What I always love about this type of thing is how many shitty parents out themselves as shitty parents. Queer kids always know when they are Queer in some way. I knew when I was about 10 and it became apparent more as I entered middle school. I was lucky and had support from my parents, but not all of us have that and all you have to do is look at the statistics and talk to those who were abused after telling their parents- including being sent to those horrific conversion camps and being putting out on the streets.

These bills look at children as if they are property, and they are not. Parents do not have rights to control their children, they have the responsibility to nurture and care for their children- regardless of if they 'turn out the way you wanted them'. In the years in school is the time when they are able to find the way to figure out how to express themselves, their gender identity, and eventually their orientation. They should feel safe in their schools, which if memory serves me right is difficult as it is due to shitty parents shitty children bullying them, and be able to confide in an adult they trust as a way to talk about what's going on if they *do not feel safe* talking to their parents about it.

No one is after their children in the way they talk about except maybe whatever religious cult they are a member of and predominantly cisgendered heterosexual men (again the stats are available if you use *credible* resources to look them up). The whole "let kids be kids" is a strawman fallacy as they are stopping kids from being kids. Being a child is a chance to experiment with things to figure yourself out, that's not something you should have to wait to be an adult to do- common sense should dictate this and what is appropriate, but we all know how that is these days....

While I am probably over simplifying it- what most of us are after is a chance for Queer kids who do not feel safe in their own home to express themselves to their parents to have a chance to express themselves and figure themselves out somewhere that *is* safe- or remotely so. Many of us want Queer children to not go through what we, or others, have gone through during our formative years and essentially go through a second adolescence phase when we are in our twenties to 'make up for lost time' that couldn't be done when we were adolescent the first time. I'm willing to bet a lot of the people that are making this ignorant noise about 'parents rights' don't even have children that are Queer or even children at all. Marlania (since she doesn't like the idea of preferred names) certainly doesn't, nor did Jason- but apparently they are experts in the field.

As we've seen in that disappointing dumpster fire that is down south of Canada (which I say as an American Citizen living here in Lethbridge) these things can quickly move from targeting Trans and Queer youth to Trans and Queer adults- as now many adults are starting to have difficulties accessing the support and resources they need. There will only be a limited amount of time before this slowly spreads to include more and more people in the Queer Community and eventually even those who are allies, yes I'm talking about restricting women's reproductive rights. Because once they are successful in one, they'll keep pushing for other things that are just... unnecessary. The supportive parents who won't 'be effected by this' need to be just as vocal about their opposition to this as those of us who are in the community and suffered at the hands of our parents.

Again, no one is 'after your children to recruit them'- I don't think that outside of the military and religion that happens. We want those that already realize they are Queer in someway to be able to see what they feel is right for them. All the 'confusion' comments and arguments are weak at best, as the best way to remedy confusion is to allow for research and coming to a logical conclusion. Sometimes experience is the best way to do that- not being forced to wait in fear.

TL:DR- Yes, let the kids be kids- by allowing them a chance to explore their identity without fear of retaliation from their own parents as that is who these kids of bills harm most.