What the world needs now is love, sweet love. Not just for some, but for everyone. That was true when Jackie DeShannon sang it in 1965, and is truer today than ever. So, it is especially sad when a letter writer on these pages spews a transphobic rant against Amherst Middle School parents who took the time to promote acceptance and understanding for marginalized and often traumatized children [“Keep activists away from our children,” Gazette, Sept. 18]. Social constructions around the concept of gender effectively instill deep shame onto those who deviate from the binary male and female. The letter writer doesn’t understand this, he has no clue about the lived experience of those with gender dysphoria, which he refers to as “usually a temporary and treatable mental confusion.”
As is so often the case, the letter writer’s anti-trans opinions are ignorant and closed-minded. We don’t choose this. We don’t derive pleasure from suicidal ideations and all the rest that comes with it. And we certainly don’t push this onto others. That seems to be the fear driving the letter writer, who thinks trans advocates are “a social contagion” who seek to convert children into “a life of misery.” No one at the Amherst Middle School is doing that. To do so would be cruel. Just as denying help for those who need it is cruel. It is never too late to open your heart, to make room for some compassion toward those who are living different realities than your own. Not just for some, but for everyone.
Stevie Dunn
Amherst