During a visit to lobby legislators on transgender issues, Senator Carden Summers ® knelt down and told a child he would protect her. When he learned she was trans, he backed away.
On Feb. 6, a group of families met to lobby senators on issues affecting the local transgender community in Georgia. One mother, Lena Kotler, decided to take her two children with her to give the topic a human face. While waiting to meet with Democratic Sen. Kim Jackson, who they had heard was a big supporter of LGBTQ+ rights, another senator passed by — Republican Sen. Carden Summers, the primary sponsor of the state’s bathroom ban bill. Little did he know that one of the children he would be interacting with, Aleix, 8 years old, was a transgender child.
According to Kotler and other families who were present, the senator stopped to say hello. That’s when Kotler spoke to Senator Summers about how she was there with her kids to “talk to legislators about keeping her kids safe.” Although she did not mention that one of her children was trans, they were present with LGBTQ+ signage - something the Senator apparently missed when he knelt down in front of Aleix and said, according to Kotler, “Well you know, we’re working on that and I’m going to protect kids like you.”
Kotler then replied, “Yeah - Alex is trans, and she wants to be safe at school, she wants to go to the bathroom and be safe.”
That is when, according to multiple witnesses, Sen. Summers stood up and fumbled his words, repeating, “I mean, yeah, I’m going to make sure she’s safe by going to the right bathroom,” continuing to use the correct pronouns for Aleix. When asked if he would make her go to a boy’s bathroom, he then allegedly backed away, saying, “You’re attacking me,” turned around, and walked off quickly.
he then allegedly backed away, saying, “You’re attacking me,” turned around, and walked off quickly.
Oh no, better run to the bathroom to cry. Attacked by an eight year old, that poor soul.
“You’re attacking me by asking if I’m going to legislate against your needs”
Exactly. “My opinion is different from your life experience, and by showing me that fact first hand, you have made me uncomfortable.”
And as we all know, being uncomfortable because of another person is an attack. Irony of ironies, imagine how uncomfortable people must make that kid all the time, including this specific interaction.
And this is why we need a national safe storage laws.
You really shouldn’t be storing guns in the bathroom!
(/s. What a fucking coward.)
He wasnt claiming to be attacked by the child but by the mother.
Edit: It is an important distinction because it exemplifies that it is not the trans-nature of the child that he is claiming to be attacked by but by the mother pressing him to abide by his own claims of protecting children.
Seems like he was being attacked by his own conscience.
Who gives a shit what he meant, he’s a fucking coward and hypocrite. He made it clear that he never for a moment cared about “protecting children”.
Blocked for being an aggressive asshole for no reason.
Sorry I guess I’m the only one that cares about accuracy
The distinction is meaningless in this situation and fucking irrelevant.
I’m not understanding what’s making you so upset here.
It is an important distinction because it exemplifies that it is not the trans-nature of the child that he is claiming to be attacked by but by the mother pressing him to abide by his own claims of protecting children.
When asked if he would make her go to a boy’s bathroom, he then allegedly backed away, saying, “You’re attacking me,” turned around, and walked off quickly.
LMAO
Is he a moron, or is that a strategy? Lol
He’s a coward, just like everyone else in his party. Afraid of a fucking child. His ancestors would be ashamed of him, and his descendants will disown him.
“Will your bill do what it says?”
“HOW DARE YOU!”
And this is a legislator.
This is what facism looks like imo. Through and through.
“You’re attacking meeeee”
It’s never not projection with these doofs.
In response to an 8 year old existing.
Given his fragility, cowardice, lack of self-assurance and failure to defend himself - all feminine traits (to these ghouls anyway) are we sure the good senator isn’t trans himself? He’s certainly not the picture of brave, confident masculinity.
DeSantis wears high heels - I’m pretty sure Trump does too (though smaller) - projection indeed.
Brave Ser Summers ran away, Bravely ran away, away. When a child with questions to him was led, He bravely turned his tail and fled.
Please no one go to his Facebook page and find his number then leave him a voicemail singing that song
“I mean, yeah, I’m going to make sure she’s safe by going to the right bathroom,” continuing to use the correct pronouns for Aleix.
