"If a child is excelling and getting along well socially and in grade seven they decide to try on some new pronouns, that doesn’t warrant a phone call home."
And if you are a parent and haven't already figured it out, you are a bad parent. My cousin knew that his daughter is gay before she even did. So when she came out, he was all like, yeah we know! And everything was fine. But to be that Inattentive As a parent is just unfathomable to me. Every sneeze, burp, new word new favorite color takes on this massive importance in a parents life. And especially to not notice that your kid might be trans. That takes some fucking terrible parenting to miss that. And no kid is good at hiding something like that from an attentive parent.
These Christofascists are why my gay brother didn’t come out to our mom until last year. At age 56. Think about that for a second. Our mom is a classic evangelical, all-in for Trump and his shit. But she’s our mom. My brother loves her, and was afraid she would never see or talk to him again if he told her his truth. While she didn’t do that, she hasn’t exactly been accepting, either. Had these protections, like not telling the parents, been available 40 years ago, my brother might have lived a life with a lot less emotional and physical pain, both at school and at home.
The "right" just wants to eliminate laws on child marriage, force 12 year old victims of rape and incest to carry to delivery or death, and only THEY can determine what your children learn in school.
You have more patience than I. I am too old and I don't want to do this any more.
It shocks me that so many people don’t understand the point you tried to communicate to the handsome young Hispanic dad in the hotel lobby, Evan: “It’s not about you.” It’s like a plague of narcissism x lack of empathy and imagination has descended upon people (probably c/o social media and the pandemic). And so people just think everything is ABOUT THEM, without realising that, hey, guess what, there are people out there in the world who are different from you and THEY need protecting because THEY go through some shit that YOU fortunately don’t.
I don’t work in a factory, or on a construction site, or drive trucks for a living, and I doubt I ever will. Nor do I know many people who do, But I’m sure as HELL keen for those who do to have every workplace protection law they need SO THEY DON’T GET KILLED or accidentally kill someone else. And I don’t kvetch about those laws preventing me from using my own kitchen, or stepladder, or car.
When contacting parents about their kid, teachers aren’t supposed to mention the names of other students they are involved with, whether it’s disrupting class with fart noises, crush drama, or even a fight. You, THEIR PARENT, are responsible for asking them about that, in your home, where your rules apply. If you aren’t able to learn who your child truly is under those parameters, it is 100% your fault because you’ve shown them you aren’t safe to tell the truth to.
Well done, Evan. I was watching my fave Judge Boyd on YouTube...and she had a case of a father who beat his 2-YEAR-OLD SON because the kid wanted to play with dolls and he "didn't want my only son to be gay." So...yeah, we have a long way to go.
Curious if the separation of kids from their families, that happened under tffg administration, entered your conversation with this man? Some of those kids have not been able to be reunited with their family due to "act first, ask questions later...maybe" tactics...pretty sure in the mass deportation plan of Project 2025 those same tactics will apply. It would be like Abbott's human trafficking program on steroids, people being dumped randomly, without resources, regardless if they were born here. Vote 💙
Good point, Evan, about kids having their own agency, and sadly, in some cases, need to keep things from their parents. And glad that you point out about the idiocy of kids getting expensive surgery at school, without their parents knowing about it. The schools don't have the resources for that and no insurance company is going to approve it without the parents' consent. Besides, who can afford it without insurance?
What trump and Vance are doing, or trying to do, is to scare people into voting for them. It clearly is working with some people, but, if the polls can be believed, not with most. It's heartening that most people have not lost their ability to think and to reason.
The school is still asking for more colored pencils. They don’t have funds for secret surgeries.
If I lived in one of those places I’d tell my kids to announce new names every day, new genders new pronouns new orientation - just to flood the system. My 9 yo would do that. She is down to disrupt for justice. The neighbor kid has learned the nonviolent resistance slow walk to hold the school bus in the morning. I bet she’d do the same.
Just like the people who report the Bible for smut at school to make a point, kids with cool parents could make a point with frequent identity changes.
It’s sad that that orange menace is in such a boarding school elitist bubble that he thinks kids are at school for a few days at a time. Or that he only saw his kids every few days even if they weren’t at boarding school. Or maybe he’s just had so many women in his life take a few days to go have some work done. Like Vanky who hid some of her genetic face curse and Melon who got new kidneys.
If Moms for Liberty really want to do something for kids how about working to ban assault weapons and keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous unstable people
Nobody ever just "falls" down the right wing rabbit hole.
People believe this shit because they're traumatized and they're predisposed to believe it.
A lot of immigrant communities trend right because a lot of foreign countries don't have DYFS. Not to mention the trauma caused by the immigration process.
I'm a first generation Russian immigrant. I speak from experience.
I was very involved with the LGBT community in my school as a kid. I would say over half the kids didn’t want their parents to know that they were some form of LGBT and some of them had extremely anti-LGBT parents. My best friend was gay and he was terrified that his step dad would beat him up, ship him off to conversion therapy camp or kick him out. The guy was scary and would often hit him to make him “man up”. We were afraid to tell anyone about the abuse because it could get a lot worse if the school outed him on purpose or accident. I had him stay over at my house a lot. He was just trying to make it to 18 or until he could go away for college.
Ta, Evan. So many of my clients were thrown out of parental homes when they came out! They do need and deserve protection.
I can't imagine. I just can't. Can't.
like
"If a child is excelling and getting along well socially and in grade seven they decide to try on some new pronouns, that doesn’t warrant a phone call home."
