Activist… All Part Of The Job

Becoming a parent doesn’t come with a job description or a manual, you do what you have to and for trans parents becoming an activist is part of that.

Parents of transgender kids kicked off CR skate rink speak out
Iowa City Press – Citizen
By Christine Hawes
November 9, 2018

When a Cedar Rapids businessman allegedly asked two transgender boys to separate themselves from other boys, and implied they were “a social experiment,” he likely didn’t realize he was probably violating Cedar Rapids and Iowa civil rights laws.

Worse yet, the owner of Super Skate didn’t realize the emotional wounds he risked reopening for not just a couple of young boys, but their families. He was clueless about what a personal victory it was for both boys to even be skating during “boys’ skate.”
[…]
Gary Hester probably didn’t expect Iowa City resident Cassie Mae Ellis to organize a rally of support for the family of her friend Nicole, Noah’s mom. Or that Ellis’s rally would attract more than 50 from throughout eastern Iowa, and national news coverage.
[…]
Both families have now decided to “step up to the plate.” Jeremiah filed a formal complaint with the Cedar Rapids Civil Rights Commission – the results of which the public will hear about only if Super Skate is found to have violated civil rights statutes and contests that finding, say spokespeople for the commission.

The families have also decided to go public with their stories, after initially trying to stay out of the limelight. They’ve already been contacted by other families with children who are either gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or nonbinary.

Most of the parents that I know have taking up being an advocate for their children. One became the head of a local PFLAG chapter, others have spoken out against discrimination, some have testified before legislature committees, and others have written books about their experiences. I don’t think many have remained passive.

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Of course there are still many parents who do not accept their child being trans, lesbian, or gay.

Yesterday on CBS Sunday Morning they had an article on Conversion Therapy.

Conversion therapy: A disputed practice aimed at "converting" homosexuals
"I was a perfect, golden, super Christian ideal man," said 29-year-old Adam Trimmer.  And inside? "Inside, I was scared, broken. Afraid. I knew it wasn't real. I cried myself to sleep so many nights praying, 'God, please change me.'"
[…]
And so, at 17, Adam came out to his mother, Paulette. It didn't go well. She recalled, "He said, 'I am gay. I know I am gay.' And I just turned and looked to the side and tears just rolling down my face. And I looked at him and I said, 'Adam, a man shall not lay with another man.' And he started crying. I wanted him to know that it's in the Bible, and you're going against God."
[…]
"No, I did not hug him," she replied, crying. "And I remember hearing him tell someone, 'When I went to my mom, instead of getting love and support, I got religion.'"

Here in Connecticut and around a dozen other states ban conversion therapy on minors be licensed therapist.

As for the American Medical and Psychological Associations, they warn against the use of conversion therapy. And now, more than a dozen states ban licensed therapists from using those practices on children.

But some powerful religious organizations, such as Focus on the Family, say the government is going too far. Jeff Johnston, the group's issues analyst, insists people who don't want to be gay — even children — have the right to try to change.

The laws here in Connecticut and many other states are not perfect but they are the best we can do under the Constitution. The laws exempt religious institutions, however if a priest or minster is also a licensed therapist they can lose their license. The laws also exempts anyone over 18, because they are adults and they can make up their own minds to if they want to pay money to have the “gay beaten” out of them.