They pulled a 12-year-old out of gym class, claiming he made the school ‘unsafe.’ They even called his father to pick him up. You’d think he brought a weapon or started a fight. But his only crime was wearing a shirt that read: ‘𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐭𝐰𝐨 𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬.’ Apparently, a 7th grader’s t-shirt is now more terrifying to adults than actual disruption. | HO

He took a breath, gripping the sides of the podium. “I actively support having a Gay-Straight Alliance club and I attend the meetings. However, I feel that since my own views are more on the conservative side and I identify as a Christian, that my views are not accurately supported in this club. The views presented are very one-sided and it teaches you only to think one way and to ignore the other side.” He looked up, making eye contact with the board members.

“I also attend the Esports club at Champion. In order to join the club, my parents had to sign a permission slip. This was to make sure I was always safe while attending the after-school club. The GSA club has no permission slip to have parents sign, and basically, your parents wouldn’t know that you were going unless you told them. My Esports club also has a Discord server, and in order to use it, my parents had to sign a permission slip and I had to allow my parents to access the account.

GSA also has a Discord server and my parents never had to sign a permission slip or even knew of its existence. Before and after school clubs need rules and regulations to ensure student safety both online and in person. This will help parents be involved in their child’s life and you can still have fun in school. I am asking the Bernie Independent School District to take action and accountability with these issues. Our future and safety as students depends on it.”

As he stepped away, the energy in the room shifted. A man in a dark jacket stepped forward, his presence commanding immediate attention. “This young man showed more maturity, courage, and clarity than most adults in that room, ladies and gentlemen. And honestly, than a lot of people walking on the planet right now. You could see it. Calm, respectful, firm, no insults, just truth. And somehow telling the truth now still manages to make people uncomfortable. Can you imagine?”

He turned to the crowd, his voice dropping to a conversational but challenging tone. “Hello everybody. Nice to see you all. Thank you for being peaceful. That’s very kind. Not so used to that. What do we got here? Let trans kids play. What is a trans kid?” The question hung in the air, heavy and unanswered. “Does anyone know? Does anyone want to tell me what a trans kid is?”

Silence. The red recording light continued its rhythmic blinking, the only movement in the back of the room.

“We are,” someone shouted weakly.

“What is it that makes a child trans?” the man pressed. “No. As usual, not one person here is willing to have a conversation about what a trans kid is or why we should be giving children chemical castration drugs that leave them infertile. Anyone care to tell me why we should be cutting the body parts off of children? A lot of you probably don’t even believe that’s happening, right? No, y’all got nothing.” He paced slightly, looking for a taker. “I was wondering if anyone here could tell me what a trans kid is. Nope. Everyone’s mute. Nobody’s capable of having a conversation. It’s very sad.”

“What’s your argument?” a voice called out.

“Well, what’s a trans kid? I wonder. I’d like to just have a nice normal conversation if you wouldn’t mind. They’re just human beings.”

“Sure. Yeah. Human beings are human beings. What makes a child trans?”

“Because they believe it?”

“Believe in what?”

“Cuz it’s who they are.”

“What does that mean? That’s not a definition. I’m wondering what it is that makes a child trans.”

“What makes you a youth?” the heckler deflected.

“Nobody like it here. This is the level of intelligence we’re dealing with,” the man said, turning back to the camera.

“We love you more than you hate us,” someone yelled.

“Why do you think I hate you? What is it about me that makes you think I hate you? Yeah, that’s what I thought. You know, it’s funny to have all these passionate people who can’t offer one word about what they actually believe in.” He spotted a woman near the front. “So, you almost wanted to talk before. Do you want to maybe continue that? Go for a little stroll.”

“I’m really… I’m not interested.”

“All right. Because you’re not interested in—”

“I’m totally interested in having a conversation.”

“Oh, I’d love… I’d love to hear from you what your children want and need.”

“Our children want to be who they are.”

“That’s all. Okay. So, what does that mean?”

“It means they can be whoever they want to be, as you should be, as free as you want to be.”

“And we’re not… we’re not engaging. We don’t want to engage.”

“Oh, we’re not engaging. Oh, I see. Here come the thought police. Oh, thought police. Here come the thought police.” He shook his head, the frustration evident. “Everything feels, uh, actually gets filtered through skin color, labels, boxes, you name it. All categories. And the moment somebody questions it, suddenly they are the problem. Double standards. It’s terrible, ladies and gentlemen. And I have seen stories that actually break my heart. Children coming home confused, ashamed of who they are, saying things no child should ever have to say about themselves. And that’s not education. That is not even growth. That’s not healing. That is damage. Ladies and gentlemen, we’re not allowed to have a conversation, everybody. Too dangerous.”

A local reporter, Freda from the Savannah County Herald, approached him as the meeting dispersed into smaller groups. “Hi, local reporter Freda, Savannah County Herald. How’s it going?”

“It’s going well. How about you?”

“Great. Um, what comments would you like to offer about being in town?”

