Brandon Boulware, an attorney and father of four, spoke out at a March 3 hearing on House Joint Resolution 53, a proposal that effectively bans transgender athletes in high school from participating in girls’ sports. In his influential speech, he recalled the day he learned to accept his transgender daughter as her authentic self.

He started by saying, “I forced my daughter to wear boy clothes, get short haircuts and play on boy sports teams. Why did I do this? To protect my child… and, truth be told, I did it to protect myself as well. I wanted to avoid those inevitable questions as to why my child did not look and act like a boy.”

However, his mindset began to change when his transgender daughter asked if she would be permitted to play with her neighbourhood friends if she changed into boys’ clothes first.

My daughter was equating being good with being someone else. I was teaching her to deny who she is. On that day, my wife and I stopped silencing our child’s spirit.

-Brandon Boulware

Brandon urged Missouri lawmakers to decline House Joint Resolution 53, as it will have real effects on real people.

Brandon was one of many Missouri residents who spoke out against the proposal at the March 3 hearing. His speech, however, has reached masses after footage of the speech was shared on the social media handles by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). By the next day, the clip received more than 240,000 likes on their Instagram and had been retweeted more than 6,000 times.

Missouri is one of the 20+ US states that is proposing restrictions on athletics or gender-confirmation healthcare for transgender minors. Last week, Mississippi became the initial state to enact such legislation after a federal court blocked an Idaho law last year. South Dakota is extensively expected to follow suit.

Such payments proceed to be promoted by conservative lawmakers, a lot of whom have cited President Joe Biden’s Jan 20 executive order that prohibited discrimination mostly based on gender is at sports activities in school and elsewhere of their arguments for backing such legal guidelines. 

Former President of The United States, Donald Trump, touched on the difficulty throughout his Feb 28 appearance in Orlando during the Conservative Political Action Conference. 

Trump quoted, “Joe Biden and the Democrats are even pushing policies that would destroy women’s sports. Young girls and women are incensed that they are now being forced to compete against those who are biological males.”

We definately need more fathers like Brandon Boulware!