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TN DAD TO TN GOP: “I WAS WRONG NOT TO ACCEPT MY TRANS SON.”

Below is a letter sent by the father of a 23 year-old trans son to Tennessee Republican legislators. His family was among those who testified in hearings at the state legislature in an effort to stop the trans youth health care ban from moving forward this week. So far, it has not slowed the bill, which will be on the house floor this week. Call your reps.
I am the dad of a transgender 23 year old son.  I am here to tell you I did not accept my child being transgender.  We fought, my wife and I came close to divorcing over it.

But in hindsight I WAS WRONG.  And you passing this law without making exception for hormone blocker and hormone therapy is wrong too.  Parents and medical teams, along with their children, must make these decisions.  This is a medical condition, not a fad, or trend, as I once believed.

My son’s brain, chromosomes or hormones do not match his reproductive system.  His life has been extremely difficult with Trauma, bullying, physical and sexual abuse and constant depression, anxiety and self harm and suicide attempts.

Once he got on hormone treatment, that all went away.

It wasn’t until then that I realized this was a necessity for my child to survive.  We have worked through our differences and he gave me the honor of giving him his new first name.  I struggled with pronouns and just never saw him as a boy until others started recognizing him in public as a boy.  People that didn’t know him.

When I realized the rest of the world saw our son as he felt inside, I was thankful that he had the ability to live his authentic life.

PLEASE DON’T DO WHAT I DID.  FOLLOW THE SCIENCE, DON’T TAKE AWAY PARENTAL RIGHTS.

All of the medical associations including World, American medical, American Pediatric, American Psychological, American Therapy and American Endocrinology all find these treatments are ABSOLUTELY appropriate, reversible and life saving in some cases.

Therapy doesn’t always work, nor do antidepressants.  Approving this bill in its current form will cost lives.

Sincerely,

****
Retired US Navy, US Army

Tennessee Attorney General: Hate Crimes Law DOES Include Transgender People

Last year Senator Sara Kyle (D-Memphis) carried a bill in the Tennessee legislature that would have added gender identity and expression to the Tennessee hate crime law, making sure Transgender individuals were covered when targeted. Legislators decided not to move forward with the bill, in part because they thought “gender” already included transgender people.

With the help of Rep. Mike Stewart (D-Nashville), LGBT advocates recently asked the Tennessee Attorney General’s office for an official opinion about whether the law in fact cover transgender people as a hate crime, which would mean harsher sentences for anyone who targeted them.

The Verdict: Yes, the law covers them.

Attorney General Slatery’s opinion uses the Oxford definition of “gender” to explain that:

“A defendant who targets a person for a crime because that person is transgender has targeted the person because of his or her gender”

Meaning that a court CAN “enhance” a sentence if the defendant has targeted a transgender person.

The opinion was delivered by Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery III’s office to Rep. Mike Stewart this week.

The LGBT community has received this as great news, calling it a “good, solid victory.

From Chris Sanders of the Tennessee Equality Project:

“After hearing testimony in a legislative committee and considering the need to make sure transgender people have more protections, we followed a hunch and it worked. We are grateful to Rep. Mike Stewart for working diligently with us on this and to Sen. Sara Kyle, who carried the trans-inclusive hate crimes bill last year.”

Despite this win, there are still a number of discriminatory bills snaking their way through the legislature. Read about them here, and holler at your state reps to let them know hate has no home in Tennessee.

And while we’re here, some facts and myths about transgender people with regard to those bathroom bills, which are still around.