Georgia Senator Vows to Protect Girl, But Then Runs Away After Learning She Is Trans
Georgia Senator Vows to Protect Girl, But Then Runs Away After Learning She Is Trans
During a visit to lobby legislators on transgender issues, Senator Carden Summers (R) knelt down and told a child he would protect her. When he learned she was trans, he backed away.
During a visit to lobby legislators on transgender issues, Senator Carden Summers (R) knelt down and told a child he would protect her. When he learned she was trans, he backed away.
On Feb. 6, a group of families met to lobby senators on issues affecting the local transgender community in Georgia. One mother, Lena Kotler, decided to take her two children with her to give the topic a human face. While waiting to meet with Democratic Sen. Kim Jackson, who they had heard was a big supporter of LGBTQ+ rights, another senator passed by — Republican Sen. Carden Summers, the primary sponsor of the state’s bathroom ban bill. Little did he know that one of the children he would be interacting with, Aleix, 8 years old, was a transgender child.
According to Kotler and other families who were present, the senator stopped to say hello. That’s when Kotler spoke to Senator Summers about how she was there with her kids to “talk to legislators about keeping her kids safe.” Although she did not mention that one of her children was trans, they were present with LGBTQ+ signage - something the Senator apparently missed when he knelt down in front of Aleix and said, according to Kotler, “Well you know, we’re working on that and I’m going to protect kids like you.”
Kotler then replied, “Yeah - Alex is trans, and she wants to be safe at school, she wants to go to the bathroom and be safe.”
That is when, according to multiple witnesses, Sen. Summers stood up and fumbled his words, repeating, "I mean, yeah, I'm going to make sure she's safe by going to the right bathroom," continuing to use the correct pronouns for Aleix. When asked if he would make her go to a boy's bathroom, he then allegedly backed away, saying, "You're attacking me," turned around, and walked off quickly.
he then allegedly backed away, saying, "You're attacking me," turned around, and walked off quickly.
Oh no, better run to the bathroom to cry. Attacked by an eight year old, that poor soul.
“You’re attacking me by asking if I’m going to legislate against your needs”
Exactly. "My opinion is different from your life experience, and by showing me that fact first hand, you have made me uncomfortable."
And as we all know, being uncomfortable because of another person is an attack. Irony of ironies, imagine how uncomfortable people must make that kid all the time, including this specific interaction.
And this is why we need a national safe storage laws.
You really shouldn’t be storing guns in the bathroom!
(/s. What a fucking coward.)
He wasnt claiming to be attacked by the child but by the mother.
Edit: It is an important distinction because it exemplifies that it is not the trans-nature of the child that he is claiming to be attacked by but by the mother pressing him to abide by his own claims of protecting children.
When asked if he would make her go to a boy's bathroom, he then allegedly backed away, saying, "You're attacking me," turned around, and walked off quickly.
LMAO
Is he a moron, or is that a strategy? Lol
He's a coward, just like everyone else in his party. Afraid of a fucking child. His ancestors would be ashamed of him, and his descendants will disown him.
This is what facism looks like imo. Through and through.
"Will your bill do what it says?"
"HOW DARE YOU!"
And this is a legislator.
Brave Ser Summers ran away, Bravely ran away, away. When a child with questions to him was led, He bravely turned his tail and fled.
Please no one go to his Facebook page and find his number then leave him a voicemail singing that song
Yeah, nobody should go out of their way to buy a prepaid phone and harrass him like that. /s
Brave, brave, brave, brave Sir Summers
Run away. I want you to be famous for those exact words. I want people to call you Senator Run Away. I want children laughing outside your door, because they've found the house of Senator Run Away. And, when people come to you, and ask if trying to get to me through the people I love is in any way a good idea, I want you to tell them your name.
When asked if he would make her go to a boy’s bathroom, he then allegedly backed away, saying, “You’re attacking me,” turned around, and walked off quickly.
I mean, maybe we should just yell that at conservatives?
Maybe it takes something so blunt for them to get it as hearing "you're attacking me".
