Brandon Boulware, a Kansas City attorney and father
of four, speaking out at the Missouri statehouse hearing on Resolution 53, a proposal to effectively ban
transgender athletes in high school from participating in girls’ sports:
"One thing I often hear when transgender issues are
being discussed is, 'I don't get it. I don't understand.’ And I would expect
some of you to have said that and to feel the same way. I didn't get it,
either. For years, I didn't get it. I forced my daughter to wear boy clothes,
get short haircuts and play on boy sports teams. Why did I do this? To protect
my child. ... and, truth be told, I did it to protect myself as well. I wanted
to avoid those inevitable questions as to why my child did not look and act
like a boy. [But] my child was miserable. No confidence, no friends, no
laughter. I can honestly say this—I had a child who did not smile. [But one
day, everything changed.] I got home from work, and my daughter and her brother
were in the front lawn. She had sneaked on one of her older sister's play
dresses, and they wanted to go across the street to play with the neighbors'
kids. She asked me if she went inside and put on boy clothes, could she then go
across the street and play. And it was then that it hit me. My daughter was
equating being good with being someone else. I was teaching her to deny who she
is. As a parent, the one thing we cannot do—the one thing—is silence our
child's spirit. And so on that day, my wife and I stopped silencing our child's
spirit. It was immediate, a total transformation . . . I now have a confident,
smiling happy daughter. She plays on a girls' volleyball team. She has
friendships. She's a kid. As a parent, the
one thing we cannot do—the one thing—is silence our child's spirit. I
need you to understand that this language, if it becomes law, will have real
effects on real people," Boulware said. "It will affect my daughter.
It will mean she cannot play on the girls' volleyball team or dance squad or
tennis team. I ask you, please don't take that away from my daughter or the
countless others like her who are out there. Let them have their childhoods.
Let them be who they are."
This is how you parent.
Bravo, sir, bravo!
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