She lost her trans son to suicide. Can a Kentucky lawmaker make her colleagues care?

[Nevilledog]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/03/25/transgender-suicide-karen-berg-henry-brousseau-kentucky/

No paywall
https://archive.is/VnSaF


LOUISVILLE — She wanted to hear Henry’s voice again. So she went to her son’s room on an overcast February day and started digging through the boxes he left behind, looking for something he’d written to give her guidance.

Henry Berg-Brousseau always knew what to say.

Eight years had passed since he’d told Kentucky lawmakers how it felt, at 16, to be the only transgender student at his high school. Eight weeks had passed since he’d killed himself, at 24, at his Northern Virginia apartment.

It was Henry who’d inspired his mother, Karen Berg, to run for Kentucky’s state Senate, helping her win a seat in an overwhelmingly Republican legislature now contemplating a pile of anti-trans bills.

All morning long, the doctor turned Democratic lawmaker had been pacing around her Louisville house, trying to figure out what she could say to stop them.

“Don’t shake. Don’t cry. Don’t let your voice waver,” Karen, 61, muttered to herself as she did the laundry. “Short and sweet is better.”

*snip*

They won't care. They're monsters.

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[brer cat]

2. K&R

[LostOne4Ever]

3. So much cruelty

I will never forgive conservatives for what they have done to this country. I will never forget this Hatred. This evil.

This is not who the American people are. This is not what they want. This is not normal.

This is the start of a genocide…

[Ms. Toad]

4. Very hard read, but necessary.

I encourage everyone to read this piece.

[LostOne4Ever]

6. I won't let this sink just yet!!!

This need to stay up!

[LostOne4Ever]

7. K&R

[crickets]

8. Very tough to read, but I am glad I read it.

Kudos the Karen Bergs of the world, and to all of the Henrys and Fischers as well. It just makes me want to give all of the people struggling through these hateful times a big hug. There's no excuse for putting people, especially children, through all this pain.

Activist's sign: "It was never about a bathroom just as it was never about a water fountain."

[Hermit-The-Prog]

10. Bathroom and water fountain -- excuses for unjust control

[Hekate]

9. Kick and Rec

[area51]

11. k&r n/t