Yet again, local blogger Suzi Gerb has written a piece that caused me to say, “wow, I wish I had written that.”
The right to traumatize children, Suzi Gerb
I wrote a piece in a similar vein last week. I was reasonably proud of it.
Rage, Rage Against the Dying of the Light
Gerb’s is better. Mine leans towards righteous indignation. Hers is buoyant: gentle, even tender, while devastatingly truthful. She asks the reader to change their own perspective, to put themselves in the place of a queer child.
For an LGBTQ+ child born to a family and a culture that sees them as wicked and dangerous, the schools are all they have, all that holds them back from a lifetime of anguish.
Ms. Gerb makes a point I hadn’t pondered enough. The parents who wish to restrict or ban affirming activities and/curriculum see themselves as protecting their “normal” children from those who are “different”. They may have no idea it is their own children who need this information most of all.
Honestly it doesn’t matter whose children they are. None should be traumatized. But the thought that people could be doing this to their own children made it just that much more horrifying to me.
Take a moment to read her piece this morning.
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