Georgia Senator Vows to Protect Girl, But Then Runs Away After Learning She Is Trans

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

Lena and Aleix speaking to Senator Summers, before he realized he was speaking to a transgender child.

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 - Aleix 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.

The exchange was a unique encapsulation of why anti-trans bills that ban transgender people from public spaces that match their gender identity have proven ineffectual in the past. In numerous hearings over bathroom bans, transgender people often point out that cisgender individuals cannot always tell who is and is not trans. Enforcement of anti-trans policies like Sen. Summer's bill, which would ban transgender youth from bathrooms of their gender identity, will inevitably catch cisgender people who are gender nonconforming in the same net. Worse, it would force transgender kids into the wrong bathroom — kids who even the senator who wrote the bill innately realized he needed to protect from bathroom harassment before learning the child was trans.

Sen. Summer's bill, Senate Bill 438, is just one of several bills targeting transgender people this year in Georgia. Another bill, Senate Bill 88, which would enact policies to out transgender youth to their parents, was recently passed through committee while senators only allowed people who supported the bill to speak. Other bills include one that would ban drag, a book ban, and a bill that would end all legal recognition of transgender people in the state.

Kotler did eventually meet with Sen. Kim Jackson and Sen. Jason Esteves, whom she says are stalwart supporters of LGBTQ+ rights in the state. There, she said, she shook their hands and told stories of what her child was experiencing with her local school district. When asked why the conversation was important, she stated, "The senators are fighting an uphill battle, but my kids at least got to be told that they matter, and that they should be able to live their identities openly and safely."

It is unknown if their presence made an impact on Sen. Summers or other senators they spoke to. However, Sen. Summers' bill, SB 438, has yet to be scheduled for a hearing.

As for Kotler, she says she's not planning on going anywhere, and her kids agree. According to Aleix, who Kotler says comes from a long line of people willing to fight for what they believe in, "leaving lets them win."