“Well, I come here to have conversations and raise awareness about what I consider to be the greatest child abuse scandal in modern medicine history. There is no such thing as a transgender child.”

“Hold on. Hold on. Yeah. Uh, let’s back up. Do you want to record on your phone?”

“No.”

“Okay. Um, so you said the greatest child abuse scandal in modern medicine history. And by that, you’re referring to what?”

“To giving children puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries because they’ve been led to believe that they must have been born in the wrong body, which is a pseudoscientific, quasi-religious nonsense. There’s no such thing as being born in the wrong body. Our children are beautiful just as they are. No drugs or scalpels needed. Historically, children with gender dysphoria, if you look at all the academic studies that were ever done before we started giving kids puberty blockers back when this just affected a handful of kids, all the studies show that more than **80%** of the time, kids with this condition called gender dysphoria simply grew out of it when they went through puberty. The cure for their gender dysphoria was puberty itself. Now we block the cure. These same studies show that the majority of these children when they grew up grew up to be gay.”

“Majority of kids who go through a change…” Freda scribbled furiously.

“All right. Or the majority. You’re going to need to take notes or record this because I don’t think you’re going to be able to get an accurate story.”

“Well, I’m pretty familiar with the topic, but…”

“Okay. So the majority of these kids… back to make sure that we’re on the same… and then we’re going to cut it off cuz I don’t have time. So what this movement is doing is taking kids who would grow up to be gay, telling them there’s something wrong with them, which is an extraordinarily abusive thing to tell a child on its own merits, never mind the physical harm being done. This is psychologically abusive and it’s harming kids who would grow up to be gay. It’s harming autistic kids, kids who suffer trauma abuse, sexual abuse, kids with borderline personality disorder. Who knows what’s going on with these children? They’re kids who for some reason don’t feel like they fit in. They’re having this self-loathing going on and now they’re being told, ‘Hold on, forever.’”

“I… I think I just interrupt you for a moment. Um, do you think there’s any room for, uh, a trans person who believes as they do?”

“There’s no such thing as a transgender child.”

“No such thing as a… There’s no such thing as a transgender child. Please quote me on that.”

“I will.”

“Transition is something you do, not something you are.”

“But do you see any room for any kind of access to care of any kind?”

“This isn’t care. Sterilizing children is not care.” He laughed, a short, sharp sound. “Choose the word. Do you see any room access to, um, any kind of…”

“There is zero room for puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries on kids? None whatsoever.”

“No, thank you. Please. No. What would you think if we decided to stop puberty in a puppy? Would that be animal abuse?”

“Yes,” she laughed nervously.

“I got to laugh, right? The left would never do that. They’d be out in the streets in the hundreds of thousands protesting animal abuse, but for some reason, we can block puberty in children, and you guys want to call that love and inclusion. And they said it, ‘These are the things that are happening in our schools. This is not fiction. No, this is not a Hollywood script.’ Uh-uh. And when parents push back, you know, when they say, ‘No, this is not right,’ they are treated like extremists instead of protectors. Can you believe this? In fact, nowadays they even use words like inclusivity, you know, but if the result is division, resentment, shame, then all we have done is simply to repaint the old same sin. You see, it’s crazy.”

He turned back to the lingering crowd, his voice rising to address the room one last time. The red recording light was still blinking, a silent witness to the collision of worldviews. “And here’s even the part that really stands out to me: that people from every background recognize this truth—Black, Hispanic, White people standing up and saying enough. Because we got to stop telling people they are the victims because they are not.

Stop. Stop dividing us. You see, that ought to tell people something. Truth resonates across lines that ideology can’t. You see, ladies and gentlemen, make no mistake about it. Schools are actually supposed to sharpen minds, not to mold ideologies. No. Or to push political agendas. No, it’s supposed to be about truth, discipline, preparation for the future. You see, not political pressure or agendas. And when adults use their authority to manipulate children, that is not leadership. That is not protection. That is actually cowardice.”

He paused, letting the word hang there. “And my faith, you know, kicks in, uh, because scripture plainly is clear on this. The Bible tells us that God is no respecter of persons, not race, not status, not background or how big the size of your office is. We are all made in the image of God. All of us. All of us. Not ranked. We are not graded. These ones are the most important. There’s no such thing with God. No divisions at all. You see, and when anyone teaches a child to hate, to hate themselves or others, that’s terrible, ladies and gentlemen. Because that is not right. Remember I said it’s the same old sin just rebranded, given a new name.”

He looked at the boy who had started it all, the kid with the five-word shirt. “But hey, ladies and gentlemen, the good thing is, um, what gives me hope is that when you see people like this coming out to speak the truth, seeing unity form around something simple and timeless, treating people equally. At least that is what is right because that’s what we ought to do anyway.

Treat people equally. Judge them by their character. Teach them the truth. Protect our children, especially our children. That is not even radical. That is literally common sense. You see, rooted in truth. Common sense. And hey, truth always wins. Whenever we refuse to keep our mouth quiet, whenever we choose to speak up and to stand for the truth, the darkness has no choice but to retreat.”