Dear Prime Minister-designate Trudeau,
My name is Amanda. I'm a writer and mother
from the suburbs of Ottawa who hopes you can take five minutes from your busy
schedule to hear her out.
I want to introduce you to my amazing
daughter, Alexis.
At nearly 13 years old, Alexis is a pretty
typical teenager. She's in grade 8, has some good friends, plays drums in the
school band, loves Minecraft and can roll her eyes at her mother like it's
nobody's business. (Trust me.)
She's the middle child of our family,
sandwiched between two "very annoying" brothers named Aerik and
Jackson. Despite some of us driving
her crazy, we all love her dearly.
Alexis
is transgender. She came out to us nearly 2 years
ago, at 11 years old. Since then, she has become a powerful advocate for trans
rights, marching, celebrating, protesting and speaking out in the name of
raising awareness.
Coming out as trans at such a young age and
living her truth makes her the bravest human being I know. Unfortunately, it
also means her chances of being discriminated against, assaulted and murdered
are now astronomically high.
And
we still don't have federal laws in place to protect her.
I know you realize this. You made
transgender rights a part of your platform. It's a big reason why I voted for
you.
Alexis knows this, too. She cheered from the sidelines as you marched
in the Toronto Pride parade last summer. She listened to the reasons behind my
decision to vote for your party. She stayed up late and watched the election
results with excitement, then went to sleep, feeling hopeful that our new
leader has her back.
Alexis believes in you, so I need you to
believe in her. I need your party to
draft a new transgender rights bill as soon as possible so it can be passed during
your time in office.
As it stands, my only daughter does not
have the same basic human rights you and I do.
As it stands, if someone were to threaten, attack
or murder her because she's trans, it would not be considered a hate crime. This
needs to change. Yesterday.
Raising a transgender child is one of the
most rewarding things I have ever done. It's also one of the most terrifying.
Knowing there are people who would
purposely hurt my daughter? Terrifying.
Fighting so openly for her rights? Terrifying.
Urging the new leader of our country to
keep his promises to her community? Way
out of my comfort zone, Mr. Trudeau.
But I hold myself accountable to promises,
too. And I promised Alexis that I would do whatever needs to be done to make
the world safer for her.
So here we are, Canadian to Canadian,
parent to parent. I know you would do anything for your children, as I will do
anything for mine.
So please, help me keep my promise to
Alexis.
Let's
protect my child together.