'Shaken community to core'
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Open letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney
I am writing to you both as a mother and as the executive director of TransParent Okanagan, an organization that supports parents and caregivers of transgender, non-binary, and two-spirit children.
My husband is a school board trustee and I know all too well what it means to be targeted for standing by our children. Nothing can prepare a parent for the kind of cruelty your family has just endured.
Thank you for loving and supporting your child and for keeping them out of the public eye—not because their existence is anything to hide but because they are a person, not a spectacle and they deserve to live without being a political pawn.
I know you have spent many sleepless nights worrying about how to protect them in a world that too often treats trans and non-binary people as debate topics rather than human beings.
The forced outing of your child was not just an attack on your family, but on every family like yours and mine, every family quietly loving and supporting a trans or non-binary child and every father who is simply doing what a good dad does—loving their child, fiercely and without conditions.
Your family has become visible in a way you never intended. While you did not choose this moment, I hope you know you are not alone. Across this country there are parents who understand exactly what you are feeling right now—fierce protectiveness, fear for your child’s safety, anger at the callousness of those who would exploit them.
Tthere are many, many families who are hurting right now, as voices within the Conservative Party, and south of the border, use language that puts our children in harm’s way.
If there is any small comfort to be found in this moment, I hope it is this. When people see you, they see a father like any other, who loves his kids and wants them to be safe, happy and free to be themselves. When they see that, maybe they will recognize the attacks on your family are attacks on all families. Perhaps they will understand that supporting a trans child is not radical or controversial, it is simply what good parents do.
From one parent to another, I just want you to know that we see you. We understand. And we are standing with you.
Carrie Broughton
