t the only ones with concerns about safely voting, as Factory emphasized in our conversation: both widespread redistricting and the [prospect of ICE agents appearing at polling places](https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/other/fears-as-trump-doj-plans-to-send-dea-atf-and-prison-guards-to-polls/ar-AA2g6Wrw?ref=thebarbedwire.com) have caused confusion and fear in Black and Brown voters, too. She said it’s illegal for federal agents to be present at voting locations in Texas. “We are anticipating and have been getting calls of concerns about voter intimidation, and we are keeping our eyes and ears to the ground for reports of this in real time, so we can take the action to ensure that these counties and local city police are in compliance with election law and making sure that federal agents are not present at polling locations.” Although Factory said voters have reason to be worried, especially in this era of AI-fueled mis- and disinformation, she said that the Lawyers’ Committee is dedicated to carrying on the civil rights advocacy work of its founder, President John F. Kennedy, and she’s confident the Election Protection Coalition will help this year’s elections run smoothly. “We're seeing over 1,000 volunteers who will be deployed on Election Day, who are nonpartisan poll monitors, making sure that polling locations are in compliance and that voters feel safe.” --- April Ortiz is far from the only queer voter who expressed frustration with Democrats’ waffling over transgender rights; the issue of whether Democrats are making the right choice has been [widely debated](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/hrc-president-says-democrats-caving-on-trans-rights-aren-t-actually-helping-themselves/ar-AA2dY5rc?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in print and on social media. “I don't blame anyone for \[feeling\] betrayed,” said Josh Tutt of Talarico’s triangulation on trans rights. Another LGBTQ+ voter from rural Texas, Tutt, a gay man, lives with his husband in Burleson County, about 3 hours east of Ortiz, where he’s made a home since 2013\. He works as an IT professional. Although he expressed strong sympathy for voters who are frustrated by Democrats’ recent behavior, he did say he hopes Talarico will maintain his [pro-LGBTQ+ voting record](https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2026/07/james-talarico-lgbtq/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) if elected to U.S. Senate. “James Talarico has a stellar record voting on LGBTQ+ issues and a great [scorecard from Equality Texas](https://equalitytexas.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/LegislativeScorecard2026-2.pdf?ref=thebarbedwire.com).” Tutt is deeply engaged with the political process in his community; in 2022, [he ran for office](https://ballotpedia.org/Josh%5FTutt?ref=thebarbedwire.com) in Senate District 18, against far-right Republican State Senator [Lois Kolkhorst](https://senate.texas.gov/member.php?d=18&ref=thebarbedwire.com). In a conversation via direct messages on the social network Threads, he said his top issues are “anti-corruption, opposing white Christian nationalism, and opposing rising fascism / authoritarianism / oligarchy in our state and federal government.” Other popular causes he supports include improving rural healthcare access and public education, and opposition to Flock surveillance cameras and data centers. He expressed confidence that the candidates he voted for will back these causes if Democrats win numerous offices as current polling suggests they might. “I think each candidate I voted for will support my issues in their own ways,” Tutt wrote. “Each office serves a different function.” In particular, he highlighted [the Democratic candidate for Texas Agriculture Commissioner](https://www.claytontuckertx.com/?ref=thebarbedwire.com) as a political acquaintance and trusted candidate. “Clayton Tucker's platform is succinct and amazing.” Tutt said the anti-trans mailers have left him “enraged” and afraid for young queer and trans Texans. “I fear that some parent saw that mailer, got angry, assumed their child requested it, and some unsuspecting child got hurt or abused in retaliation because of a conservative propaganda scheme.” Although he said LGBTQ+ Texans have a “wishlist” of potential legislative and policy changes that would improve their lives, things have gotten so bad that they often have to settle for candidates who simply “don’t proactively hate us.” He also acknowledged that, as a cisgender man, he has a lot less to lose than trans, nonbinary and gender-nonconforming people. “I know so many friends who have left Texas because they do not feel safe here, or feel it won't be safe here soon,” Tutt wrote. “I am tired of losing my friends and seeing them be painted as monsters and villains.”