AB1314

The whole meeting is here.

On April 12, I attended a meeting of Orange County Board of Education where I heard a friend of mine said there would be a big argument between parents and the LGBTQ community. I asked my friend what it was about, and my friend sent me the agenda for the meeting. I looked through items 12 and 13 in the agenda, and it took completely surprised by a bill called AB-1314. I didn’t know what the bill was about, but I could understand why there would be a big argument in that night’s meeting. It was about teachers at school can have the right to tell and notify parents if they see their students identify themselves as a different sex that doesn’t align with the sex registered on the birth certificate. The meeting was filled with screaming, arguing, and talking back at each other. In the end, the board showed their support of the bill. In my head, I thought it could be a good story to write for my school’s newspaper. But I decided not to because it would be biased if I wrote. Instead, I wrote my own opinion.

The Orange County Board of Education.

When I came out to my mom at the age of 18 that I am bisexual person, my mom only hugged me and said she would accept whomever I was and loved me with all of her heart. I couldn’t hide away from crying. Before, my mom was conservative and criticized the LGBTQ community for ruining the whole generation. Since she came to the United States, she has changed her perspective on the LGBTQ community. She felt for them after she read or watched stories about them, like how they overcame things in life, how they faced discrimination, how they felt, what they did to get acceptance by society, and how they advocated making people have an open heart to the LGBTQ community. My mom told me that after I came out. I always believe that our parents always want the best thing for us. They have been through so many things in life, even the worst, so they understand things better than us and know what is good or not. Of course, they are sometimes very conservative, but when it comes to their children, they will spend time listening to you and offering solutions or helping you with what you are struggling with. Every parent has a different way of showing love to their children, it doesn’t need to be in front of you, but behind you, you will never know how many times they cry for you and think about you. Parents deserve to know what happens to their children. Back to the meeting, some parents expressed anger and concern that the children would decide their gender identity without their parent’s consent. A group supporting the LGBTQ community spoke at the meeting against AB-1314 because they argued that the bill discriminated against the LGBTQ community and should be kept confidential. Parents, however, didn’t think so. They believed children are still too young to understand gay, trans, and pronouns.

Children still need parents, and parents should know what is happening to their children at school or out there. The argument went severely, I supposed. The group left in the middle of the meeting because they saw that the board didn’t support them and that all of the parents (primarily conservative) didn’t want them to be there. Usually, I stand with the LGBTQ community because I am one. But I had to lean on the parent’s side that night. They were right.

Parents need to know what is going on with their children. If a teacher is concerned about something with a student, they must report to the parents to corporate with the school to deal with it because they are still too young to decide things. They are innocent, and let them be innocent with their age. I also can’t entirely agree with having a drag queen perform in front of children if that drag queen acts inappropriately. But it’s okay when they read books to children, and I support that. The school needs to talk to students about sex and gender, and equality. There is nothing wrong with that. The more students know, the more they can be prepared for the future. Why do we need to hide the children from knowing what LGBTQ or gender identity is? I support that. However, Bill AB-1314 has nothing to do with discriminating against the LGBTQ community.

All it said is that a teacher should have a duty to report to a student’s parents about their gender identity. That’s it. Nothing more than that. It should have stopped right there. But besides parents who just supported the bill and had nothing against the LGBTQ, some parents went too far that night. They took the opportunity to throw bad words toward the LGBTQ community and did that in the name of God.

Can you believe it? This lady brought a Bible with her and quoted some chapters and verses I couldn’t understand because I am not a Christian. Another man in a black shirt with an AR0-15 formed “We The People” and a “Let’s Go Brandon” hat spoke at the podium that when he was at school, there was no gay or trans, only learning and playing. And they went on and on talking about God, Bible, and how abomination it is to be gay and trans. I could not take it anymore and left the meeting. Those so-called parents went too far to show their hate for the LGBTQ community.

I asked myself a question. What will it be like if one of their children is gay? I bet the parents will take out the Bible and do some preaching, praying, and telling gay is not in the Bible. Here is the thing. I don’t know what’s inside the Bible, but I know one thing. God loves everyone equally, and God wants people to love each other. If gay is not in the Bible, ignore it. Don’t quote the Bible! They are abusing the Bible and God’s words and using them to create hate and divide. They need to stop. They never understand how hard it is for a gay person to live freely and be themselves. They are humans like everyone else. It is not right now. Gay just appeared. It was around a long time ago. But in the past, society was still strict and gay people didn’t have a chance to live like they wanted and finally died in loneliness. Now, society has opened the door to welcoming the LGBTQ community, and we must accept that and love them. To that MAGA gentleman who said he didn’t learn about gay when he was a kid, I felt sorry for you for not having enough education and such ignorant about gender. And to all the so-called parents that night, stop bringing God out to justify the action against the LGBTQ community because it is disgusting and abominating!

Once again, I support AB1314 in the way of protecting children. But I will never accept how those so-called parents acted that night when targeting the LGBTQ community like that. They went too far and should be ashamed of themselves.