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Given todays long overdue focus on systemic racism and the raging culture wars that awareness has engendered its reasonable to wonder what the future will be (and should be) for storied but politically offensive movies like Gone With the Wind, The Searchers, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and The Jazz Singer.

These are just a handful among the hundreds maybe thousands of old Hollywood films with scenes, themes and language ranging from highly objectionable to abhorrent. The romanticization of slavery in Gone With the Wind, one of historys most successful and beloved movies, is truly shocking when watched today but so is the less familiar image of Al Jolson falling to his knees in blackface in The Jazz Singer and the insidiously cheerful musical sexism of 1954s Seven Brides.

For years the battle over such films has been between those who want these sorts of bigoted movies retired and deplatformed, and those who dismiss such ideas as cancel culture and prefer the world to go on as it always has.

Sometimes it feels like middle ground is hard to find between these warring factions. But I was cheered recently to see that Turner Classic Movies had chosen a thoughtful third way for dealing with what it called problematic or troubling old movies in a series called Reframed, which began March 4 and has its final episode Thursday.

Rather than burying racist, sexist, homophobic or otherwise offensive films in some basement vault and pretending they never were made, TCM instead picked 18 movies including the ones above and aired them over a four-week period. In the featured films, men abduct women, Asians are mimicked, Native Americans are dehumanized and slaughtered, African Americans are ridiculed and demonized (not to mention bought and sold).

But instead of presenting them without comment or judgment, TCM added intros and after-discussions in which its film expert hosts discuss the movies through a modern lens.

Male domination as romantic fantasy is discussed in connection with Seven Brides, a musical comedy in which seven backwoods frontiersmen kidnap seven women to be their wives.

The swaggering, macho, anti-Native American vigilante played by John Wayne in The Searchers was debated by the experts: Was he a hero or antihero? Gone With the Wind was flatly (and rightly) characterized as supporting a white supremacist point of view. Mickey Rooneys appalling comic portrayal of the Japanese photographer who lives upstairs from Audrey Hepburns character in Breakfast at Tiffanys was discussed as a vile relic of World War II animosity.

Discussion. Analysis. Reconsideration of the prejudices, stereotypes and bigotry that suffuse these films. A review of the historical context in which they were made. These strike me as a healthy way to approach troubling old movies (as well as troubling books, statues and school names). Suppression, by contrast, is a form of denial, of erasing the reality of past attitudes.

Not that TCM did it perfectly. The Reframed discussions are heavy on white presenters, even though audiences might prefer to hear from more of the Native Americans, Asians, Latinos and others who were so often the targets of anger or ridicule. There is an annoyingly measured quality in the discussions even of the most egregiously racist films. (Perhaps that was unavoidable from a group of avowed cinephiles speaking on a network whose core business, after all, is showing old movies.)

One of the big questions that went undiscussed in the segments I saw was how we should feel about these films. What if we fall for the romance of Rhett and Scarlett in Gone With the Wind, despite knowing all the reasons we shouldnt? What if we root for cowboys over Indians in a western? Are these things unavoidable or are they moral failings?

Still, I thought TCM made a serious good-faith effort toward a better, broader understanding of the nuance and complexity of our American past. According to Charlie Tabesh, TCMs senior vice president for programming, Reframed has received some criticism from both the right and the left, but more of the objections have come from the right, with people complaining: Dont lecture me. I just want to watch the movie.

Reframed comes in the wake, among other things, of a Los Angeles Times op-ed article written in June 2020 by John Ridley, the African American director, screenwriter and novelist, who called for HBO Max to remove Gone With the Wind from its rotation of films and then after a period to return it to the air, presented with more context. HBO Max did exactly that.

After the summers racial justice protests and a concerted push in recent years from within the industry Hollywood is rethinking what gets made, who gets to make it and what from the past should still be shown. According to a recent article in the Hollywood Reporter, for instance, Disney holds a monthly meeting with a committee of outside advisors to discuss inclusivity, diversity, stereotypes and insensitivity in programming. Some studios and streaming services are using content warnings or disclaimers about negative depictions in old films.

There are lots of ways of addressing these issues. But sweeping history under the rug or pretending that those old wounds werent inflicted is the wrong way to go.

