They came to Texas for the big houses and barbecue - they also got new laws on abortion, guns and
voting
And then. In July, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order banning government entities, including public schools, from requiring masks or vaccination (the Texas Supreme Court denied his request last month), despite the state's rising death toll: more than 6,000 Texans have died of covid-19 in the past month. On Sept. 1, legislation allowing Texans to carry a handgun in public without a permit or the background check and training the state previously required went into effect. The same day, the Supreme Court declined to block a Texas law that banned abortions beginning at six weeks of pregnancy, one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country. (The Justice Department has sued Texas to challenge the law.) On Sept. 7, Abbott signed into law a bill that creates strict new voting rules in the state.
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For newly minted Texans who had emigrated from bluer pastures, even just one of these laws would be a lot to take. And now, all of them, within two months?
"It's hard to believe that some of these laws actually exist," says Longley. "And then you look around and you're like, 'Oh. Wait. That's our state. That's where we live.'"
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