Connecticut State Treasurer Erick Russell, himself an openly gay man, penned a February 28 op/ed in the Hartford Courant calling out recent proposed state legislation targeting transgender children:
It’s the responsibility of government to represent everybody. That might sound obvious — it’s one of first things we learn about American democracy — but even those elected to positions of power often fall short of this most fundamental obligation. The democracy that serves as the beating heart of this country is its strongest when it’s being shaped by everyone.
Despite the deep partisan divides that fuel news coverage and online arguments, I believe the overwhelming majority of Americans would agree with that statement. Most of us want the same things: opportunities for ourselves and our loved ones, dignity in our communities and workplaces, and security – both personally and economically.
I’ve been proud to serve in Connecticut government at a time when we’ve largely side-stepped toxic national fights to instead focus on our collective economic success and the well-being of our residents.
Last week, however, several Connecticut lawmakers proposed legislation targeting transgender children. The proposal represents another extension of the fanaticism that has overtaken national politics. It is a brazen and obvious attempt to limit who enjoys the rights and the opportunities that are guaranteed to all Americans. This extreme vision being presented across the country, and now being peddled here in Connecticut, purports to believe in American rights and freedoms, but seeks to limit those rights to some Americans and exclude others.
That is the common thread that binds the so-called Culture Wars together. While each individual grievance or attack is meant to leverage fear, confusion or misunderstanding within the public, together it all functions as a barrier to participation, opportunity, dignity, and security.
Day-to-day, it presents as an outsized obsession with youth sports, rage over light beer advertising, or an overpowering fear of a book on a library shelf. More broadly, it attempts to strip away constitutional rights from women and members of the LGBTQ community and make our elections less democratic.
Taken together, it sends a clear message to anyone who doesn’t go along with the shallow politics of grievance and the raw accumulation of power: “America isn’t for you.” That is deeply unpatriotic.
It’s also dangerous. Data shows that LGBTQ youth, particularly trans kids, already experience higher rates of suicide and depression. Beyond the numbers, there are horrifying individual accounts of violence including Nex Benedict, an Oklahoma teen who was beaten at school earlier this month and died the next day. Lost in the vitriol of the churning culture war is basic human empathy for kids who deserve a chance to grow up and shape their own future.
Read the complete story in the Hartford Courant here.
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