@Nick_Goldberg

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What should happen to racist and sexist old Hollywood movies? - Los Angeles Times

Indeed he is. Morrison doesnt do culture, philosophy, or ideology. In 2017 he notoriously said freedom of speech doesnt create one job. (To which the reply could be made nor does the presumption of innocence.)

What the recent media attention on the behaviour of MPs and their staff in Parliament House has not done is derail the Morrison governments policy reform agenda because there isnt one.

Presumably the reason the Prime Minister has been silent about the handcuffing and arrest in her home by the Victoria Police of a pregnant mother following her social media protest supporting an anti-lockdown protest, is because he regards the maintenance of the rule of law in the country as falling into the culture wars category.

A few weeks ago Morrison was asked on Melbourne radio [whether] we are too woke and thats affecting democracy and debate, do you think we are too woke?.

Morrison replied: I think theres a lot of talk about all this. But you know what? Right now, what people care about, and what I care about is their health and their jobs.

The challenges the Coalition faces cant be overcome by the application of the Prime Ministers pragmatism.

Morrison has a tendency to personalise policy and draw on his personal and family experiences when talking about the government. All politicians do it, but Morrison does it more than most. For example, when he announced the royal commission into the disability sector he talked about his family.

Using empathy to frame questions of policy can be very powerful indeed, but it does mean that when empathy appears to be lacking the result is particularly stark, such as when in response to a question about the federal governments management of bushfires, Morrison answered: I dont hold a hose, mate. Thats a true statement, but not one thats empathetic.

Whether to select a person to represent the Liberal Party not on the basis of their ability, but according to their gender or ethnicity or some other aspect of their identity is a question of principle, not practicality.

Contrary to what might have been expected, the pandemic hasnt paused the culture wars, it has accelerated them. For at least some people the suffering they endured during the pandemic and the subsequent lockdown of their lives has prompted a search for non-material outcomes that are different from what went before.

From the migration of the Black Lives Matter from the United States to Australia, to the toppling of statues associated with slavery or colonialism, to the debate about the date of Australia Day, the culture wars show no signs of abating.

The empathy and understanding the public demand of their leaders in the current political climate isnt a product of practicalities or pragmatism.

Avoiding any talk about the countrys culture is a strategy that might have worked for Morrison at the last election. He is probably the only conservative politician who could have won the 2019 federal election, albeit narrowly. The persona of a daggy dad focused obsessively on the hip-pocket nerve suited the times of two years ago perfectly. Plus, Morrison wasnt Malcolm Turnbull or Bill Shorten.

But the zeitgeist of 2021 is different from 2019.

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Woke warriors are after the PM - The Australian Financial Review

Vaughan Gething on Question Time

Wales Health Minister has said that the UK Governments decree that the union flag should be flown above all of their buildings was an attempt to have culture wars.

Speaking on BBC Question Time, Vaughan Gething said that it was an attempt to create a row on an issue that would have no real impact on anyones life.

Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price responded that it was an attempt to quash the Welsh independence movement, but would backfire as the union flag was representative of Wales invisibility within the union.

The panelllists, which also included Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies, former Brexit Party MEP Claire Fox and retired rugby union referee Nigel Owens were asked whether there was any danger that forcing people to fly to flag could be met with resistance.

Theres a danger you get too upset about this when we already have the Welsh flag and the union jack flying over the Welsh Government building, Vaughan Gething said.

Im proud to be Welsh and British and Im proud of my Zambian heritage as well. I think for politicians its not so much about having a row about flags but about the future of the country.

You know if we fly the flag over all local council buildings or not, well have a row about it but will it change anybodys life? I dont think it will.

Asked about First Minister Mark Drakefords comments in which he said the union was over, Vaughan Gething said that those comments werent about the flag theyre about how the UK works.

Recognising that power is held in different parts of the UK. And just having the UK Government making all the choices when people dont agree with each other isnt the right way forward.

Its about remaking the Union. Its a voluntary association of the four nations. I think were all better off in the Union together, but we need a way for the Union to work in the future, otherwise the danger is that well end up dividing the UK and well see it fall apart.

That obviously isnt what I want to see. But in Wales we need to be able to make our own decisions on a whole range of areas that are already here in the Welsh Parliament, that people are going to vote on at the start of May.

