Amid the fevered national backdrop of state legislatures and governors passing vicious legislation that targets LGBTQ youth, and with the heinous murder of Fern Feather, a transwoman in Morrisville last week, it was a bit of a balm last week when Outright Vermont partnered with the Mad River Valley Libraries and Harwood Union’s Gay Straight Alliance Club to discuss the young adult book “We Contain Multitudes” and Vermont LGBTQ+ youths’ lived experiences in an event held at the Moretown Library.
While Vermont GOP chair Paul Dame waged campaign against H.659, a bill that would allow minors access to certain types of gender-affirming care without parent consent (despite the fact that the bill is dead for this session), the chair of Burlington’s Republican party was posting the word “groomer” next to picture of legislators who sponsored the bill.
And in Moretown, a lot of folks gathered in person and via Zoom, to listen and to learn about the lived experiences of LGBTQ+ youth. They came with open minds and a willingness to hear. They came unafraid to express and articulate gender stereotypes, and in so doing to understand what those stereotypes are.
It takes courage to say that learning new ways of using pronouns is not as intuitive for some as it is for others. And it takes respect to hear those statements and react with kindness versus anger or derision. This is how we can and should talk to each other about areas where we disagree or do not understand each other.
Last week, in our community, people gathered in kindness and with respect, things that seem in short supply on the national stage these days. They eschewed political rhetoric in favor of seeing each other as neighbors and community members.
They came to celebrate a book and discuss it in the context of people’s lives, rather than ban a book or books over spurious allegations that come down to close-minded discrimination and pre-fabricated reactionary outrage.
When we can calm ourselves enough to listen to each other, we all benefit and we all learn.
-LAL
