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When I read the Nov. 8 article, “Parents in a Midcoast town protest a transgender child’s place on basketball team,” I was struck by this remark from one of the anti-transgender parents, “This is not a decision made out of anger or disrespect for anyone but out of love and protection for our child’s well-being.”
Many years ago, when our younger son was in middle school, he had a friend whose parents disapproved of homosexuality and when they learned that he had two mothers, they stopped allowing their child to be friends with ours.
I suspect that, to them, not allowing their child to be friends with ours was not an act motivated by anger or disrespect, but rather by love and protection for their own child’s well-being.
Regardless, their action — of rejecting us as a part of our shared community — felt hateful and hurtful to us as a family. Rejecting a member of a shared community is a disrespectful act, even accompanied by the remark, “I mean no disrespect.”
In the years since, many people have come to change their minds about gay people and same-sex families, but when I see anti-trans stories like this in the news, I remember our experience and my heart goes out to the transgender child and her family: I am so sorry this is happening to you. You do not deserve this. Try to find members of your community who welcome you with love and understanding, for that is what you deserve.
Kelley McDaniel
Portland