Refused

Adam Price said that flying the flag represented how Wales was treated within the UK.

This has obviously been designed really as a response to the growing support for Scottish and Welsh independence. It might have the opposite effect in Wales, because there is no more potent symbol of Wales invisibility within this Union than the Union Jack, Adam Price said.

Because were the only home nation that isnt represented on it. And therein lies a deep truth about how we are treated as a nation within this unequal United Kingdom.

Therein lies the experience of Wales. We saw it with the furlough, didnt we the firebreak. The Welsh Government asked for the furlough to be extended.

We were refused, endangering our lives. When the situation changed in England, hey presto, they extended the furlough. And the people of Wales noticed that.

This is how Wales has been treated in this United Kingdom and its there to see on the flag itself.

Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies said it should be mandated that both flags fly in Wales because we are a proud country on our own and also part of the United Kingdom.

Im proud to call myself an Unionist, but Im equally proud to be a Welshman as well a passionate Welshman, who puts 19 and a half stone on the veterans rugby field now and again, he said.

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UK Government's order to fly union flag 'an attempt to have culture wars' says Health Minister - Nation.Cymru

A second Cure Bowl trophy. A No. 17 national ranking the first time LU ended a season in the Top 25.

Flames Footballs best year is now in the books.

But all the triumph didnt come without a game plan, a set of plays carefully designed by coaches and ingrained in the minds of the players, all bound by a firm commitment to follow through with that plan.

Liberty University has used a deliberate game plan for all of its students from the very beginning a plan that not only sets them up to reach their career goals after graduation but to also lead fulfilling lives as Champions for Christ where they live, work, and serve.

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Jerry Falwell Sr. in 1981

Ever since a true visionary with grand ambitions launched Liberty nearly 50 years ago, the faculty and staff have remained committed to their task of guiding students in biblical principles, instilling lessons deeply rooted in a Christian worldview. With coaches, professors, campus pastors, and scores of other mentors, the university is carrying out the very words that its founder, the Rev. Jerry Falwell, preached at a Wednesday night church service in January 1971:

Young people are the hope of our nation and our world. I believe we have a sacred obligation to provide thousands of young people with a solid Christian education. Let us dedicate ourselves tonight to starting a college with the goal of seeing thousands of young men and women, deeply in love with the Lord Jesus Christ, who will go out in all walks of life to shake this world for God.

That was Falwells game plan for Liberty, and the university remains dedicated to rolling out plays from his playbook every day.

President Jerry Prevo addresses faculty in the Liberty Arena on Jan. 20. (Photo by Ellie Richardson)

This semester, just a few days before classes met in person, the faculty gathered in the new Liberty Arena. It was a time to reflect on their own calling and purpose before stepping into the classroom. They watched a video of Falwell sharing his vision and were encouraged to kick off another semester with the same firm focus and an awesome sense of responsibility.

When parents send their child here to Liberty University, President Jerry Prevo told the faculty, theyre entrusting us to train them up; they have allowed us to adopt them. Theyre depending upon us, and theyre depending upon each one of you because youre really the ones who are going to have more direct contact with their child than anybody else. Theyre depending upon us to carry out the vision theyre all familiar with, Training Champions for Christ, and thats what we want to do here at Liberty University academically, spiritually, and morally.

Ed Gomes first came to Liberty as a student in 1972. Now, in his role as director of spiritual development with Flames Football, he shows how the lessons taught on the field and in the classroom are lessons for life.

We have a game plan to help our young men and young women here at Liberty University succeed academically, athletically, socially, and spiritually, he said. We have a plan of action that can help them become true Champions for Christ if they embrace what we have to offer. Thats what makes us unique; thats what separates us from any other university.

The emphasis on spiritual development throughout every facet of student life is Libertys defining characteristic.

I tell our guys that God has brought them to Liberty more than just to play football or to get a college education. God wants to do something in them so He can do something through them. Thats our prayer, Gomes said. My mission, my passion, the thing that wakes me up in the morning is how I want to help our young men become intentional about their relationship with God and make an impact on our football team.