Gotta love that he doesn’t even realize he’s saying Aleix is a girl and girls should be using the girls’ bathroom.
Edit: I really want to know if the people downvoting me are anti-trans bigots or don’t understand that an anti-trans bigot accidentally took her side even after realizing she’s trans?
“yOu’Re AaTtAcKiNg mEeee!!!”
What a dipshit.
So brave
Jesus christ that headline is the most satirical sounding headline ive ever seen period. It spunds more satirical than actual TheOnion h eadlines
What a fucking snowflake.
Literally a word causes him to throw away his cause. Going to bet this dude would absolutely abandon his own children. Party of family values my ass.
You’re attacking me, my ass. See how easily they project? It’s not even a thought they have, they just exhale bullshit
Christianity really messes people up.
deleted by creator
Organized religion is one of fascism’s most important tools.
Theyre pretty fuckin interchangable
I agree with you that they are not interchangeable. A large swath of Christians are appalled by fascism.
But, they have historically used each other for their own means, and that can be difficult to ignore. I think once again people are seeing the two get back together, and we all know how that relationship turns out.
For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
The Bible is very clear. Christianity is fundamentally anti-LGBT. Stop following it if you want to be a good person.
I’m not going to argue the point that homosexuality and at least the modern interpretation of the Christian faith are adversarial at best but the Bible is anything but clear on anything let alone LGBTQ. You quoted one of dozens of different English translations let alone any other language. Hell in one of the most popular translations, the King James Bible, the man had the word “tyrant” removed from it so the peasants wouldn’t get ideas
The Bible is very clear
Yeah I’m always reminded of this piece https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CPjWd4MUXs .
One of my favorite fantasy shows 🙂
Christ never knew you.
Given that he never existed I am positive of that. At most he could only “know” me in the sense the Easter Bunny could. You know, not at all.
Now instead of talking about me why don’t you address what I said? Might be more fruitful
I think I responded to the wrong poster. I meant to say that to the person saying (falsely) that the Bible condemns queerness.
Have they never heard of David and Johnathan? Does Jesus taking twelve men and washing their feet mean nothing? Was John not the Beloved disciple?
I am a queer Catholic, and it deeply angers me when people believe that the two are mutually exclusive. The current wave of LGBT hatred (in the USA, at least) started with the Evangelical church in the 1940’s. It is not some ancient and infallible dogma.
Forgive me for causing you anger, I spoke only to gently admonish and correct the sinner.
The Bible does condemn being LGBT.
Have they never heard of David and Johnathan?
Sure and why doesn’t the Bible say explicitly what their relationship was?
Does Jesus taking twelve men and washing their feet mean nothing?
Means nothing. Clearly a call back to the references in the OT of the same act.
Was John not the Beloved disciple?
And?
The current wave of LGBT hatred (in the USA, at least) started with the Evangelical church in the 1940’s. It is not some ancient and infallible dogma.
The Catholic Church had literal torture devices specifically for male homosexuals.
I think if you scroll up you will see a decent breakdown of all the references to homosexuality in the Bible, but if you want you can just look at what Paul said twice.
Forgive me for causing you anger, I spoke only to gently admonish and correct the sinner.
No worries. Save you some time I have been an open atheist since 2018.
Hatred begets hatred.
I spoke to inform both the believer and the non-believer.
There are Christians in this world who have taken Christ’s words to heart and strive to live in His image daily. This way of living inevitably leads to compassion.
There is the Church of Peter, and the Church of John.
The Church of Peter is the Earthly institution that instructs the faithful and leads to a life filled with Love.
The Church of John is the Church of the Beloved disciple who put his head on Christ’s chest and listened to the heartbeat of the One who Created Love.
These two Churches are present in all people, at all times, throughout history. They shall never fail, as long as there is suffering in the world. This is why the faithful call them eternal.
When these two Churches are in harmony in the soul of the individual, and in the soul of the World, there is harmony. When they are in disharmony in the soul of the individual and the soul of the world, there is chaos.