And if it doesn't, I'm pretty sure that's all you need to say to use stand your ground laws in red states.
"yOu'Re AaTtAcKiNg mEeee!!!!"
What a dipshit.
It's very easy to attack people like that, usually been within about 50 miles of them is enough. Everything you do is offensive to them including breathing. People that sensitive need to be in therapy.
"You're attacking meeeee"
It's never not projection with these doofs.
In response to an 8 year old existing.
Given his fragility, cowardice, lack of self-assurance and failure to defend himself - all feminine traits (to these ghouls anyway) are we sure the good senator isn't trans himself? He's certainly not the picture of brave, confident masculinity.
DeSantis wears high heels - I'm pretty sure Trump does too (though smaller) - projection indeed.
Remember those pics of Goebbels, one before learning the photographer was Jewish, and one after?
Thats exactly what popped into my brain while reading this.
attached for reference.
Here's a before pic
What a fucking snowflake.
Literally a word causes him to throw away his cause. Going to bet this dude would absolutely abandon his own children. Party of family values my ass.
Kid: “I’m trans.”
Senator Carden Summers: “What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you little bitch? I'll have you know I graduated top of my class in the Navy Seals, and I've been involved in numerous secret raids on Al-Quaeda, and I have over 300 confirmed kills. I am trained in gorilla warfare and I'm the top sniper in the entire US armed forces. You are nothing to me but just another target. I will wipe you the fuck out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying that shit to me over the Internet? Think again, fucker. As we speak I am contacting my secret network of spies across the USA and your IP is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, maggot. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. You're fucking dead, kid. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can kill you in over seven hundred ways, and that's just with my bare hands. Not only am I extensively trained in unarmed combat, but I have access to the entire arsenal of the United States Marine Corps and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the continent, you little shit. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little "clever" comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your fucking tongue. But you couldn't, you didn't, and now you're paying the price, you goddamn idiot. I will shit fury all over you and you will drown in it. You're fucking dead, kiddo.”
Was definitely not expecting to see this copy pasta here.
You're attacking me, my ass. See how easily they project? It's not even a thought they have, they just exhale bullshit
Sounds like two neurons in his brain actually met for once and he felt empathy for someone he knew he was too young to understand why she's getting fucked over by her government.
It doesn't sound like that at all, at any point in the story?
Sounds like he he thought he could score a quick lil' political win with the group of families, before realising she was the target his hate, and expressing his bigotry to the child before fucking off.
"You're attacking me!" complains attacker.
Well I meant to say but forgot. That the empathy he felt turned into confusion and then anger and then he rubber banded back to his bigotry where he feels safe
I disagree. He saw the danger of him standing there when someone could take a pic. That is why he bravely screamed out at the 8 year old girl to stop attacking him.
He felt empathy for the first time, and it was an unfamiliar sensation that he recoiled from in his cowardice.
Nah, it wasn't empathy, it was a photo-op. He could be seen "caring" about the plight of kids who feel unsafe in school (his assumption was almost certainly school shooting). So he was there to vaguely promise to make schools safer, presumably by having fewer doors, since that is what causes school shootings evidently.
I think it's the opposite. I think he saw her as a girl whom he was protecting from trans girls using "her" bathroom.
Thats the thing about these people. I have a trans coworker and they wont dare use the wrong pronoun for her while it can reach HR's ears. Go ahead, say what you want to say don't hide it now. They hide behind legislation and screens.
Aleix is trans, but Summers is a pussy...does that mean that he's transitioning, as well?
He is no pussy, they take a pounding while providing pleasure to all involved.
Summers is a scrotum, thin skinned, can't take even a light strike without assuming an attack, and he shriveled away when he realized the temperature was a bit cold to him.
Some people do enjoy some CBT though. He's scum.
I'm going to have to remember this.
Jesus christ that headline is the most satirical sounding headline ive ever seen period. It spunds more satirical than actual TheOnion h eadlines
There's always someone...