__________

Essential has become a buzz word amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Determining something as essential places a high value on the service that is provided. A Christian education has always been essential. The founders of our nations first universities knew this. They wrote Christian principles into their creeds and even carved Bible passages in stone on their buildings. But sadly, many of those institutions have parted ways with their roots. As they built prestige in academia, they abandoned their very foundation in the Creator who is the source of all the knowledge that they impart.

But at Liberty, although its one of the youngest universities of its size in America, topping 15,000 in its residential programs and another 100,000 online, the mission has never been altered or avoided. Even as academic and athletic offerings have expanded, elevating Liberty to the highest levels of competition, the mission rings out loud and clear.

Each semester, faculty, staff, students, and alumni are proving that Liberty doesnt just say its Christian but shows it boldly to the world.

If you watched the Flames battle Coastal Carolina in the Cure Bowl on ESPN the day after Christmas, you saw quarterback Malik Willis sporting an armband with the words, Gods Plan.

My journey to Liberty has given me a chance to find myself as a football player and as a man, Willis wrote in a column for a game day program last fall. There isnt a day that goes by that I dont thank God for dragging me through everything He did to ultimately put me in this position.

Falwell often said that athletics would raise the national profile of the school as it trains Champions for Christ in all fields of study, and he was right. On Dec. 26, over 2.6 million tuned in from across the country to watch these champions on the field.

And its not just athletics that has arrived dramatically on a national stage. Liberty students are demonstrating academic excellence, proving how an evangelical university can indeed persist in its Christian teachings while offering world-class programs.

Libertys debate team remains the only team in the history of collegiate debate to sweep all three national titles in the same year and they did this not only once but 10 times in the last 14 years. In the fall, their success caught the attention of then-Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo, who held a special virtual session with them on their seasons timely topic of foreign policy.

Already this semester, a moot court team in the Helms School of Government took the national title following a season that focused on arguments for First Amendment rights.

Liberty University School of Law is graduating students every year who are fighting some of the countrys most intense culture wars. This year marked the highest number of applications to Liberty Law since its opening in 2004.

And from its perch on Liberty Mountain, the medical school is training the next generation of osteopathic physicians. Last fall, three second-year osteopathic medical students earned first place at a Scholarly Symposium of Virginia Academy of Family Physicians for their research on e-cigarette effects on the unborn.

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Liberty students first learn what it means to be a Champion for Christ through a Christian Life and Evangelism course, required for all incoming freshmen. It was the founders vision for graduates to go out into the world as missionaries in their chosen vocation, impacting the world through their professions and their Christian witness.

While I have no problem with the church adapting to the culture, Falwell once said, we must ensure that we remain painstakingly true to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that we remain obedient servants to His truths.

Before every class, Liberty professors hold prayer time, and across every academic department, theres a direct correlation to Gods Word, the primary textbook.

In the School of Engineering, students are learning a term that Liberty has trademarked for ongoing research projects: Creationeering. By taking lessons from Gods own designs in nature, like studying the way a woodpeckers beak can sustain impact after impact, students are developing a better football helmet to reduce the risk of concussions.

In the Biology & Chemistry Department, professors have been leading the conservation efforts for a salamander species in the Blue Ridge Mountains, pointing to Genesis 2 as their charge to honor and care for Gods creation.

In Libertys Studio & Digital Arts Department, students are inspired to reflect Gods gift of creativity and expression through their pieces.

At the School of Nursing, students are regularly taught servanthood and how to show the same care and compassion to patients as Jesus taught his own disciples. As they serve at a Hands and Feet Clinic for underserved individuals in Lynchburg, they truly become the hands and feet of Christ to their community.

And as students work toward degrees in cybersecurity one of the fastest growing career fields today integrity is emphasized as a key virtue in the field.

The strong Christian values that these students graduate with, the industry loves it because it comes down to trust, said Dr. Michael Lehrfeld, executive director of the Center for Cyber Excellence at the School of Business. Thats what makes us unique. Its a cool thing to see these students go forward and take Christ into those areas.

There are many websites that analyze and compare the values of degrees from institutions all across the country, often reported in the form of dollar figures that one can expect to make if they attach the institutions name to their rsum.

But these lists often neglect to factor in the overall student experience. When faith is a primary focus, the value of a degree becomes so much more. While employers will look at the skills and knowledge attained, every person who encounters a Liberty graduate will also see in them the value of a life livedfor Christ.