Christ has Illuminated the soul of this individual, and there is only harmony.
This harmony is available to all, whether Jew or Greek, male or female, believer or non-believer.
Forgive me for being unclear in my communication, and I pray your soul knows this peace.
How are children mature enough to realize they are trans?
Seems like children are too impressionable to be able to make decisions like that.
That’s why children have parents and medical professionals to ultimately investigate and make important decisions for them
Yeah, because neither group has ever been manipulated into making the wrong decisions for other people.
You’re right, we should instead trust the well-known-as-100%-infallible politicians to unilaterally make those decisions for us instead
Those are your words, not mine.
Well what are you proposing? In my mind we either trust parents to be able to ultimately make decisions like this for their children, or we don’t and we make it illegal?
Every time I see someone bring up “why are we trusting kids to decide that they’re trans”, I remind them that they’re not making decisions by themselves, they have parents and counselors/doctors/professionals making decisions for them, which either is not engaged with (most common response) or is met with “We can’t trust parents and doctors either”.
Frankly, if we can’t broadly trust parents and childcare professionals to have their children’s best interests in mind, we’re already fucked, so we might as well do nothing and hopefully at least let the actual trans kids live their life in peace anyway.
Remember those pics of Goebbels, one before learning the photographer was Jewish, and one after?
Thats exactly what popped into my brain while reading this.
attached for reference.
Here’s a before pic
Imagine having to be that kid, someone saying they’ll protect you and then accusing you of attacking them for part of yourself that you have no control over
How can an 8 year old know if they are trans? That seems awfully young.
I knew I was a boy and that I liked girls when I was 8 years old. I just project that same sense of identity I felt onto others and it becomes very easy to understand why others just know who and what they are and who and what they like. The world really needs a touch more empathy.
My youngest knew they weren’t a girl at age seven. They are 15 now and been very happy for the last four years using they/them pronouns and a chosen name.
It was always possible that one day they’d have changed their mind…hell, their cousin is non-binary as well and used he/they pronouns and a male name for six years before reverting back to the name and gender she was assigned at birth (she’s 16 now).
The important thing is to listen to your kids (and anyone who is trans, really) and trust that they know themselves infinitely better than you ever could. Let people tell you who they are, and believe them. They may refine their understanding of who they are at a later time, and you should believe them then, too. When someone decides to change their major, you don’t tell them “C’mon now…you’re a psychology major…you’ve always been a psychology major.” It’s not entirely dissimilar.
Most people know their gender about 2.5 years old. It is pretty impressive when you are parent and see that lightbulb click. One day they have no opinions at all about clothing or toys and the next day they do.
I mean, when I was a kid some girls toys looked fun. Like easy bake ovens, who wouldn’t want to eat food‽
Sure. Turns out not all humans fall into neat little boxes perfectly all the time.
Well, in some sense they know what they are supposed to be correlated with their physiology, but “gender identity” is a bit much, and it would be a mistake for someone to close the door on that question so early in life. Now I understand “but we use gendeered pronouns on 5 year olds, so obviously it’s not open ended”, and it’s not ideal that there is a default, but ultimately, that kid is way too young to commit to that position. There’s a whole lot of mental and physical development coming their way and they should be encouraged to keep an open mind, either way.
Now… I am trans so this is my supposition and based on my discussions to cis people about the cis experience but I think there’s somethings that we actually assume about cis people.
While some cis people seem to have a very solid gender identity that is in line with the tran experience of gender euphoria that seems actually kind of rare. I think a majority of cisness is actually defined by a lack of strong feelings about their body and their experience of gender. Their assumption of gender is simply the path of least resistance. Their experimentation when they have it is out of curiosity but it doesn’t really resonate.
