During a visit to lobby legislators on transgender issues, Senator Carden Summers ® knelt down and told a child he would protect her. When he learned she was trans, he backed away.


On Feb. 6, a group of families met to lobby senators on issues affecting the local transgender community in Georgia. One mother, Lena Kotler, decided to take her two children with her to give the topic a human face. While waiting to meet with Democratic Sen. Kim Jackson, who they had heard was a big supporter of LGBTQ+ rights, another senator passed by — Republican Sen. Carden Summers, the primary sponsor of the state’s bathroom ban bill. Little did he know that one of the children he would be interacting with, Aleix, 8 years old, was a transgender child.

According to Kotler and other families who were present, the senator stopped to say hello. That’s when Kotler spoke to Senator Summers about how she was there with her kids to “talk to legislators about keeping her kids safe.” Although she did not mention that one of her children was trans, they were present with LGBTQ+ signage - something the Senator apparently missed when he knelt down in front of Aleix and said, according to Kotler, “Well you know, we’re working on that and I’m going to protect kids like you.”

Kotler then replied, “Yeah - Alex is trans, and she wants to be safe at school, she wants to go to the bathroom and be safe.”

That is when, according to multiple witnesses, Sen. Summers stood up and fumbled his words, repeating, “I mean, yeah, I’m going to make sure she’s safe by going to the right bathroom,” continuing to use the correct pronouns for Aleix. When asked if he would make her go to a boy’s bathroom, he then allegedly backed away, saying, “You’re attacking me,” turned around, and walked off quickly.

read more: https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/georgia-senator-vows-to-protect-girl?publication_id=994764&post_id=141716994

  • RamblingPanda@lemmynsfw.com
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    9 months ago

    he then allegedly backed away, saying, “You’re attacking me,” turned around, and walked off quickly.

    Oh no, better run to the bathroom to cry. Attacked by an eight year old, that poor soul.

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        9 months ago

        Exactly. “My opinion is different from your life experience, and by showing me that fact first hand, you have made me uncomfortable.”

        And as we all know, being uncomfortable because of another person is an attack. Irony of ironies, imagine how uncomfortable people must make that kid all the time, including this specific interaction.

    • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      And this is why we need a national safe storage laws.

      You really shouldn’t be storing guns in the bathroom!

      (/s. What a fucking coward.)

    • Mac@mander.xyz
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      He wasnt claiming to be attacked by the child but by the mother.

      Edit: It is an important distinction because it exemplifies that it is not the trans-nature of the child that he is claiming to be attacked by but by the mother pressing him to abide by his own claims of protecting children.

      • CeruleanRuin@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Who gives a shit what he meant, he’s a fucking coward and hypocrite. He made it clear that he never for a moment cared about “protecting children”.

        • Mac@mander.xyz
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          9 months ago

          Sorry I guess I’m the only one that cares about accuracy

            • Mac@mander.xyz
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              I’m not understanding what’s making you so upset here.

              It is an important distinction because it exemplifies that it is not the trans-nature of the child that he is claiming to be attacked by but by the mother pressing him to abide by his own claims of protecting children.

  • otp@sh.itjust.works
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    9 months ago

    When asked if he would make her go to a boy’s bathroom, he then allegedly backed away, saying, “You’re attacking me,” turned around, and walked off quickly.

    LMAO

    Is he a moron, or is that a strategy? Lol

    • CeruleanRuin@lemmy.world
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      He’s a coward, just like everyone else in his party. Afraid of a fucking child. His ancestors would be ashamed of him, and his descendants will disown him.

  • ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Brave Ser Summers ran away, Bravely ran away, away. When a child with questions to him was led, He bravely turned his tail and fled.

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    When asked if he would make her go to a boy’s bathroom, he then allegedly backed away, saying, “You’re attacking me,” turned around, and walked off quickly.

    I mean, maybe we should just yell that at conservatives?

    Maybe it takes something so blunt for them to get it as hearing “you’re attacking me”.

    And if it doesn’t, I’m pretty sure that’s all you need to say to use stand your ground laws in red states.

    • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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      It’s very easy to attack people like that, usually been within about 50 miles of them is enough. Everything you do is offensive to them including breathing. People that sensitive need to be in therapy.

    • WaxedWookie@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      In response to an 8 year old existing.

      Given his fragility, cowardice, lack of self-assurance and failure to defend himself - all feminine traits (to these ghouls anyway) are we sure the good senator isn’t trans himself? He’s certainly not the picture of brave, confident masculinity.

      DeSantis wears high heels - I’m pretty sure Trump does too (though smaller) - projection indeed.

  • Anamnesis@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Remember those pics of Goebbels, one before learning the photographer was Jewish, and one after?

  • Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    What a fucking snowflake.

    Literally a word causes him to throw away his cause. Going to bet this dude would absolutely abandon his own children. Party of family values my ass.

  • The Snark Urge@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    You’re attacking me, my ass. See how easily they project? It’s not even a thought they have, they just exhale bullshit

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    Kid: “I’m trans.”

    Senator Carden Summers: “What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you little bitch? I’ll have you know I graduated top of my class in the Navy Seals, and I’ve been involved in numerous secret raids on Al-Quaeda, and I have over 300 confirmed kills. I am trained in gorilla warfare and I’m the top sniper in the entire US armed forces. You are nothing to me but just another target. I will wipe you the fuck out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying that shit to me over the Internet? Think again, fucker. As we speak I am contacting my secret network of spies across the USA and your IP is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, maggot. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. You’re fucking dead, kid. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can kill you in over seven hundred ways, and that’s just with my bare hands. Not only am I extensively trained in unarmed combat, but I have access to the entire arsenal of the United States Marine Corps and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the continent, you little shit. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little “clever” comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your fucking tongue. But you couldn’t, you didn’t, and now you’re paying the price, you goddamn idiot. I will shit fury all over you and you will drown in it. You’re fucking dead, kiddo.”

  • moosetwin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    9 months ago

    Imagine having to be that kid, someone saying they’ll protect you and then accusing you of attacking them for part of yourself that you have no control over

      • Schmoo@slrpnk.net
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        They were there waiting to meet a Democratic supporter of LGBTQ+ rights, and did not seem to be seeking confrontation. Even the way the mother spoke to the Republican senator was about as non-confrontational as you could get, so I don’t see any evidence the mother is putting the kid in any situation she can’t handle. I’m sure the kid is glad to show up in support of her rights, and very much doubt she will regret doing so later.

        Save your cynicism for when it’s appropriate.

        • dlpkl@lemmy.world
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          The article states that they went to the legislative building to lobby politicians. While they were waiting to meet a democratic senator, this interaction took place. It doesn’t say anywhere in the article that they went with the express intent to only interact with said democrat. But whether you’re meeting allies or opponents, it’s the same shit. You’re using children as tools.

          • stoned_ape@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            If those children are representative of the oppressed group, shouldn’t they also have a voice and a face?

            Emmet Till’s mother was just using his death as a tool by your logic.

      • Godwins_Law@lemmy.ca
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        Fair criticism, but ultimately this needs to be fought. The simple hypocrisy that was shown just by the child’s presence needs to be highlighted.

        • DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
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          It isn’t, and everyone that read the beginning of the article knows they were there to meet someone else.

          The goose-stepping goon made a completely unforced error to try and turn them into props.

          • VaultBoyNewVegas@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            Then fucking comes back with more bs. I wish these twats would actually just say the quiet part out loud instead of pussyfooting around trying and failing to be clever with their agenda pushing.

      • MojoMcJojo@lemmy.world
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        I agree with you that they are not interchangeable. A large swath of Christians are appalled by fascism.

        But, they have historically used each other for their own means, and that can be difficult to ignore. I think once again people are seeing the two get back together, and we all know how that relationship turns out.

      • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

        The Bible is very clear. Christianity is fundamentally anti-LGBT. Stop following it if you want to be a good person.

