Thread:

I wrote a massive thread abt #HB302, my thoughts & rebuttals of the many erroneous & misinformed arguments made by representatives in the Utah House. I had tagged representatives directly so they could see it... but I just felt wrong about that approach. #utleg #utpol

My own representative is one of the co-sponsors. :(

The entire thing makes me sad, but even MORE sad is the way I saw these GOP legislators speak about the issue on the House floor. I did not see compassion there. No compassion. No empathy. And I cried.

Growing up gay in Utah; in the LDS Church; n the conservative culture that specifically banned me from being able to marry someone I love, preserved the right of my employer to fire me (with its 'less than 50 employees' exemption for SMBs)...

I was suicidal, off and on, for 16 years of my life. You cannot convince me that the HATEFUL things spouted from the floor of the Utah House of Representatives in years past, & echoed in Sacrament meetings, locker rooms, & scout camps throughout the last 25 years of my life...

...did not CAUSE that.

It absolutely did.

I've had conservative church members tell me, to my face, that gay people struggle with depression as a comorbid mental illness along with their homosexuality, as if sexuality is a disease.

I have never told anyone that, because...

...it is so deeply deeply traumatic to me.

So dear Utah Representatives, regardless of your intent to protect girls in competition (which, given the ACTUAL statistics, this bill will NOT do), you really decided that CAUSING psychological harm to children was the best way to ...

...protect the right of female athletes to win a trophy.

Do you SEE why I'm saying your priorities here are OUT OF LINE?

And I say all of this as the father of 3 amazing cisgender girls (who have more compassion in their pinky fingers than I saw in this debate today).

My sincerest gratitude to @GovCox & the 23 bi-partisan representatives who voted against the bill. We don't need more marginalized kids pushed to the edges. We don't need more death. We don't need more carnage. We need love here.

We can do better by working together.

That's the Utah way, despite whatever Rep. Gibson seems to think is the Utah way.

Let's get UHSAA, Equality Utah, actual HS athletes, transgender individuals, coaches, and medical doctors to come together & do something that works in fairness for all.

We should NEVER protect one clearly NOT marginalized group while specifically targeting a clearly VERY marginalized group. That is wrong. Period. PERIOD.

I am so angry, and I am so so very sad about this.

Let's do better, Utah.

@danmccay, tagging you as this is in the Senate now.

Please understand how strongly & deeply I feel this. I have been deeply hurt & damaged personally by bills passed in the Utah legislature over the years. The rhetoric is so very problematic on this one.

This bill needs to be pulled so that something which works for ALL children can be achieved with input from all affected, not from one group only. That's not how this should EVER be done.

The best LGBT legislation in this state has ALWAYS been a collaboration, & the worst...

...has always been pushed through by one 'side' only, with an often problematic view based in false data. Let's let actual medical science, psychology, and the welfare of ALL children lead out here, not moral panic stirred up by the ...

...likes of Abigail Schrier, whose new book is based on junk science, falsified sources, and erroneous claims based on dubious secondary and tertiary sources (it's important to note that she does not cite primary sources from actual transgender individuals in the book).