You all know who this is. Secretary of Commerce, Pete Buttigieg, who happens to be a gay man married to Chase Buttigieg and father to twin children they adopted last year. He’s very open about all of this so it’s not as though I’m sharing confidential information. In fact, he wants people to know that he’s happily married and a proud father.
The General Assembly in Georgia wants to restrict teachers of children up to the age of about 7 from discussing the “sex or gender” of the parents of children that are in their classes. I think this is, frankly, asinine. Children are going to go for play dates at other children’s homes and they are not blind, deaf, or stupid. They WILL see and they will either ask or figure out on their own what the deal is in that house. Trust me on this: you want to control what kind of narrative those little minds are coming up with. If you are trying to sweep this under a rug and try to say it doesn’t exist, honey chile, I got news for you, they are going to fill in the gaps with SOMETHING and chances are darn good it won’t be what you want it to be.
I am just being pragmatic here. Kids that age are a LOT tougher than most people give them credit for being. I know you can traumatize a child, but let me tell you something that really valuable. Children are hurt more often by the people they love HIDING the truth from them than by telling them the truth to start with. They can handle the truth. It’s the LIES that cut and scar them. Never lie to a child. Never hide the truth from them. It’s toxic to do that.
That’s why I believe that any legislation that attempts to make teachers OMIT the truth about anything from children is bad law. I don’t care what the age of the children happens to be. They deserve to know the truth. Parents should require that teachers teach the truth instead of hiding it from children. The fact that some children have two parents of the opposite gender is one truth. They might be of one color or different ethnicities, cultures, or religions, but children will learn to accept that. Another truth is that some children will be living with grandparents, aunts, uncles, older brothers/sisters, or fictive kin, and that’s okay, too. Or they might have two mothers or two fathers and that’s also acceptable because they are being taken care of and loved.
Trying to dictate what a family should appear to be is a religious belief and should never be legislated into our society’s legal system in any shape or form. Our Constitution says that we have Freedom of Religion, Freedom of Speech, and the Right to pursue liberty, justice, and the pursuit of happiness. It says nothing about cramming your religious standards down the throats of everybody else. When you do, you cross the gap between church and state. That’s a huge no-no.
As your State Senator, I want to re-establish the dividing line between enacting laws that promulgate and enshrine religious beliefs and practices into our state laws. There is no place for turning our General Assembly into a “Taliban” type of governing body with “Sharia” laws, yet that seems to be precisely where we are headed. The “why” of what we do is every bit as important as the “how”. Transparency is something that our predominantly Republican Senate has lacked for many years and is something that I want to work to bring back.
My name is Ellen Wright and I am running to be elected to District 29 of Georgia’s Senate. I want your vote and your financial support. You can donate by going to actblue.com and typing in ellen wright in the search box at the top of the page. It will take you straight to my page. I depend on grassroots donations and just $25 will help so much. Please consider more if you can. Thank you so much for your help.
Together, we will all win,
Ellen Wright, candidate for Senate D29
Wright4Georgia 