We are grandparents of a 15-year-old trans grandson. He lives in New Hampshire, a state which has four bills in the legislature targeting trans children. In fact, more than 400 such bills have been introduced in all but five states.

This has not been an easy transition for our family, especially for his parents, who suffered a lot of angst in deciding how best to support him. They did a lot of research and conferred with therapists and medical professionals who specialize in this care before deciding gender-affirming health care was in his best interest. Our family’s primary concern is for his safety and the discrimination he is likely to face in the future.

We are sharing our story to raise awareness about this issue and the importance of compassionate care for families with trans kids. Clearly this is a difficult situation for families to grapple with, but parents should be free to make the health care decisions they feel are best for their children without government interference. These kids need our support, acceptance of who they are; they need to be made to feel they matter and not marginalized.

We urge support of L.D. 1040 in the Maine legislature to protect access to gender-affirming care in Maine. Our thanks to Maine legislators and Gov. Mills for taking action to protect vulnerable Maine families from discrimination.

Jan Chapman and Bruce Moore
Cape Elizabeth