Transgender staffer navigates Texas Capitol with guarded care amid growing hostilities

Mo Jenkins, center, walks with state Rep. Lauren A. Simmons, D-Houston, at left, ahead of a House session on Feb. 11. Jenkins works as Simmons’ chief of staff, a role she earned after working five years in the state Capitol. (Credit: Lorianne Willett/The Texas Tribune)

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For Mo Jenkins, working in the Texas Capitol is a dichotomy: in one moment, a House representative may be rallying against transgender rights, and in the next the same lawmaker will stop by Jenkins’ office for a friendly chat.

The phenomenon isn’t surprising, Jenkins said, but it can be confusing. As one of only a few openly transgender staffers working in the state Capitol, the duality comes with the work she now does as chief of staff for a freshman lawmaker.

“It's very ironic in a way, to watch members essentially say that you're not human and deserve to not have health care and not exist in public, to them then wishing you a happy birthday and clapping you on your back, or coming to your office and eating your gumbo,” Jenkins said.

But in the five years Jenkins has worked in the Capitol, anti-trans legislators have made significant headway in their efforts to both restrict the rights of trans people and make their presence more vocal across state and federal offices. In Texas, lawmakers are making second passes at previous restrictions, like access to bathrooms, and going further than before, like expanding bans on funding for gender transition care.

Even as the spread of legislation that could impact major aspects of her life grows, Jenkins wants to remain a part of the legislative process while she wrestles to work with those whom she says actively disrespect her.

“A thing that I've struggled with a lot more, especially as a chief, is how do you find common ground with someone who does not even believe in your existence?” Jenkins said.

“The ugliest session”

When the 2017 ban aiming to restrict which bathrooms trans people can use failed in the Legislature, Jenkins was still a high schooler in Dickinson and felt largely unconcerned about it. “Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed,” was how Jenkins described her younger self who began with an internship with former state Rep. Abel Herrero, D-Robstown, in 2019.

Since that first internship, Jenkins has served a variety of roles: committee clerk and director and legislative aide. In several cases, she has been the first trans person to serve in those positions, including her current position as chief of staff for Rep. Lauren Ashley Simmons, D-Houston.

But as Jenkins moved up in the Capitol, far-right lawmakers did, too, gaining significant ground in the Legislature and across the country. Laws like Senate Bills 14 and 15 in 2023 froze gender transition medical care for minors and restricted trans athletes from competing on certain college sports teams. More bills going further have been filed recently.

With the 2025 session well underway, the 26-year-old said she’s never seen the Capitol in such a divisive state. Beyond policy shifting more aggressively against trans people, the tension in the Capitol is now palpable, and Jenkins and other LGBTQ+ staffers are unsure if they are even welcome in certain representatives’ offices.

“It is very ugly, and it's scary, because you're walking around this building and you kind of don't know who your friends are anymore,” Jenkins said.

Mo Jenkins attends a meeting in the office of Rep. Lauren Ashley Simmons. With the 2025 session well underway, the 26-year-old said she’s never seen the Capitol in such a divisive state. (Credit: Lorianne Willett/The Texas Tribune)

State lawmakers have filed 59 different bills — more than any other state in the country — that aim to further restrict what trans Texans have access to, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. The bills affect everything from restricting out-of-state collegiate trans athletes from competing in Texas to creating civil penalties for programs with “restricted ideological programs,” including gender identity.

Rep. Brian Harrison, R-Midlothian, filed a bill in the House that would ban state funding from being used for gender-affirming surgery or medication that advocates have said unnecessarily bars trans Texans from receiving care. Harrison said him being called anti-trans because of the bill is unfair, as it stems from financial incentive, not disrespect.

“I don't actually view that bill from that perspective. Bills like that, for me, they don't come with any bearing or judgment on how you feel about those things,” Harrison said in an interview Thursday with the Tribune.

In addition to his own bill, Harrison signed onto another bathroom restriction bill, joining 77 other representatives, which amounts to a majority of the chamber. House Bill 239 targets bathrooms in public buildings, including the Capitol, and would fine people $5,000 for breaking the provisions. The bill also would remove trans inmates from prisons matching their identifying gender and has a clause that would make it illegal for courts to file injunctions against it.

The changes have materialized outside the Capitol’s walls, as well. In 2024, the Department of Public Safety began blocking trans Texans from changing the listed gender marker on their driver’s licenses. An executive order issued on President Donald Trump’s first day in office also prevents federal IDs from having the listed gender be changed.