__________

Jerry Falwell Sr. talks with students in the courtyard in 1985.

When some of Libertys earliest alumni visit campus, they often remark that their old stomping grounds are hardly recognizable. The residence halls have grown several stories skyward. Theres a new roof on the Vines Center, and its new next door neighbor, the Liberty Arena, just opened. The Academic Lawn is lined with state-of-the-art buildings equipped with the latest technology for students to learn about the futures of their fields today.

But the work within all of these walls is still producing the same kind of champions the world desperately needs. Alumni are surely happy for the physical changes, but what is still recognizable to them is the way that their alma mater has never wavered from its game plan and continues to shake the world unlike any other college has done.

Vernon Brewer (73) was among the first group of students to receive a Liberty diploma. He joined fellow alumni last fall at Libertys Fifty Years by Faith event held at Thomas Road Baptist Church. After a night of worship, reflection, and celebration, Brewer echoed the sentiments of Libertys leadership in attendance by saying, the best is yet to come.

As the founder and president of World Help, a large, faith-based global humanitarian organization that serves the physical and spiritual needs of impoverished families, Brewer said he is a living testimony of that vision being fulfilled.

Ive been able to literally reach the world with my ministry because of that vision, he said. I just think the best is yet to come and its Gods timing, and this is what so many people have prayed for and waited for. Its just God.

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A Game Plan for Life: From the ballfield to the classroom, Liberty students learn the lessons that matter most | Liberty Journal - Liberty News

EMPORIA The most important thing to know about 12-year-old Ashley Brooks is that she loves trains.

Her favorite walks are down to the railroad-adjacent Fremont Park in downtown Emporia, where the seventh-grader often records and uploads trainspotting videos to a YouTube channel and a following of almost 600 viewers.

Few are the immediate cares in Ashley's world, or at least none that would be much different from any other middle schooler's worries, like homework and fitting in.

In her mother Ryann Brooks' world, though, her biggest worries for Ashley are in the Kansas Statehouse.

Ashley is transgender, and under a bill passed by the Kansas Senate and under consideration in the House, girls like her would be banned from participating in Kansas interscholastic girls' sports at the middle and high school levels, as well as in college.

In her daughter, Brooks sees a regular 12-year-old girl who loves trains and tornado sirens, with the two even traveling the state to map them out on a custom Google map.

Ashley, in other words, is not what the proponents of the bill make her and other transgender girls out to be, Brooks said.

"Shes funny, shes got a sharp sense of humor," Brooks said."We just happened to be mistaken when she was born about who she was. She had to tell us. I think thats just how it is sometimes."

In Kansas and across the country, transgender youths have been dragged into a new front in the so-called culture wars, with similar legislation in three dozen states, as well as Washington, D.C.

Proponents of the fight, including a bevy of Kansas legislators and U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., who introduced the federal legislation, argue it isn't about LGBT rights but rather ensuring a level playing field in interscholastic athletics.

More: Chillin' in the Statehouse Episode 8: Transgender Sports Bill

Senate President Ty Masterson, R-Andover, compared it to having age and weight classes in sports like wrestling.

"I've seen emotional pleas that are disconnected wholly ... from basic fact about the bill, let alone well-established science," he said during debate on the Senate floor last week."I know there are emotions that exist in modern identity politics and in the political battlefield, if you will, that easily take us far, far afield when we discuss a subject like this.

"And without those things, quite frankly, this would be a very simple,non-controversial bill."

If a transgender child wishes to compete in school sports, currentKansas State High School Activities Association protocols request a student and family contact their school, which would make an assessment as to the team that child should play on and inform KSHSAA of the move.

The guidelines encourage schools to be proactive in ensuring that facilities are accessible and that coaches and teammates are sensitive and informed on issues like using the proper pronouns.

More: Senate bill banning transgender youths from Kansas sports is a bad solution looking for a problem

Proponents point to examples in other states where transgender athletes won state championships over their cisgender peers, but there is no indication that similar events have played out in the Sunflower State. KSHSAA has a record offive transgender students who are playing interscholastic sports in the state.

A hearing on the bill was scheduled for this week in the House Education Committee but was pulled at the last minute.