If Summers was really serious about "protecting" trans children, he should have said he was going to place the child into state custody. If there was an actual threat against the child, that's what he should do, but there is not and Summers knows it.
How can an 8 year old know if they are trans? That seems awfully young.
It's a gender thing, not a sex thing. You don't have to hit puberty to know.
What about you -- did you know you were cis* by the time you were 8? Are you sure?
If you could be that sure, why would a trans person be any different?
(* making a statistically-likely assumption)
I am not personally on board with the the "pick a gender to define your identity", but there are several traits I embraced that would have been "trans"-y when I came into my own self. When I was 8 I rolled with others perception and assumed everyone around me was right and I should like aspire to be a man and reject anything not manly. This has reinforced cisgender identity in most people, but there's one kid of a couple I knew who, as soon as they wanted to explore the question of gender identity, the parents went into full "I support my trans kid" and pushed their kid hard trans. They meant well, but kids are kids and shouldn't be held too hard to their stated choices. Putting the kid on parade in a very visible political display limits their ability to "back out" if they choose.
In short, I don't think people should be told they "know" their gender status before they grow into themselves a bit more.
Did you not know your gender in 3rd grade? Some trans kids do too, especially now that there’s more awareness.
8 years old is also an extremely low stakes age to be trans, because it’s literally just clothes, name/pronouns, and haircut differences at that age.
My ex's kid came out as trans to usat 11 or so, and like..... Yeah. This is exactly the time to play with your sense of self when it doesn't fuckin matter. We've been doing for generations, but all of a sudden feeling and wanting to present more masculine just gives everybody a fucking aneurysm.
Never mind the people who have nothing better to do than go to war with children grew up with David Bowie and Eurythmics and shit. 🙄
especially now that there’s more awareness.
I often think how wild it is that there was not a single (out) gay or trans kid in all my years in primary and secondary school (graduated in '94). I wonder now how many were and either didn't understand it enough to know it or were (justifiably) afraid to be who they were.
My youngest knew they weren't a girl at age seven. They are 15 now and been very happy for the last four years using they/them pronouns and a chosen name.
It was always possible that one day they'd have changed their mind...hell, their cousin is non-binary as well and used he/they pronouns and a male name for six years before reverting back to the name and gender she was assigned at birth (she's 16 now).
The important thing is to listen to your kids (and anyone who is trans, really) and trust that they know themselves infinitely better than you ever could. Let people tell you who they are, and believe them. They may refine their understanding of who they are at a later time, and you should believe them then, too. When someone decides to change their major, you don't tell them "C'mon now...you're a psychology major...you've always been a psychology major." It's not entirely dissimilar.
I knew I was a boy and that I liked girls when I was 8 years old. I just project that same sense of identity I felt onto others and it becomes very easy to understand why others just know who and what they are and who and what they like. The world really needs a touch more empathy.
I'm a trans woman and I started to express my self femininely when I was just a toddler. I grew up in a rural area where I was always told that I am a boy and that I will grow up into a man who will have a wife and many children. I genuinely had never heard of queer people until I was tween, when my peers started using gay as an insult. If I had been taught about queer people when I was a kid, I definitely would have realized that I am trans then, and I wish I had been because being raised as a boy when you are a girl is extremely traumatic.
People can be born with all sorts of strange and terrible conditions, but somehow there are people who think babies can't be born with a brain that is a different sex than their body. Either that or they think the body should take precedence over the brain which is insane considering only one of those is sapient.
Idk I think if someone kept telling me one thing and my experience was different I think I could tell something is up.
Some people just know at a young age. It's a spectrum, so some people don't experience dysphoria until puberty, some know when they're very young, some don't experience dysphoria and instead solely experience gender euphoria (in this context, euphoria from presenting as a gender other than their assigned gender at birth (AGAB)). It's complicated and not well understood.
The puberty situation was my general experience... But I also didn't really know trans people existed when I was young and my parents really didn't enforce any kind of gender stereotype upon me at all. I also just didn't care about clothes because my options were just hand me downs from my cousins. Aside from just feeling like my friends were somehow operating from a different playbook I had no clue.
