My brother’s proposed law in Jeff City targeting teachers and trans kids is about hate | Opinion

My knowledge and understanding of civics, history, our government, how to spell or even how to assemble these words I’m writing into a conscious thought is all courtesy of a teacher. Earlier this month, my brother, Missouri state Rep. Jamie Gragg, introduced House Bill 2885 aimed at criminalizing teachers by making them register as sex offenders for using a student’s correct pronouns.

It frightens and angers me to think that with a stroke of a pen, this bill could end careers and destroy countless lives. It is blatant hatred wrapped up in the guise of protecting children.

Teachers aren’t grooming your kids. They aren’t indoctrinating your kids. They are teaching your kids.

They aren’t doing it for the money or the fame, and they certainly aren’t doing it for the respect and accolades. You can’t possibly think anyone can make your child gay, transgender or anything other than who they are. To believe that, you would also have to believe there exists a person, influence or circumstance that could radically change your own sexual orientation or gender identity should you yourself be exposed to them. Seems unlikely, doesn’t it?

Teachers teach because they care about your kids, just like you do. They want them to be the best version of themselves possible. They are proud of them; they care about them; they encourage them; they worry about them and they miss them when they’re gone. The kids know this, too.

I believe you have the right to believe in any God you wish, call him whatever you wish, and conduct your life in any way you think that God wants you to. Even if I don’t believe in such a being, call him another name or choose to believe that being has a different plan for me than you think. I also have the right to believe no such being exists and we are just supposed to figure out how to get along with one another ourselves.

I’ve lived nearly 60 years on this planet and boy, have I wasted a lot of it. I’ve made mistakes and bad choices, but I’ve figured out that being wrong or not completely right, and winning the argument aren’t as important as enjoying the next five minutes. My brother is wrong. I believe you have the right to be whoever you want to be, think of yourself however you like, identify yourself as whoever you please. Whether I agree with it or not, accept it or reject it, encourage or discourage it, or recognize it or ignore it, I believe all of these things are your right, my right and everybody else’s right.

You are entitled to your opinions and your beliefs, even if I don’t agree or share them. I believe this with such conviction that I volunteered to defend those rights — mine, yours, and all the people in this country I’ve never met — as a member of the armed forces. However, If you want to hate someone, then just do it. Own it. Don’t create some rationale to justify your hate under the guise of religion or protecting children. You simply just want to protect your ability to hate somebody.

I made a commitment to defend our collective rights against those who wish to see them taken away, even at the risk of peril of my own life, and that’s what I’m doing today with this column. I’m a proud veteran and I’ll continue to defend against people who want to remove those rights, even if those individuals are members of my government — or my own family.

Charles Gragg Jr. is an Army veteran and the older brother of Missouri state Rep. Jamie Gragg.