She wanted to help her community. Then they took aim at her child

[Jilly_in_VA]

Kelsey and Chris Waits moved to Hastings, Minnesota, to build a dream home for themselves and their two children.

Chris had a promising job opportunity when he left the Navy but it was the neighborhood that drew them in.
"Kelsey said, 'Well, I hope the interview went well because we're moving here. This town is great, this town is perfect, this is what I want,'" Chris recalled his wife telling him.
The city of about 22,000 people is close enough to Minneapolis to be a distant suburb but just far enough away to be surrounded by green Midwest farmland. The historic downtown is in great shape, with a spiffy park along the Mississippi.  All around are nice houses, nice cars, nice shopping.
But when the pandemic put pressure on the community, cracks began to appear. Stressed by school closures and debate over wearing masks, some neighbors started taking aim at the school board.

Kelsey Waits was the face and voice of that school board as its chair. The ugliness that followed in Kelsey's unsuccessful race to be re-elected to the board now has the Waits packing up their dream home to move -- and their love for Hastings likely tainted forever.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/28/us/minnesota-school-board-transgender-hate/index.html

[Solly Mack]

1. "My mom says that we won so now we can deal with sickos like you."

And there it is. How they think.

[leftieNanner]

2. Incredible article

Thank you for sharing.

Kit is a lucky child. Their parents love them for who they are.

That community is vile.

[vercetti2021]

3. So fucking sad

Shes a child and these sick fucking parents are not people. They are immoral trash teaching that shit to their kids. Remember hate is taught. Especially from backward thinking people. Leave the child out of your twisted sickness fascist views.

[DENVERPOPS]

5. I think

of all the families that are trapped in similar situations who can't afford to uproot and move to somewhere "Blue"

[WhiskeyGrinder]

8. Hastings is in a "blue" area. People are assholes everywhere, even in "blue" areas.

[electric_blue68]

9. Some people are assholes everywhere..

[Nanuke]

4. Oh no.

For 2 years I taught high school English and lived in Hastings. I was age 22-24 (1981-83). It was a lovely town with colleagues I respected and admired as progressive. For me, it was a breath of fresh air after having taught for one year in a book-banning, Moral Majority minded community in a town an hour north of the Twin Cities. How sad.

[70sEraVet]

6. My grandson is a trans kid ( now 20 years old).

I remember 5 years ago when he first announced that he was a boy. It wasn't just HIS transition - it was a transition for all of us. I was determined to be supportive.
I took him to Home Depot with me, just to spend a little time with him. I ran into one of the sales clerks I knew, and introduced him as "my grandson". I felt a little awkward.
I'll never forget the soul-clinging hug I got as soon as the sales clerk walked away; it was the hug from someone who had been desperately hoping to be accepted for who he was.

(But I haven't adjusted to using a plural pronoun for a singular person)

[nocoincidences]

7. That family needs to get as far away from that

"perfect community" as they can get.

Re-think your definition of perfect community!

[Jilly_in_VA]

10. This is what happens

anywhere you have a preponderance of RepubliQans, I fear.

A person I know just came out as trans. After 40+ years. I cannot imagine how hard it has been for them. I have known them almost their entire life because we went to the same church in Tennessee and my kids grew up with them. Their grandmother, a person much beloved in the church and the community, has just died, and it appears they waited until her death to tell the church. There are people in the church who are very accepting.There are others who are not, I'm sure. The rest of the community, well, that's another story. The city next door is where they will have to go for acceptance. Not sure even how their own father feels about it.

[Girard442]

11. Ms.Waits sounds like the kind of person I'd like to see on a school board.

Not the brown-shirters that are gonna be.

Hang in there, Kit. Be who you are. Things will get better.