Jenkins has a U.S. passport that lists her as a woman, but her state-issued identification lists her as a man. She says the disparity has been stressful for her, but so far it’s been without issue.

The Texas Capitol isn’t the only place pushing more restrictions on trans people. Nationally, those efforts have been ignited by a new presidential administration throwing its weight behind the cause, restricting who can play on college sports teams and announcing that the country recognizes only two genders.

Almost 400 bills that would affect trans people have been filed in state legislatures across the country, according to the ACLU.

Even amid the increasing animosity toward a fundamental part of her identity, Jenkins said she has “only honor and reverence” for the Capitol. Her political career and passion for public service are guided by her own life experiences: her mother died of heart failure in 2012, and Jenkins said she was homeless after living on her own for over a year while in school before being adopted by her best friend’s family. Jenkins said her identity as a trans woman is just one piece of her life — not even the largest — that shapes her goals in politics.

“I care a lot more about health care. I care a lot more about higher education and access to higher education. I care about homelessness because I used to be homeless when I was a teen,” Jenkins said. “There's a lot more that I care about or am knowledgeable about.”

Mo Jenkins, right, meets with Legislative Director Cody Pyke, center, and Rep. Lauren Ashley Simmons. Almost 400 bills which would affect trans people have been filed in state legislatures across the country, a national move ignited under the Trump administration. (Credit: Lorianne Willett/The Texas Tribune)

But the public sentiment shifting further away from trans people doesn’t just concern Jenkins as a person. It also bleeds into her job. There are little moments that instill hope — a lighthearted conversation or a shared meal with Republican staffers — but there are divides widening, as well, especially among a new, more conservative class of representatives.

“Especially as a lot more conservative representatives have gotten elected, it's a lot harder to maintain those relationships that I built with their predecessors and those offices,” Jenkins said. “A lot of my focus has had to really hone in on lobbyists and some of those mid-to-senior staff on really trying to let them know, ‘Hey, I'm a person. I'm also a resource.’”

Those with antagonistic views on trans people aren’t the only people who need reminding, Jenkins said. After Herrero announced his retirement and Jenkins was searching for new opportunities, a lawmaker approached her about being their chief of staff solely because Jenkins was trans. Jenkins says that experience was degrading in the face of her wealth of experience.

“It is something that I've repeatedly said to Democrats and to Republicans alike: don't obsess over the fact that I'm trans, or that there are trans people here, but obsess over the fact [that] we do really good work,” Jenkins said.

For Simmons, a freshman representative with a background in union organizing but with fewer Capitol inroads, Jenkins’ identity was never a thought in the hiring process. Rather, Jenkins’ experience from years in the Capitol is what guided Simmons to hire her.

“It was really about just having somebody who had that institutional knowledge and those relationships, and aligned with the direction that I wanted to take the office and our values in our district,” Simmons said.

Safety concerns in the Capitol

There are two family restrooms in the Capitol Extension, across from each other at the bottom floor. Jenkins, who uses only those gender-neutral bathrooms rather than the women’s restroom, dreaded having to go from Herrero’s fourth-floor office down six floors just to feel safe.

“Every little thing that I do, I'm always thinking, how is it going to be perceived? How would people relay this? How are people going to talk about this?” Jenkins said. “I wish that I could just walk through the world and never have to think about it.”

With Simmons’ office located in the extension, Jenkins is glad a restroom is just one floor away. But the fear of being harassed or accused of improper behavior is a lingering fear for Jenkins, and one she extends to other trans staffers in the Capitol who may choose to use the gendered bathrooms.

A refocus on bathroom use was bolstered In the U.S. Congress, when Rep. Nancy Mace, R-South Carolina, filed a bill that passed seeking a bathroom restriction in the Capitol. Mace said in a November interview with media outlets the ban “absolutely” targeted the House’s first openly trans lawmaker, Rep. Sarah McBride.

Some legislators in Texas are seeking to emulate Mace’s restrictions, as 20 representatives co-authored an amendment to the House rules that would similarly restrict bathroom usage. Harrison, one of the co-authors of the amendment, said he was frustrated Texas couldn’t follow in Congress’ footsteps.

