 I organized this rally with support from the engaged community members of Essex Westford school district because we've had recent attacks specifically in Vermont but nationally this has been an ongoing problem in the last few months and it's escalating. Some of the members of our House of Representatives were targeted by the GOP, by the Vermont GOP and for advocating for trans rights and the murder of Fern Feather which tragically happened this week you know I just thought that it was really important for our community to come out and support our trans community members, family members, neighbors and friends and show them that we have their back, that we don't see infert intolerance and show them what Essex is about. I wanted to support LGBTQ people. I want to support our kids. It's important to stand up against hate and intolerance and ignorance and fear. So I just think it's really important to stand up against hatred. We don't want it in Vermont. I was born in Vermont and I lived here all my life. I'm 70 years old and this is not the Vermont that I grew up in and it's not the Vermont that we want to see here. The hatred and the lies that are coming out are just not, it's not right. There's so much suffering in the world and we need to decide whether we want to relieve suffering or create more suffering. So I'm all for relieving sufferings. I think that we have to show support for our communities and there's too much hate and I think we need to take a stand and be more inclusive. Our trans fans are getting murdered. So I'm here first to support for this information about the LGBTQ community. I think that's unfortunate. Very close to our hearts. We're a family. We have two moms. We have many people we love who are in the LGBT community. In particular, the transgender members of our community are really struggling. There's a lot out there that he is not supporting our friends and our loved ones. We want them to know that we have their back. You know, trans people are not real and belong. You know, we're not perverted. My own school system when I sat down with HR and administration, you know, asked me what I was going to tell the children about my body and well for one thing it was funny sitting with with three other adults and having them thinking about my body because I really wasn't thinking about their bodies. And I just, I'm like, well, that doesn't really come out, does it? You know, in the course of the day. But then it does because as soon as a, you know, assist female teacher gets pregnant, you know, kids are coming and they're touching the body, their bodies, and they're talking about the babies growing inside their bodies. They talk about it. They, as soon as a cis teacher gets married, they talk about they're getting married. Here's a picture of my husband. Here's a picture of my wife. You know, it does get that intimate. And meanwhile, you know, the kids, all the stories are gendered. We talk about, you know, we teach kids how to be men and women, but we do it without acknowledging trans people or queer people. Or, you know, it's hard because they're not getting the education that they need. I know most grades they have two bathroom key, you know, passes, once for the boys and once for the girls. You know, so at the age of seven, you have to choose your gender based on, you know, where you're going to go to the bathroom or even if you can go to the bathroom and you have to pick up, you know, a key that has the wrong gender on it or even that there is no, there's no non-binary bathroom key. There's no non-binary bathrooms. It's tough. And it sets up this whole illusion that, you know, we are a world made up of just men and just women, just boys and just girls. And then we're somehow this anomalous minority, whereas there's this spectrum of gender. And not everybody fits into that perfect ideal. You know, we've seen a lot talk about toxic masculinity over the past years. We saw people boycott Gillette because Gillette, you know, actually took a stand on that. Um, oh, there's some, I'm sorry. Yeah, this is what, and people going by like this, this is going, people are going to have a meal time. I can't be bullied because it's normal. It's a natural thing that it's been of more people, like she made a sexual advance, like that, like that was reasoned like it was an excuse. Vermont doesn't have the transpanic defense anymore, but it's still, it's still, it's still not enough. You know, we've, we've done the damage by not teaching kids and now we have adults out there who are murdering us. If we don't start now, like today, like yesterday, and start teaching kids that trans people are nothing to be afraid of. For one thing, you know, 1% of the kids that we've been teaching are trans. You know, I work with trans kids. There's queer kids all over the school, but if we don't have that base established at a young age, and they're not going to get it at home, they're going to get it from a few kind parents out there, but they're mostly not going to get it at home. If they don't get it in our schools, then we're creating another generation of, of scared people who are going to end up killing us or denying us jobs. It's, it's hard. Everything's harder when you're traveling. Like every single thing. You don't know what to wear. You don't know who you belong with and you don't know. It shouldn't be, it shouldn't be that hard.