Matt Krause

—Instigated Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton‘s anti-transgender opinion memo casting gender-affirming care as child abuse with his letter to Paxton. Medical care such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and gender-affirming surgeries “must be halted,” Paxton said in a statement.

—Pressured GENder Education and Care, Interdisciplinary Support (GENECIS), a state-run medical institution, to close in November 2021, as a part of Texas officials’ efforts to restrict health care services for transgender youth. Krause’s letter to GENECIS read that he had begun an inquiry into their work as part of an investigation into gender-affirming care in Texas. GENECIS leaders worried that stopping care could lead to suicides and poor mental health among trans youth in a state with few options. 

—Asked schools statewide to say whether they had any of the 850 books on a list he has compiled, explaining that he has identified books that “might make students feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress because of their race or sex.” The inquiry, in the form of a letter, was to the Texas Education Agency and superintendents of school districts around the state, asking each official to confirm whether their schools possess any books on his list, on subjects of racism, history, sexuality, and LGBTQ topics including Rainbow Revolutionaries: Fifty LGBTQ+ People Who Made History by Sarah Prager, Harvey Milk: The First Openly Gay Elected Official in the United States by Barbara Gottfried Hollander, The Fight for LGBTQ+ Rights by Devin Smith, and many other LGBTQ titles. He refused to say how he generated the list, and what could happen to districts that carry the books. 

—Authored the anti-LGBTQ Texas bill HB 1923 which would allow individuals, businesses and other entities to refuse service to same-sex couples based on the belief that marriage should be between one man and one woman. 

—Said that Fort Worth pastor Donnie Romero’s wish that those critically wounded in the Pulse massacre would die and “burn in hell” was “disgusting and deplorable” but not because he wished the victims well, but just that they live long enough to avoid damnation (presumably by being straight and Christian). In a Facebook post he wrote: “After all, a pastor’s mission and purpose is to do all they can to ensure no one goes to hell. Even if you think a person was destined for eternal damnation, the appropriate response is that individual would live long enough to come to a point of salvation—not hasten their soul to hell.”

—Attempted to erase LGBTQ people from the Pulse nightclub massacre when he said it “doesn’t matter” that the 49 people murdered were LGBTQ. In a facebook post he criticized those who called the massacre a hate crime, and suggested the shooter may have chosen the site of the slaughter people because it’s a “gun free zone” or a place “where sounds are hard to decipher and lights are low.” 

—Named “Most Homophobic Legislator” by advocacy group Equality Texas in a legislative report card that ranked Texas state legislators’ records on working for LGBT rights. Krause was the only one to earn a raw score below zero, a -4.