During a visit to lobby legislators on transgender issues, Senator Carden Summers ® 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.

read more: https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/georgia-senator-vows-to-protect-girl?publication_id=994764&post_id=141716994

  • RamblingPanda@lemmynsfw.com
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    6 months ago

    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.

      • JonEFive@midwest.social
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        6 months ago

        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.

    • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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      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.)

    • Mac@mander.xyz
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      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.

      • CeruleanRuin@lemmy.world
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        Who gives a shit what he meant, he’s a fucking coward and hypocrite. He made it clear that he never for a moment cared about “protecting children”.

        • Mac@mander.xyz
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          Sorry I guess I’m the only one that cares about accuracy

            • Mac@mander.xyz
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              I’m not understanding what’s making you so upset here.

              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.

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    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.

  • ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    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.

  • The Snark Urge@lemmy.world
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    You’re attacking me, my ass. See how easily they project? It’s not even a thought they have, they just exhale bullshit

    • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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      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.

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    6 months ago

    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.”

  • Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    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.

  • moosetwin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    6 months ago

    Imagine having to be that kid, someone saying they’ll protect you and then accusing you of attacking them for part of yourself that you have no control over

  • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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    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.

  • Anamnesis@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Remember those pics of Goebbels, one before learning the photographer was Jewish, and one after?

  • Zirconium@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    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.

    • Deceptichum@kbin.social
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      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.

    • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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      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.

    • CeruleanRuin@lemmy.world
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      He felt empathy for the first time, and it was an unfamiliar sensation that he recoiled from in his cowardice.

  • otp@sh.itjust.works
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    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

    • CeruleanRuin@lemmy.world
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      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.

      • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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        For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

        The Bible is very clear. Christianity is fundamentally anti-LGBT. Stop following it if you want to be a good person.

        • CobblerScholar@lemmy.world
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          I’m not going to argue the point that homosexuality and at least the modern interpretation of the Christian faith are adversarial at best but the Bible is anything but clear on anything let alone LGBTQ. You quoted one of dozens of different English translations let alone any other language. Hell in one of the most popular translations, the King James Bible, the man had the word “tyrant” removed from it so the peasants wouldn’t get ideas

    • grue@lemmy.world
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      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)

    • Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      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.

      • Facebones@reddthat.com
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        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. 🙄

        • CeruleanRuin@lemmy.world
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          It’s so funny to me this new posturing of denial that kids can know their gender at a young age, when derogatory terms for this exact thing like “tomboy” and “sissy” have been around for generations. We have always known that some kids don’t act like their gender assigned at birth.

          The only thing that’s changed is that we now know that this is actually normal and healthy, not some pathological problem that can be “solved” through abuse and shaming.

          • jj4211@lemmy.world
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            6 months ago

            I understand, but I also thinnk things swing differently bad. If you imply a “tomboy” must be a man, because they like traditionally manly stuff, and a “sissy” should be a girl because they aren’t violent, well, that seems rough too.

            Also, people evolve. Fluidity should be the emphasis at that age.

            Heck, I’m not particularly on board that you should pick one and align your whole identity with your choice, whether that’s being cisgender as aggressively squishing down unfitting choices, or going trans and feeling compelled to leave all the traits of your physiological gender behind.

            • Landsharkgun@midwest.social
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              6 months ago

              Wow, what a concept! People could have a gender identity that doesn’t match traditional conceptions of ‘man’ or ‘women’! We could call it something like…‘non-binary’.

              /s

              Your concern trolling completely ignores points the LGBTQ+ community have already thought of and explictly accepted. Nothing you have to say points to any meaningful problem whatsoever. You’ve been posting this drivel all over the thread. Go elsewhere.

            • CeruleanRuin@lemmy.world
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              I don’t think it can be rigidly defined for everyone, nor should it be. Some people are fluid in that sense, some people aren’t.

    • radicalautonomy@lemmy.world
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      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.

    • RagingRobot@lemmy.world
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      Idk I think if someone kept telling me one thing and my experience was different I think I could tell something is up.

    • Lumelore (She/her)@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      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.

      • Plopp@lemmy.world
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        Just out of curiosity, how does a toddler express either femininely or masculinely?

        • CeruleanRuin@lemmy.world
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          Toddlers model behavior of the adults in their life. It can be as simple as whether they echo the behavioral quirks of the women more than the men, or vise versa.

          • wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            Please be careful with this line of thinking, and don’t push children into one direction or the other.

            I spent more time in my early years with my mother due to my father traveling for work, so I naturally echoed her behavioral quirks more than his. I also showed a ton of interest in traditionally feminine toys and playsets. I had a baby doll and I’d play pretend parenting. I outright demanded a little play kitchen, back when all of them were clearly decorated/colored/coded “for girls”. I wanted and they got me a barbie doll, and I played a shit ton of dress up. Never was one for rough and tumble play, sports, climbing trees, etc. More in touch with my emotions than my peers and not afraid to show them.

            All that said, I’ve never had any issues with my own gender identity as a cis male. One of my earliest “writings” was “I’m going to be a dad” with a very scribbly drawing of a family.

            There’s another comment on this post about a mtf telling their parents that they were a butterfly and going to be a girl, at an early enough age that the commenter didn’t remember saying it.

            So kids can absolutely know, but we should be careful to never assume. If gender is a social construct, then we should also be working ourselves away from the idea that certain behaviors are masc or fem, not doubling down by saying they have any indication of a person’s gender/potential to be trans.

            • CeruleanRuin@lemmy.world
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              Masculine and feminine are useful concepts with long roots in every culture on earth. The problem is when people impose a positive or negative connotation to them. It should be considered normal and healthy for someone who identifies on the male side of the spectrum to exhibit feminine traits, and so on.

              It’s just a conceptual framework that simplifies understanding. Our problems arise when we oversimplify, and forget that it is just an artificial construct we made up to explain our world.

    • Leviathan@lemmy.world
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      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.

    • Mossy Feathers (They/Them)@pawb.social
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      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.

    • kttnpunk@lemmy.world
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      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…

    • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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      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.

    • ReiRose@lemmy.world
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      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).

    • CeruleanRuin@lemmy.world
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      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.

    • shea@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      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