IDEAS
Amber Briggle is a small business owner, writer and public speaker in the Dallas area. She lives with her husband and two children, one of whom is transgender.

In 2016 the Attorney General of Texas came to my home for dinner.

It was an unlikely gathering: I’m the mother of a transgender child and Attorney General Ken Paxton is one of the biggest threats to my child’s future. My son, Max, was in 3rd grade when a reporter asked me how I felt about a federal judge’s decision to temporarily block federal guidelines meant to protect trans students in school. It was a case that Paxton himself led alongside attorneys general from 12 other states, and thinking about how a powerful man like that could target vulnerable trans kids like Max left me with a lot of feelings — hurt, anxiety and rage, among them. But rather than lash out, I offered an olive branch: come meet my family.

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