Then puberty hit. It registered as a mild body horror because I basically still passed but I couldn't do the hand me downs anymore and I did some pretty unhealthy things like develop something of an eating disorder to avoid developing... I also started getting anxiety symptoms including heartburn so bad I thought I was literally dying. Life was generally so shit I didn't where to try improving so I just clung on with my fingernails because I knew my death would destroy my family.
I am glad that being trans is on the parental radar these days. It took me til I was 21 to figure out what was happening basically in a near complete vacuum of information pmuch less to figure out what to do. I often wonder where my experiences would have differed if I actually knew transness was a thing and at what age that realization would have happened.
8 is old enough to know a lot of things about yourself. Personally I knew I hated the idea of "being a man" at that age, i just wish i had realized sooner that growing into something else was a option. My mental health would certainly be about 1000x better if I had been able to transition then instead of as a overwhelmed, forsaken and misunderstood 19 year old...
Most people know their gender about 2.5 years old. It is pretty impressive when you are parent and see that lightbulb click. One day they have no opinions at all about clothing or toys and the next day they do.
Well, in some sense they know what they are supposed to be correlated with their physiology, but "gender identity" is a bit much, and it would be a mistake for someone to close the door on that question so early in life. Now I understand "but we use gendeered pronouns on 5 year olds, so obviously it's not open ended", and it's not ideal that there is a default, but ultimately, that kid is way too young to commit to that position. There's a whole lot of mental and physical development coming their way and they should be encouraged to keep an open mind, either way.
Society drills gender roles into your head from birth. The more yours don't match, the easier it is to tell at an early age.
Gender identity is very dependent on external influence, such as society and language, but is usually well established by age five. I wish I had sources for you, but there was a study done on how gender use in native language influences awareness of gender. The more gendered words are present, such as in romance languages, the earlier gender identity is established.
Eight year olds don't need to know the definition of trans to know if they're a girl or a boy (gender).
I understand that it is difficult to grasp when you have been indoctrinated to believe one thing that has turned out to not be true. Most people go through life never truly knowing the interior life of another person. But parents know their children.
Good question, I'll link my comment to someone else asking the same thing: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/comment/6550308
idk i didn't find out until i was a grown ass adult who was sexually mature so i don't understand how a kid could possibly know these things for sure
I imagine it is a contrast issue is why you don't understand. Which is fine.
No one ever told me I am a fire squid wearing a human suit. Not once. If someone had decided to tell me at say 8 years old I am pretty confident I wouldn't have been convinced. If you also asked 8 year old me if I was human I am pretty confident he would have said yes. If the world is telling you what agrees with your understanding of the world then you don't even note it. It is a grass is green type statement. If however the world is telling you what you know to be false you will remember how strange this experience was.
Makes sense now?
“I mean, yeah, I’m going to make sure she’s safe by going to the right bathroom,” continuing to use the correct pronouns for Aleix.
Gotta love that he doesn't even realize he's saying Aleix is a girl and girls should be using the girls' bathroom.
Edit: I really want to know if the people downvoting me are anti-trans bigots or don't understand that an anti-trans bigot accidentally took her side even after realizing she's trans?
Worth noting he's a senator in the state legislature, not one of Georgia's federal senators who are both broadly pro LGBT+
So brave
At 8 years old... Does she actually know if she's trans or did the mother tell her she was?
full disclosure: I'm trans - my story at the end.
It doesn't really work that way... if she was told "you're trans" and wasn't, she would experience the opposite type of gender dysphoria over time and would want to express masculine/boy identity in line with her birth gender and physical traits.
She's young enough that it's not infeasible she might change her mind. Ideally she has been to a licensed therapist and/or psychologist who verified she met the latest DSM diagnostic criteria for gender dysphoria (the only successful treatment for which involves transition), and they are helping the parent manage this process. They'll be in no hurry for medical intervention since puberty would be 4-5 years away most likely.
