Letter: A hateful message on Father's Day

By Aaron Poe

Update: 40 a few moments ago Published: 40 a few moments ago

My family traveled to Homer for Father’s Day weekend, and on the way home Sunday evening they stopped at Soldotna Fred Meyer, which has been our takeout place for over 20 years, before we had children. I went to the grocery store with our teenagers and their friend who had joined us for the weekend while my wife went back to the car to get something from the cooler. She found the word “groomer” spelled out in the dirt on our tailgate. She wiped it off before we all got back and didn’t share it with me until we got home. She knew I would have been really angry, and that’s no way to drive the Sterling and Seward highways on a busy summer Sunday.

We have a trans daughter, and over the past two years our lives have been more difficult – not because of the wonderful person she has become, but because of the way Alaska has changed around us . We have a small 3 x 5 inch pride flag bumper sticker – is that what attracted the insult? Or was it someone creepily watching my family as we left our car, passing judgment on us and our children and deciding we needed this warning?

When we moved to Alaska 25 years ago, we felt like it was a place where people respected everyone’s privacy and minded their own business except when someone needed help. a hand. Unfortunately, our state’s leaders have decided that being openly anti-trans is their new brand and rallying banner.

A day later, am I angry? Hell, yes I am – but not against anyone in the Fred Meyer parking lot. I am angry at the toxic leaders in our state who are trying to score political points by bullying vulnerable children and dividing our communities.

-Aaron Poe

Anchoring

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