        • CobblerScholar@lemmy.world
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          I’m not going to argue the point that homosexuality and at least the modern interpretation of the Christian faith are adversarial at best but the Bible is anything but clear on anything let alone LGBTQ. You quoted one of dozens of different English translations let alone any other language. Hell in one of the most popular translations, the King James Bible, the man had the word “tyrant” removed from it so the peasants wouldn’t get ideas

          • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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            Completely disagree. The Bible is clear on almost nothing except the LGBT. All the games of translations won’t change the repeated commandments of the OT against the LGBT, the endorsement of the rules of Moses by Jesus, the repeated and clear statements by Paul, the +20 centuries of understanding of the meaning of those OT passages, or how Christianity has traditionally understood them.

            Yeah I quoted KJV. So what? Here is as many translations as you want

            https://biblehub.com/romans/1-26.htm

            Stop apologizing for the text, you know what it says. You know why Sodom was destroyed, you know why Jonathan’s “friend” was described as such, you know what Elijiah said about the destruction of Sodom, you know what Leviticus says twice about consensual LGBT relationships, you know what Deuteronomy says about the trans and what Leviticus says, you know what Paul said twice, you know what famous commentary writers like Philo said, and you know that Jesus consistently supported the sexual norms of his culture and argued they didn’t go far enough.

            I did the same thing you did when I was finding my way out of religion. “It wasn’t really slavery”, “it wasn’t really genocide”, “it wasn’t really anti-gay”,… I didn’t want to believe what was right on the page. The Abrahamic religions have been clear and are still clear to this day about what their texts say. They are irredeemably hateful.

            • CobblerScholar@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              You misunderstand. I think the Bible in any form we can understand it in today is utterly meaningless and is impossible to apply practically to any situation regardless of context. It can’t be used by bigots to justify their hatred of any given minority and it can’t be used to globally define the Christian ethos.

              • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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                9 months ago

                But it is used. This is not on me. They are the ones dragging this book into our time. All I am doing is pointing out what the book actually says.

                Sure you can make the argument that the Bible is a product of Christianity and not a blueprint for it. Hence the text does not have to be followed and you can still be a Christian. Now who is making that argument? I certainly have never heard anyone who identified as a Christian make it. The very closest are the Catholics who at least are willing to admit the text isn’t perfect which is really not in the same ballpark.

                Live by the sword die by the sword right? Ok well they have made their religion about their book. I didn’t tell them to do that, they choose that. So turns out the book is shit. What does that make their religion?

          • cheese_greater@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            What is the field or area of inquiry that focuses on in inconsistencies like that? What is him removing the word tyrant reprrsentative of in terms of a field that exists to root out that kinda bullshit?

            Like biblical scholasticism or like what focuses on examining the original language primary text and comparing the authenticity/integrity of the translated comparison target?

            • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              Textual analysis is the blanket term. There isn’t really primary text, there are a bunch of slightly different ones that get combined together. What’s more the process seems to have started way in the beginning. The first gospel shows signs of being multiple texts/traditions that were combined.

            • David_Eight@lemmy.world
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              I don’t think the Bible was even written down or at least there aren’t any surviving copies from that time. This seems to be the oldest copy of the Bible, it’s in Greek and from the fourth century. So it’s already been translated and it’s from at least 300 years after Jesus died. So we’ll never really know what “the original Bible” said.

          • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            Well I don’t see that but it really doesn’t matter. “and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.”

            Paul wasn’t a top thinker. Even when it seems to occur to him that if God is the architect of all things no one can be punished for doing the wrong thing he just invokes the devilish forces (that God allows to operate) to step in. His conception of free will and judgement are not complicated they just aren’t thought out very well.

          • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            Given that he never existed I am positive of that. At most he could only “know” me in the sense the Easter Bunny could. You know, not at all.

            Now instead of talking about me why don’t you address what I said? Might be more fruitful

            • tehlaughing1@lemmy.world
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              I think I responded to the wrong poster. I meant to say that to the person saying (falsely) that the Bible condemns queerness.

              Have they never heard of David and Johnathan? Does Jesus taking twelve men and washing their feet mean nothing? Was John not the Beloved disciple?

