“My beautiful, now 22-year-old child told me last year that they were gender nonconforming,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal said. “The only thought I wake up with every day is: My child is free. My child is free to be who they are.'
“As I listened to some of you today, I was struck by this push to presume that these provisions would somehow be manipulated or used by people in ways that would hurt existing sex protections,” Jayapal said at the beginning of her almost four-minute speech. “It occurred to me that we are talking about fear versus love; we are talking about fear versus freedom.”
She then continued to discuss the “heavy burden of conflict” her child had carried before coming out as nonbinary and how, by bracing their gender identity, has allowed them to flourish.after the hearing. “With that freedom comes a responsibility, for us as legislators, to legislate with love and not fear.”
Vedant Patel, a spokesperson for Jayapal, confirmed that Tuesday’s hearing was the first time the lawmaker shared this personal family story.
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