Do you think you would be upset at a foundational level if you woke up tomorrow in the body of the opposite sex and everyone had always known you as that way? Aside from maybe an uncomfortable adjustment of role and some interest in experiencing something different would you think that you would be terribly bothered? These sentiments can sometimes be construed as being a non-binary sort of thing - but the more I discuss the topic intimately with cis people to try and understand their experience the more that feels like the difference and particular advantage being cis represents. If you do not experience the pull and certainty of euphoria or dysphoria informing your cultural and biological needs that could be because what defines the majority of cis people is a fluidity and adaptability because of a near complete lack of preference rather than a preference that specifically matches a sex phenotype. Meanwhile transness can almost be defined as a surplus and rigidity of preference so we find ourselves trying to explain something like why we can’t easily force ourselves to choke down food we detest to someone who maybe doesn’t even experience taste.
A trans gender identity isn’t exactly always subtly experienced. A correct gendering when you don’t expect it might literally make your week. Disgust at your own body can make you run past the bathroom mirror so you don’t have to look. It’s not so much an “keep an open mind” kind of deal. You get a pack of stimuli like something entirely independent has a shock and reward system hardwired into your brain and you don’t really control how you feel about it. When you talk about worrying about fluidity I think you are kind of concerned from the cis standpoint where being nebulous in gender is quite natural. From a trans community perspective we know we are on a journey where we are essentially learning the nature of the internal reward system. Our genders are reflections of that and we generally want to ditch whatever isn’t working and update our coping mechanisms to account for changes or if we realize we didn’t actually fully understand the exact nature of the trigger that was setting us off and can change our tactics accordingly to maximize functionality and happiness.
To further the parable a kid might after years of hating olives so much they spit them out whenever they eat them decide to try them again to see if their tastes have changed… but it’s not on parents to keep putting olives on the kids plate for them to “keep options open” when the kid can basically decide at any point to just reach across a the table and get their own olives if they want them. Maybe the kid knows they don’t like olives because whenever they accidentally eat one it still tastes bad.
If someone keeps trying to hand you something you know you don’t like and you keep having to passively or actively reject it… it can be really annoying and you generally stop wanting to be around that person.
I’m a trans woman and I started to express my self femininely when I was just a toddler. I grew up in a rural area where I was always told that I am a boy and that I will grow up into a man who will have a wife and many children. I genuinely had never heard of queer people until I was tween, when my peers started using gay as an insult. If I had been taught about queer people when I was a kid, I definitely would have realized that I am trans then, and I wish I had been because being raised as a boy when you are a girl is extremely traumatic.
People can be born with all sorts of strange and terrible conditions, but somehow there are people who think babies can’t be born with a brain that is a different sex than their body. Either that or they think the body should take precedence over the brain which is insane considering only one of those is sapient.
Just out of curiosity, how does a toddler express either femininely or masculinely?
I have a few memories from when I was somewhere between 2 and 4. One is of my sister getting some makeup (I think it was eyeshadow) for Christmas and I remember being very interested in it and trying to put it on.
Another is that I always loved hanging out in my sister’s room and I remember liking to watch her put on nail polish and I would always ask her a million questions about it while she was doing it. I also liked playing with my sisters old toys more than some of my own. My parents got me toy cars, dinosaurs, and that type of stuff, which I did play with occasionally, but my most played with toys were my sister’s old dolls.
Growing up with an older sister, I did much of the same stuff. I don’t think those activities are limited to those that grow up to identify as “female”. I think it’s perfectly fine if an adult carries that over without having to declare themselves trans. Why shouldn’t a “guy” get to like makeup and a bit more interesting clothes and like tallking to girls about stuff that “guys” don’t talk about? If they think life is easier to go wholly into transgender once they tally up the totality of their existence, cool. But early life should be about flexibility and choices being open and not having to “pick a side”.
I mean, be who you want. You can totally be AMAB and feminine and not be trans. I’m not telling people to “pick a side” or anything, just because we share similar experiences and I’m trans and you’re not (I assume), that doesn’t invalidate your existence or anyone else’s.
Toddlers model behavior of the adults in their life. It can be as simple as whether they echo the behavioral quirks of the women more than the men, or vise versa.
Please be careful with this line of thinking, and don’t push children into one direction or the other.
