New Hampshire’s Stand Your Ground law essentially allows the murder of another person because if a person says they were ‘afraid for their life,’ that there is no duty to retreat and that it is okay to shoot someone. The shooter’s fears, whether based on a real, or even an imaginary threat, are given validation. So why, in the Republican attacks on LGBTQ students with their so called ‘parental rights bills,’ are the very real fears of a LGBTQ student to tell their parents about their choice of pronouns, or sexual orientation simply dismissed as if they aren’t valid?
If a student is afraid to tell their parents about their choice of gender pronouns, sexual orientation, or desire to transition there is likely a very real reason to be afraid. The parental rights bill defeated in the NH House and the similar version that has passed the Senate are not about ‘rights.’ They are about energizing a bigoted base at the expense of a marginalized and often brutalized population of students and a further way to demonize the teachers who would hold the confidences of those students.
Eric Weiner
Concord