“It is outrageous to me that leadership in the Texas government has not managed to do what the leadership in the federal government has, which is require you use the bathroom that comports with your gender,” Harrison said.

But gay and gender nonconforming staff have been in the Capitol long before Jenkins or any would-be bathroom bans, and have worked to help shape the state with or without recognition, Jenkins said. As someone who is outspoken about her trans identity, having others around her is a welcome comfort.

“I think it's also about finding your tribe and creating small pockets of joy,” Jenkins said. “There are a lot of LGBT staffers — whether they're out or not. We're all in the building.”

Mo Jenkins holds a gavel that was given to her by former state Rep. Abel Herrero, for whom she served as legislative director. Jenkins’ years of experience at the Capitol is what guided Rep. Lauren Ashley Simmons to hire her. (Credit: Lorianne Willett/The Texas Tribune)

Those moments of reprieve, however, also can come with moments of tension. Jenkins said a “flash in the pan” of concern came in mid-February when Rep. Andy Hopper, R-Decatur, went on a podcast alongside one of his staffers, Claire Frugia. During the podcast, Frugia said she encountered a male staffer in one of the Capitol bathrooms. Neither Hopper nor Frugia explicitly stated the person in the restroom, whom they did not identify, is transgender, but Frugia said the staffer had “a new identity he had constructed.”

Hopper said during the podcast no complaint was formally filed, but that he reached out to the House Administration Committee chair, Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, whom he said promised to fire the staffer who used the bathroom if it occurred again. A spokesperson for Hopper referred the Tribune to a statement from the representative on the incident, and Geren’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment on whether trans staffers could be fired for using restrooms not corresponding with their assigned gender at birth.

A week after the podcast aired, Lt. Gov Dan Patrick referenced Frugia's story in a post on X, seemingly espousing his own support for a bathroom ban for the Capitol.

“We will follow that rule in all Capitol bathrooms,” Patrick said in the post. “President Trump issued an executive order stating that there are two sexes in America: male and female. We've known that in Texas for a long time, and I'm glad we finally have a president who recognizes that.”

Patrick’s office did not respond to questions from the Tribune to clarify whether the post represented an official rule or policy position in the Capitol. Jenkins, who was informed by a fellow staffer about Hopper’s grievance to Geren out of concern, said that she was not involved in the incident, as she uses only the family restrooms in the extension.

“All I’m asking for is respect”

In Jenkins’ small office deep in the Capitol’s extension, she has four plaques: three on her shelf, and one on her desk, each displaying a title she’s held in the building. It’s an intentional display meant to remind herself of how long she’s served in the Capitol — and disarm any assumptions people may have when they step into her office.

“If you're off-put by the fact that I'm trans, the fact that I'm Black, I'm a woman, the fact that I'm young — subtle reminder: you can look up there and see, ‘Okay, hold on, she's been here.’”

For Jenkins, her connection to the Capitol and the Texas Legislature runs deeper than her job. Jenkins’ transitions — from teenager to adult, from student to professional, from privately trans to public — are inseparable from the Capitol that is becoming increasingly hostile to her very existence, she said. Working in a Legislature that has scrutinized her existence has influenced her transition, especially after laws like SB 14 and 15 were passed in 2023.

Incidents like the one with Hopper’s staffer, or others at the national scale with U.S. Rep. McBride, make Jenkins and her family worried for her safety at times. Despite the concerns from her family and friends, Jenkins is simply unable to pull herself away from working in the Capitol. To her, working alongside the state’s representatives is the best thing she can do to make life safer for everyone else in Texas.

Mo Jenkins speaks with other staffers in the Texas Capitol’s open-air rotunda. For Jenkins, her connection to the Capitol and the Texas Legislature runs deeper than her job. (Credit: Lorianne Willett/The Texas Tribune)

“I really believe in public service, and so for me, I'm willing to make the sacrifices if it means that I can make anybody's life better,” Jenkins said.

With committee assignments in and the House’s 60-day restriction on passing bills soon coming to an end, Jenkins said she’s prepped and ready to dig into the demanding work of the two committees on which Simmons sits. To do the work well, Jenkins is hoping lawmakers can put respect for their peers ahead of their political views.

“Even if you think that my being is an ‘ism’ — like, ‘a transgenderism,’ whatever you think it is — I, as a human being, have been through a lot of different things,” Jenkins said. “So all I'm asking for is respect. At the end of the day, that’s all that I want.”

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