MARLANE RODRIGUEZ (HOST): Senate Bill 6, or the bathroom bill, has supporters and opponents at odds. [Texas] Governor Greg Abbott announced the controversial bill would be on the special session agenda. Now a third-grader is sending a message to lawmakers over it.

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TRISTAN REYNA: I was born with a body of a boy, but in my heart, my spirit says I'm a girl. So, I shouldn't be forced to share a bathroom with the boys.

RODRIGUEZ: Tristan was two years old when she discovered she was a girl. Now at age eight, she is an average, active student who enjoys acting, and singing, and going to the beach. She played Nala in the play Lion King before school ended. Tristan and her grandmother Elizabeth Watson are asking lawmakers for equality.  

ELIZABETH WATSON: As intelligent people they can come up some solutions or some simple solutions are better than just left the way they are, especially if there are not, like, documented crime committed by these groups of people.

RODRIGUEZ: Senate Bill 6 would, in part, require a transgender person to use a bathroom that matches their “biological sex.”

WATSON: They have needs and one of those needs is going to the bathroom.

RODRIGUEZ: Tristan’s family supports and advocates for her.

WATSON: We’re being visible, we’re trying to not hide, on the contrary, be proud of who we are.

RODRIGUEZ: Tristan is typically a happy-go-lucky girl, but she has one emotional plea for lawmakers.

REYNA: I don't want to use the boys bathroom. It’s very sad to be forced to use a bathroom that you’re not supposed to use.