That being said, if you meet enough trans people, it's not uncommon to hear stories about "knowing since I was 4". Oftentimes it's accompanied by a regret that their feelings were suppressed and they had to go through the torments of puberty "in the wrong body" as it were.
My own story is different. I didn't "know" until my thirties, even if I can see signs going back to childhood in retrospect. Apparently at three years old I told my mom "I'm a butterfly and I'm going to be a girl". She never told me that, I found out after she died last year, looking through her old notes. She assumed I meant reincarnation. Ironic considering I have adopted a butterfly metaphor to express my transition to a woman.
Anyway, yes, an eight year old can absolutely tell adults they are a different gender than they were assigned at birth. Whether they literally say "I'm trans" is kinda beside the point.
Thank you for explaining things without jumping down my neck right off the bat; it's very appreciated (and hard to come by nowadays).
I guess because I personally never thought of those things as a kid that I can't picture an 8, (or 4) year old, that would worry (or even think) about that issue at such a young age.
It's why people argue too much over religion, and personal experiences; just because it didn't happen to you, doesn't mean it didn't happen.
Thanks for the candid response. I appreciate the honest discussion.
Anyway, yes, an eight year old can absolutely tell adults they are a different gender than they were assigned at birth. Whether they literally say “I’m trans” is kinda beside the point.
I think the mistake parents might make is take this super seriously and start hovering on the issue (either validating or opposing), instead of letting the children grow naturally.
This reads as transphobic, but I'm going to leave it up for two reasons:
- First, your subsequent comments don't show any malice, just a lack of understanding.
- Second, that lack of understanding appears to have been rectified by others' comments, and I think seeing that could be valuable for onlookers.
I'm not trans myself, but my son is, and he explains how he felt something like this...
Imagine you're a pretty average boy, and interested in stereotypical boy things. You like boy clothes, you want to hang out with your friends who are boys, you look forward to growing muscles and a mustache when you're old enough, etc.
Now imagine that at the same time, all your clothes are girl clothes, your name is girly, and everyone around you thinks you're a girl.
That wouldn't match up, would it. It would feel incongruous and wrong.
If you're cisgender, you can absolutely prove you're a boy to everyone's satisfaction, and you're unlikely to get dressed in the wrong clothes or given a mismatched name in the first place. So you probably don't ever have to think about your gender and whether it's being expressed by your body incorrectly.
But for trans people, it's not uncommon for them to become acutely aware of gender when they're young in ways that their cisgender counterparts don't, precisely because of the mismatch.
That's how it was for my son. He didn't figure out he was trans until he was around thirteen, but he knew something wasn't right long before then.
How are children mature enough to realize they are trans?
Seems like children are too impressionable to be able to make decisions like that.
8 year olds have an IQ around 20. There's zero chance an 8 year old comprehends being trans. The mother is a narcissist.
That's not how IQ works
Have you actually met trans people? Have you talked to them about their childhoods?
Yes and yes.
You do not need a high IQ to experience gender dysphoria. There are huge piles of evidence showing that children that young can, in fact, have a gender identity. Actually, significantly younger than 8. You are woefully ignorant of the fundamentals of the topic being discussed.
I don't know the full story of the kid's family, but some people already realise their sexuality at early age.
Someone here has an IQ of 20, but it’s not that kid.
Saying that 8 year old has an IQ of 20 displays a misunderstanding of IQ and intelligence, but otherwise it's indeed very probable that the girl(?) is very confused.
I thought this article describes the still ongoing problem pretty well: https://www.npr.org/2008/05/07/90247842/two-families-grapple-with-sons-gender-preferences
Zucker has come to believe that taking the view that kids are born transgender ultimately produces more transgender people.
"By declaring the child as transgendered at, say, age 3 or age 4 or age 6, and then saying in a sense, 'Go with the flow,' ... that will impact, I believe, on how the kid's gender identity differentiates," he says.
The article was from 2008. Recent data shows that he was right on the money.