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To the editor:
In the newspaper there have been a couple of letters published that have shown bigotry toward a transgender person and to the LGBQT+ community as a whole.
Those letters were published on April 21 and April 22. In those letters especially in the letter published on April 22, the person intentionally used the wrong gender.
Let me ask that writer how would she feel if someone in a published letter used the wrong sex to identify her. It would probably make her mad. Now let me ask when she sees probably most famous transgender person in the world, Caitlyn Jenner, does she call her by her former name of Bruce or does she show respect to the individual?
In the letter published on April 21 all the writer could go on about is the physical aspects not changing and the transgender person has "an advantage." Really? There are hundreds and thousands of kids in this country that have to hide their true gender identity due to the bigotry that permeates this country toward the trans community. Many of those kids either self harm or kill themselves due to this bigotry. Yet the media, especially the local papers who publish letters showing the bigotry, do not do anything to combat this.
Think about this. What if that was your kid or a kid you knew that took his or her life due to not being able to handle the bigotry that is shown toward them? How would you think your kid would feel if he or she told you that they were born the wrong sex or was gay and you turned around and snubbed them just for them being true to themselves?
Do you think that you would be happy with yourself knowing that you intentionally destroyed that kid's feelings to the point that the kid wanted to kill himself or herself?
But let's go back to the letter published on April 22. In it, the writer claims that it is Mr. Eric Becht that has fallen into the trap of confusing sex and gender. I hate to tell her this, but she is the one that is confused, just like the Republican who on a nationwide televised committee got confused as to how a transgender person would go to the bathroom.
Here is a little fact that I know that she and the writer of the letter published on April 21 will hate and try and claim that it is wrong. Scientists have stated that there are, in fact, 112 different genders with 71 suffixes -- that's scientists not me. I guarantee you that there will be people writing letters claiming that they know better than the scientists and that the scientists are wrong, when in reality will only show the ignorance of the writer.
So to end before you decide to write in and show bigotry toward a community such as the LGBQT+ community, do some hard thinking about how your words will affect the people from that community, how many members of that community will it hurt and cause them to want to self harm or even kill themselves. Now think if that was your kid.
George Fisher
Lewistown