I spent more time in my early years with my mother due to my father traveling for work, so I naturally echoed her behavioral quirks more than his. I also showed a ton of interest in traditionally feminine toys and playsets. I had a baby doll and I’d play pretend parenting. I outright demanded a little play kitchen, back when all of them were clearly decorated/colored/coded “for girls”. I wanted and they got me a barbie doll, and I played a shit ton of dress up. Never was one for rough and tumble play, sports, climbing trees, etc. More in touch with my emotions than my peers and not afraid to show them.
All that said, I’ve never had any issues with my own gender identity as a cis male. One of my earliest “writings” was “I’m going to be a dad” with a very scribbly drawing of a family.
There’s another comment on this post about a mtf telling their parents that they were a butterfly and going to be a girl, at an early enough age that the commenter didn’t remember saying it.
So kids can absolutely know, but we should be careful to never assume. If gender is a social construct, then we should also be working ourselves away from the idea that certain behaviors are masc or fem, not doubling down by saying they have any indication of a person’s gender/potential to be trans.
Masculine and feminine are useful concepts with long roots in every culture on earth. The problem is when people impose a positive or negative connotation to them. It should be considered normal and healthy for someone who identifies on the male side of the spectrum to exhibit feminine traits, and so on.
It’s just a conceptual framework that simplifies understanding. Our problems arise when we oversimplify, and forget that it is just an artificial construct we made up to explain our world.
Did you not know your gender in 3rd grade? Some trans kids do too, especially now that there’s more awareness.
8 years old is also an extremely low stakes age to be trans, because it’s literally just clothes, name/pronouns, and haircut differences at that age.
My ex’s kid came out as trans to usat 11 or so, and like… Yeah. This is exactly the time to play with your sense of self when it doesn’t fuckin matter. We’ve been doing for generations, but all of a sudden feeling and wanting to present more masculine just gives everybody a fucking aneurysm.
Never mind the people who have nothing better to do than go to war with children grew up with David Bowie and Eurythmics and shit. 🙄
It’s so funny to me this new posturing of denial that kids can know their gender at a young age, when derogatory terms for this exact thing like “tomboy” and “sissy” have been around for generations. We have always known that some kids don’t act like their gender assigned at birth.
The only thing that’s changed is that we now know that this is actually normal and healthy, not some pathological problem that can be “solved” through abuse and shaming.
I understand, but I also thinnk things swing differently bad. If you imply a “tomboy” must be a man, because they like traditionally manly stuff, and a “sissy” should be a girl because they aren’t violent, well, that seems rough too.
Also, people evolve. Fluidity should be the emphasis at that age.
Heck, I’m not particularly on board that you should pick one and align your whole identity with your choice, whether that’s being cisgender as aggressively squishing down unfitting choices, or going trans and feeling compelled to leave all the traits of your physiological gender behind.
Wow, what a concept! People could have a gender identity that doesn’t match traditional conceptions of ‘man’ or ‘women’! We could call it something like…‘non-binary’.
/s
Your concern trolling completely ignores points the LGBTQ+ community have already thought of and explictly accepted. Nothing you have to say points to any meaningful problem whatsoever. You’ve been posting this drivel all over the thread. Go elsewhere.
You can also be cisgender and like things the other gender likes, you know. It’s not like every man who does ballet is trans or nonbinary.
I don’t think it can be rigidly defined for everyone, nor should it be. Some people are fluid in that sense, some people aren’t.
especially now that there’s more awareness.
I often think how wild it is that there was not a single (out) gay or trans kid in all my years in primary and secondary school (graduated in '94). I wonder now how many were and either didn’t understand it enough to know it or were (justifiably) afraid to be who they were.
You’ve got a few years on me but this is very close to my thoughts whenever I hear someone decry the increase in youth who identify as LGBT+. Could it simply be more teens are more comfortable identifying because there is more acceptance?
There is still a long way to go, but it is better than it was.
I still know people my age who are hiding who they are sexually, in unhealthy or unsatisfying relationships, and that’s just those I know about.
whenever I hear someone decry the increase in youth who identify as LGBT+
First thing I think of is the sharp increase in left-handedness that happened once it was no longer stigmatized by society.
