I’m writing to you as a retired educator, mother and grandmother. Nothing matches the sheer joy and pride of a child, teen or young adult learning a new skill, reaching a personal goal, feeling exhilaratingly excited and glad to be themselves. The equation doesn’t change, no matter the skin color, economic background or gender. Good parents know this, whether parents of binary, non-binary or transgender children. As the South Pacific song says, “You’ve got to be carefully taught” to hate and fear someone perceived as “different.” When you have personal experience with queer young people, you see these individuals as the human beings they truly are, not through the lens of fearful, preconceived stereotypes the current administration wants to teach you to use. The lies told by those who fan the fears of citizens lacking in empathy or personal experience are a travesty and nothing but hateful.

Mary E. Ober

Concord