Common Good Iowa

Anti-trans lawmakers grind down children under the wheels of their political ambition

Posted on February 3, 2023 at 2:44 PM by Amber Gustafson

The Iowa legislature is now discussing bills that say that my LGBTQ kid is “divisive” and anything that would represent their life or their story or their truth or their struggle should be banned from our schools. 

A book that celebrates their identity? Ban it.

A conversation about who they are? Put a stop to it.

A picture that shows them doing something “against gender norms” — whatever that means? End it. Tear it up. Throw it away.

I can’t help but think that those are the same things these people would like to do to my child. Ban them. Stop them. Tear them up. Throw them away.

I would never pretend to fully understand what it means to be trans or non-binary. I don’t have all the answers and I haven’t always been the perfect parent when it comes to supporting them in the way they deserve to be treated. But I will tell you this: I will love this child that has been given to me. I will love them exactly as they are. I will celebrate my child. I will sing the song of their heart. I will be the one who will be there when the tears fall, when they have lost hope, when the bullying and exclusion and hate is all too much. 

You know who won’t be there to pick up the ache of my child’s heart? Governors. Legislators. Presidential candidates. And the rest of the fools who see my child — my child who loves show choir and cats and music and anime and fart jokes, my child who takes AP classes and works with kids with disabilities and writes music in the middle of the night, my child who was born with the most beautiful deep brown eyes and giant dimples, my child who has hopes and dreams and feelings just like anyone — as a problem, a mistake, an abomination. 

To them, my child is a stump to grind down under the wheels of their political ambition. And that is unforgivable.

Tagged As: iowa legislature, LGBTQ+

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