 We're all afraid of different things, heights, spiders, failure, you name it. But some of us, we have some pretty bizarre and downright unusual fears. For example, this woman on Mari was apparently scared of green olives. Bring out the olives. Little bit melodramatic if you ask me. But I showed you that clip because Republican State Senator Cardin Summers of Georgia, pictured behind me, had that same exact reaction in response to a little girl. OK, maybe not the exact same reaction, but nonetheless, this little girl did strike the fear of God into him, because I guess he felt like he was bamboozled by her. So let me explain. Aaron Reid reports, on February 6th, 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 State Senator Kim Jackson, who they had heard was a big supporter of LGBTQ plus rights, another senator passed by. Republican State Senator Cardin 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, Alex, eight 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 plus signage, something the senator apparently missed when he knelt down in front of Alex 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, Senator 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 Alex. 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. So I imagine that his response was something like this, yeah. Now, you know, we're joking about him being afraid of this little girl and whatnot, and that's all well and good. But in actuality, I think that he walked off quickly because I would imagine it's really difficult to look that little girl in the eyes after valing to protect her once you find out that your policy will actually harm her. He wants to force that little girl to use the bathroom of a gender that she doesn't identify with, meaning that he could subject her to bullying and harassment by her peers. And if they don't know she's trans, that is her classmates, she effectively has to out herself by using the boy's bathroom. So his bill could endanger this little girl. And after promising to protect her before finding out that she was trans, he probably felt a little bit stupid and also a little bit guilty. But he's not going to reverse course because he is a bad person who is using that little girl and people like her to bolster his own political career. But he's not the only one because Republicans across the country are finding new ways to harm trans youth, and that includes punishing the grown-ups who support trans youth. For example, as John Russell of LGBTQ Nation reports, a Missouri Republican has introduced a bill that would make it a felony for teachers to support trans and gender non-conforming students transitioning socially and force those found guilty to register as sex offenders. First term state Senator Jamie Ray-Grag introduced HB2885 this week. The proposed law would make it a class E felony to contribute to the social transition of transgender youth. The proposed law defines social transition as the process by which an individual adopts the name, pronouns, and gender expression, such as clothing or haircuts that match the individual's gender identity and not the gender assumed by the individual sex at birth. Now Russell goes on to explain that a class E felony in Missouri comes with a fine of up to $10,000 and up to four years in prison for respecting a child if they choose to use new pronouns. Now on top of that, anyone convicted of contributing to social transition of a minor would also be required to register as a tier one sex offender alongside people literally convicted for possession of CP and people found guilty of second degree CM. So this lawmaker is saying any parent or teacher that simply respects children who express themselves in a way that they feel the most comfortable is as guilty as criminals that literally abuse children. Think about how sick in the head you have to be to concoct the legislation like this. And by the way, he's not even pretending that this is about mutilation as many Republicans do as a pretense to ban gender from in care for trans youth because we all know that that's not happening and he's not even making that case. He's just saying, yeah, you know what? I know that those things about mutilation are all lies. I think that social transition is bad too. So he literally is saying he should be allowed to dictate what your kids wear and how they express themselves and if you don't listen to him and what he wants he thinks you're as guilty as literal child predators. So this is state sanctioned child abuse where he is trying to enforce the misgendering and dead naming of children and think of the psychological toll that this would have on them if this actually passed. Imagine if you were required to misgender your cis son, for example, and the state forced you to put him in dresses even though he didn't like them. Well, that same feeling of discomfort and shame that he'd feel would be felt by a trans child if they were forced to express themselves with clothing and agenda and pronouns that they just didn't identify with. It's wrong and kids should be allowed to be themselves, period. Republicans always say let kids be kids while they need to take their own advice because that includes trans kids. Let them be themselves. If they want to wear clothing of the opposite gender or if they want to use new pronouns, just let them be who they want to be, their kids. But the reaction Senator Summers had to that little girl, I think it was really illuminating for the fact that him not being able to look his victim in the eyes tells me that he knows that what he's doing is wrong. And I think that a lot of Republicans know that what they're doing is wrong. I think they're doing it for the sake of just being cruel. And the fact that they're possibly inducing harm on the most vulnerable population on purpose makes it so much more gross. Because if they were just doing it because they're ignorant, well ignorance is something that can be corrected. We can educate people. But if you know that what you're doing is hurting people, especially children, the most vulnerable population in our society and you still continue to do it, that just makes you a monster.