And if you are a parent and haven't already figured it out, you are a bad parent. My cousin knew that his daughter is gay before she even did. So when she came out, he was all like, yeah we know! And everything was fine. But to be that Inattentive As a parent is just unfathomable to me. Every sneeze, burp, new word new favorite color takes on this massive importance in a parents life. And especially to not notice that your kid might be trans. That takes some fucking terrible parenting to miss that. And no kid is good at hiding something like that from an attentive parent.
Yep!
These Christofascists are why my gay brother didn’t come out to our mom until last year. At age 56. Think about that for a second. Our mom is a classic evangelical, all-in for Trump and his shit. But she’s our mom. My brother loves her, and was afraid she would never see or talk to him again if he told her his truth. While she didn’t do that, she hasn’t exactly been accepting, either. Had these protections, like not telling the parents, been available 40 years ago, my brother might have lived a life with a lot less emotional and physical pain, both at school and at home.
The left wants to take your kids!!!!!
The "right" just wants to eliminate laws on child marriage, force 12 year old victims of rape and incest to carry to delivery or death, and only THEY can determine what your children learn in school.
You have more patience than I. I am too old and I don't want to do this any more.
It shocks me that so many people don’t understand the point you tried to communicate to the handsome young Hispanic dad in the hotel lobby, Evan: “It’s not about you.” It’s like a plague of narcissism x lack of empathy and imagination has descended upon people (probably c/o social media and the pandemic). And so people just think everything is ABOUT THEM, without realising that, hey, guess what, there are people out there in the world who are different from you and THEY need protecting because THEY go through some shit that YOU fortunately don’t.
I don’t work in a factory, or on a construction site, or drive trucks for a living, and I doubt I ever will. Nor do I know many people who do, But I’m sure as HELL keen for those who do to have every workplace protection law they need SO THEY DON’T GET KILLED or accidentally kill someone else. And I don’t kvetch about those laws preventing me from using my own kitchen, or stepladder, or car.
Excellent job site vs kitchen analogy :)
I work in the trades. I’m using that!
A. MEN. X 1,000.
That’s all i’ve got.
This bit of Khalil Gibran’s The Prophet, called ‘On Children’ and included in Ally Stevenson’s great Substack yesterday:
And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, Speak to us of Children. And he said:
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness; For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.
https://open.substack.com/pub/allyhamilton/p/hold-it-against-your-bones?r=1kcdc&utm_medium=ios
I have always loved that passage!
When contacting parents about their kid, teachers aren’t supposed to mention the names of other students they are involved with, whether it’s disrupting class with fart noises, crush drama, or even a fight. You, THEIR PARENT, are responsible for asking them about that, in your home, where your rules apply. If you aren’t able to learn who your child truly is under those parameters, it is 100% your fault because you’ve shown them you aren’t safe to tell the truth to.
Well done, Evan. I was watching my fave Judge Boyd on YouTube...and she had a case of a father who beat his 2-YEAR-OLD SON because the kid wanted to play with dolls and he "didn't want my only son to be gay." So...yeah, we have a long way to go.
Curious if the separation of kids from their families, that happened under tffg administration, entered your conversation with this man? Some of those kids have not been able to be reunited with their family due to "act first, ask questions later...maybe" tactics...pretty sure in the mass deportation plan of Project 2025 those same tactics will apply. It would be like Abbott's human trafficking program on steroids, people being dumped randomly, without resources, regardless if they were born here. Vote 💙
Good point, Evan, about kids having their own agency, and sadly, in some cases, need to keep things from their parents. And glad that you point out about the idiocy of kids getting expensive surgery at school, without their parents knowing about it. The schools don't have the resources for that and no insurance company is going to approve it without the parents' consent. Besides, who can afford it without insurance?
What trump and Vance are doing, or trying to do, is to scare people into voting for them. It clearly is working with some people, but, if the polls can be believed, not with most. It's heartening that most people have not lost their ability to think and to reason.
The school is still asking for more colored pencils. They don’t have funds for secret surgeries.
If I lived in one of those places I’d tell my kids to announce new names every day, new genders new pronouns new orientation - just to flood the system. My 9 yo would do that. She is down to disrupt for justice. The neighbor kid has learned the nonviolent resistance slow walk to hold the school bus in the morning. I bet she’d do the same.
Just like the people who report the Bible for smut at school to make a point, kids with cool parents could make a point with frequent identity changes.
It’s sad that that orange menace is in such a boarding school elitist bubble that he thinks kids are at school for a few days at a time. Or that he only saw his kids every few days even if they weren’t at boarding school. Or maybe he’s just had so many women in his life take a few days to go have some work done. Like Vanky who hid some of her genetic face curse and Melon who got new kidneys.
Amen, Evan
If Moms for Liberty really want to do something for kids how about working to ban assault weapons and keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous unstable people
I have bad news.
Nobody ever just "falls" down the right wing rabbit hole.
People believe this shit because they're traumatized and they're predisposed to believe it.
A lot of immigrant communities trend right because a lot of foreign countries don't have DYFS. Not to mention the trauma caused by the immigration process.
I'm a first generation Russian immigrant. I speak from experience.
I was very involved with the LGBT community in my school as a kid. I would say over half the kids didn’t want their parents to know that they were some form of LGBT and some of them had extremely anti-LGBT parents. My best friend was gay and he was terrified that his step dad would beat him up, ship him off to conversion therapy camp or kick him out. The guy was scary and would often hit him to make him “man up”. We were afraid to tell anyone about the abuse because it could get a lot worse if the school outed him on purpose or accident. I had him stay over at my house a lot. He was just trying to make it to 18 or until he could go away for college.