Open letter from parents of trans and gender expansive kids: KOSA would make our kids less safe.

I am parenting a 13 year old trans boy. Like many parents, I am deeply concerned about the harmful impacts of social media on children, and I want to see more regulatory and legal action to hold big tech companies accountable for their actions. But I also know that KOSA is not the solution. It will do more harm by allowing bigoted, transphobic, and anti-LGBTQIA+ elected officials to censor social media. Please oppose KOSA. Thank you.

We can do better than KOSA. Listen to our marginalized populations and those advocating on their behalf.

The trans and gender expansive kids I know need access to online community for their mental and emotional health.

Protect our kids & grandkids!!

Grandparent of a trans kid

I wholeheartedly concur with this letter. Indiana's legislative assault on my family's rights have been extremely stressful and harmful, helping to incite hateful personal attacks. My kids feel isolated here and their closest friends live elsewhere. They talk, laugh, and play together via the internet. Considering how far-reaching Indiana's anti-trans legislation already is, I fear KOSA would create an even more slippery slope. It is clear many legislators have personal anti-LGBTQ agendas that border on violating the separation of church and state. KOSA would create the internet version of the Hamilton East Public Library book banning fiasco in which individuals' personal agendas censor only certain groups of people. I love my kids more than anything and have a strong, open relationship with both. We have every right to decide what is best for us. Parents' rights must extend to all parents, not just the ones with similar mindsets as certain people in power.

This will be used to silence queer voices, especially trans voices. It will be used to isolate a marginalized population, it will be used to make queer kids who feel alone feel even more alone. This legislation will increase queer suicide rates. It will also enable right wing prosecutors to target accepting families of queer kids.

Please remember that all kids deserve the protection of the state. Laws that increase self loathing and suicide are wrong.

I urge you to find an alternative to KOSA. I know in Massachusetts our kids are fairly safe, but I want children everywhere to feel that way.

Trans kids are vulnerable and MUST be protected. Lives are at stake.

Trans children have enough challenges. Please do not give them yet another.

This is not just about our children. This bill empowers state attorneys general to regulate the Internet nationwide. This bill will be used to censor and persecute anyone that does not fit the ideals of white Christian cisgender heterosexual men.

My own child and I learned about my insurance policy covering gender affirming surgery online. I learned a great deal about hormones and health, future ramifications, etc from a plethora of online resources. Please don’t pass this law.

As a trans person myself, I feel this bill will cause serious harm to me, my lover, my friends, and my worldwide trans family.

Trans kids deserve a right to know and learn about themselves without government interference. Monitoring kids online activity is a parental responsibility, not a legislative one.

All children trans or not could be harmed by this legislation as they grow up and try to learn about sexuality and gender.

Stop legislating human bodies.

As a former trans kid myself once upon a time I can authoritatively state that if I had been unable to find information online about transitioning and trans identities and other related content back when I was a kid growing up in an oppressive and abusive anti-trans environment, I would not be alive now to have become a trans adult. Don't steal hope from children who desperately need it.

I do not have a trans child but I cant imagine them going through the negative effects of this bill and this bill will also impact others especially persons of color, women and the youth. This bill is unconstitutional and goes against the values of the United States of America.

Don’t enable haters even more.

This is harmful legislation on many levels and goes against everything that the mantras of small government and parents rights stands for. I want information to be accessible and not criminal. Children will find it regardless. Information doesn’t make children trans or gay. It gives them a language to articulate it. I was one of those kids. I got into a bad marriage that ended in divorce because I didn’t have the language to understand myself as I do now. You want to help suicide? Allow people resources not despair. Fight bullying. Better yet stop being the bullies. This is itself government bullying. It is despicable.

Do not fall for this attempt by those who embrace fascist rule in the name of their religion and seek to harm the most vulnerable children.

Trans people are people.

Trans rights are human rights. Stop demonizing people who want to live their lives as themselves. They're not endangering children by being trans - In fact, many children are saved when they learn they are not alone. Many of my friends are trans, and my life has been made so much fuller with them in it.

Parent of a trans young adult. Finding other trans youth and information about trans health and different trans identities and experiences was a lifeline for my kid when they were coming out and educating me and their mom about what they needed to survive and be who they are. And this was in MA where there is robust access to trans healthcare. For all those kids in states where their identities and healthcare are being criminalized, it is exponentially that much more important to block this legislation and protect their RIGHTS of privacy and access to community and information. PROTECT TRANS KID. TRANS RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS.

LGBTQ+ resources may be considered "unsafe" by some, but they are shown to be lifelines for kids who are trying to figure out what's going on, often long before they're willing to share with even close parents. Being LGBTQ is not a moral issue, it isn't really even a choice. It's something you just are, like being right or left handed (or ambidextrous).

KOSA is not a way to protect children! The internet shall not be subject to suppression…

Trans youth are so brave. Please do not further isolate them.

KOSA will be used by conservatives to target transgender people, the bill must be stopped.

This bill is designed to give a hateful religious minority control over the internet which belongs to everyone, from all walks of life. It is fascism under a thin veil of protecting children, which this bill will not do in any meaningful way. It will endanger trans people and allow discrimination against them to occur.

“Protecting children” has long been cover for censoring LGBTQIA+ voices and reducing access to information, education, and connectivity. It’s not protecting, it’s controlling and easily used abusively. Protect already-marginalized young people’s access to accurate, caring and accessible information, education, and to community.

My kid just finished reading Fahrenheit 451 and what really struck him was the spiral downwards of blocking content that others disagreed with. He faces toxic messages every day, justified under the freedom of religion. My job as a parent is to help him build resilience to face an unjust world. Please don't think you're helping me by blocking him from worlds where he feels affirmed.

As someone strongly opposed to child exploitation, KOSA is NOT the way to help. Do not use my kid as an excuse to silence people.

Trans rights are human rights. Let our kids be their true selves by allowing them access to the information that affirms their gender identity and validates their existence for them to believe their life is worth living.

Some more nuanced legislation is needed to protect kids from the problematic nature of corporate social media while preserving trans and gender expansive kids access to community and informational resources. KOSA is the wrong response. Do not support it.

Media related to trans identies, trans lives, and trans experiences are already restricted on the internet in various forms. As a trans person, KOSA would mean that all of the things I find joy and comfort in would be irreparably removed.