              I am a queer Catholic, and it deeply angers me when people believe that the two are mutually exclusive. The current wave of LGBT hatred (in the USA, at least) started with the Evangelical church in the 1940’s. It is not some ancient and infallible dogma.

              Forgive me for causing you anger, I spoke only to gently admonish and correct the sinner.

              • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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                The Bible does condemn being LGBT.

                Have they never heard of David and Johnathan?

                Sure and why doesn’t the Bible say explicitly what their relationship was?

                Does Jesus taking twelve men and washing their feet mean nothing?

                Means nothing. Clearly a call back to the references in the OT of the same act.

                Was John not the Beloved disciple?

                And?

                The current wave of LGBT hatred (in the USA, at least) started with the Evangelical church in the 1940’s. It is not some ancient and infallible dogma.

                The Catholic Church had literal torture devices specifically for male homosexuals.

                I think if you scroll up you will see a decent breakdown of all the references to homosexuality in the Bible, but if you want you can just look at what Paul said twice.

                Forgive me for causing you anger, I spoke only to gently admonish and correct the sinner.

                No worries. Save you some time I have been an open atheist since 2018.

                • tehlaughing1@lemmy.world
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                  9 months ago

                  Hatred begets hatred.

                  I spoke to inform both the believer and the non-believer.

                  There are Christians in this world who have taken Christ’s words to heart and strive to live in His image daily. This way of living inevitably leads to compassion.

                  There is the Church of Peter, and the Church of John.

                  The Church of Peter is the Earthly institution that instructs the faithful and leads to a life filled with Love.

                  The Church of John is the Church of the Beloved disciple who put his head on Christ’s chest and listened to the heartbeat of the One who Created Love.

                  These two Churches are present in all people, at all times, throughout history. They shall never fail, as long as there is suffering in the world. This is why the faithful call them eternal.

                  When these two Churches are in harmony in the soul of the individual, and in the soul of the World, there is harmony. When they are in disharmony in the soul of the individual and the soul of the world, there is chaos.

                  Christ has Illuminated the soul of this individual, and there is only harmony.

                  This harmony is available to all, whether Jew or Greek, male or female, believer or non-believer.

                  Forgive me for being unclear in my communication, and I pray your soul knows this peace.

        • The_Lopen@sh.itjust.works
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          Ah yes, I’m sure Kim Jong Un attends his local Baptist Church every Sunday like a good fascist.

  • Zirconium@lemmy.world
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    Sounds like two neurons in his brain actually met for once and he felt empathy for someone he knew he was too young to understand why she’s getting fucked over by her government.

    • Deceptichum@kbin.social
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      It doesn’t sound like that at all, at any point in the story?

      Sounds like he he thought he could score a quick lil’ political win with the group of families, before realising she was the target his hate, and expressing his bigotry to the child before fucking off.

      • Zirconium@lemmy.world
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        Well I meant to say but forgot. That the empathy he felt turned into confusion and then anger and then he rubber banded back to his bigotry where he feels safe

    • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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      I disagree. He saw the danger of him standing there when someone could take a pic. That is why he bravely screamed out at the 8 year old girl to stop attacking him.

    • CeruleanRuin@lemmy.world
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      He felt empathy for the first time, and it was an unfamiliar sensation that he recoiled from in his cowardice.

    • jj4211@lemmy.world
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      Nah, it wasn’t empathy, it was a photo-op. He could be seen “caring” about the plight of kids who feel unsafe in school (his assumption was almost certainly school shooting). So he was there to vaguely promise to make schools safer, presumably by having fewer doors, since that is what causes school shootings evidently.

  • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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    Thats the thing about these people. I have a trans coworker and they wont dare use the wrong pronoun for her while it can reach HR’s ears. Go ahead, say what you want to say don’t hide it now. They hide behind legislation and screens.

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    Aleix is trans, but Summers is a pussy…does that mean that he’s transitioning, as well?

    • Mycatiskai@lemmy.ca
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      He is no pussy, they take a pounding while providing pleasure to all involved.

      Summers is a scrotum, thin skinned, can’t take even a light strike without assuming an attack, and he shriveled away when he realized the temperature was a bit cold to him.