My family drove to Homer for Father’s Day weekend and on the way home Sunday evening stopped at the Soldotna Fred Meyer, which has been our grab-and-go meal spot for 20-plus years — since before we had kids. I hit the deli with our teens and their friend who had joined us for the weekend while my wife returned to the car for something from the cooler. She found the word “groomer” spelled out in the dust on our liftgate. She wiped it away before the rest of us returned and didn’t share this with me until we returned home. She knew I would have been really mad, and that’s no way to drive the Sterling and Seward highways on a busy summer Sunday.
We have a trans daughter and, in the past two years, our lives have been harder — not because of the wonderful person she has become but because of how Alaska has changed around us. We have a small 3x5-inch Pride flag bumper sticker — was that what drew the slur? Or was it someone creepily watching my family as we left our car, making judgments about us and our kids and deciding we needed this warning?
When we moved to Alaska 25 years ago, it felt like a place where people respected each other’s privacy and minded their own business except when someone needed a hand. Sadly, the leadership of our state has decided that being blatantly anti-trans is their new brand and rallying banner.
A day later, am I mad? Hell yes I am — but not at whomever it was in the Fred Meyer parking lot. I’m mad at the toxic leaders of our state who are trying to score political points by bullying vulnerable kids and dividing our communities.
— Aaron Poe
Anchorage
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