The chairman of the committee, Rep. Steve Huebert, R-Valley Center, said the issue remained in flux and noted that it could wind up being added into a separate bill that is being negotiated between the two chambers, a process known as a conference committee.

"It is not a dead issue, but, at this point in time, I don't see something being scheduled this week," Huebert said.

House Majority Leader Dan Hawkins, R-Wichita,said Wednesday the bill was still"being talked about among the parties." He was blunt when asked if it was true that leadership in his chamber was skeptical of moving forward with the bill.

More: Kansas Senate passes ban ontransgender youths in girls sports, despite boycott fears

"That is not true," Hawkins said. "A lot of rumors around here, most of them are not true."

But Thomas Whitt, executive director of Equality Kansas, said the House has historically been less open to "legislative gay-bashing."

"There is a pretty big plurality in the House, period, that is not excited about this kind of legislation," Whitt said. "The people of Kansas have moved on, for the most part, from targeting LGBT people for discrimination."

More: Bill restricting transgender youths in sports faces uncertain future as activists clash in hearing

Megan Paceley, an assistant professor and Coordinator for Diversity, Equityand Inclusion at the University of Kansas School of Social Welfare, said transgender advocacy has been a part of the broader civil rights movement since at least the 1960s in the U.S., but transgender people themselves have been around forever.

The main reason the issue has come up in recent years, then, has been because of bills like the one in consideration in the House looking to limit transgender people's participation and access to public services and spaces, she said.

"Transgender people are people," Paceley said. "In debates about whether transgender people should be allowed to exist in certain spaces, I see a lot of people forgetting this. Also, numerous prominent medical and mental health organizations have stated that being transgender is not an illness not a mental illness and that gender exists in a continuum rather than a binary. There is research to support this."

Speaking to the Kansas Senate committee in February, Ryann Brooks shared her story with the legislators, wanting them to see a more personal side to the transgender sports issue.

Even though her daughter Ashley, a middle schooler, doesn't participate in school sports, the bill's mere purpose and intent is harmful to children like her, Brooks said.

"I wanted them to see someone it would directly impact, and my daughter is someone who is directly harmed by this legislation," Brooks said. "She sees stuff like this on the internet, or on the news, and she feels like she doesnt matter. And thats not OK with me. Nobody should feel that way, especiallynot a kid."

More: Lawmakers, activists push back as conservatives introduce bills on transgender youth

Ashley came out to her family last summer around her 12th birthday, Ryann said. But the family wasn't necessarily surprised by the revelation. Ashley had been questioning her gender identity for a few years, occasionally wearing traditionally female clothes.

It wasn't until Brooksand Ashley were in the car together possibly because Ashley felt more comfortable with Brooks distracted to bring up the sensitive matter, Brooks said that Ashley announced she was a girl.

"It was kind of surprising at that point, but at the same time, it wasnt surprising because she was so depressed and so anxious," Brooks said. "We knew it was something deeper, but she didnt have the words to tell us what was wrong.

More: Lawmakers, activists push back as conservatives introduce bills on transgender youth

"As a parent, when you know theres something wrong with your kid and you cant fix it its the hardest thing in the world, and its terrible," Brooks added. "Especially when theyre in such a dark place, and you dont want someone that young thinking about the dark thoughts she has had in her head before."

In South Dakota, Republican Gov. Kristi Noem opted to push for a rewrite of a similar bill related to transgender athletes, despite previously saying she supported it. Her decision, she said, was begrudging and came in the face of a likely legal challenge, as well as opposition from business groups in the state.

The Kansas Chamber hasn't rendered a position on the bill, according to spokesperson Sherriene Jones-Sontag. Critics, however, are already raising the prospects of an economic and sporting boycott as an argument to ward off the legislation's passage.

More: Gov. Noem creates 'Defend Title IX Now' coalition to fight for 'fairness in women's sports'

And then there is the legal risk feared by Noem when she rejected the South Dakota bill.

Idaho, the first state in the country to pass such legislation, has been taken to court over the matter, with a federal judgeruling in August that it was unconstitutional. The matter is pending appeal, but the ACLU of Kansas has already vowed a similar legal fight in Kansas.

The University of Kansas and Kansas State University urged the Senate to oppose the bill in written testimony submitted by attorneys representing the two universities, warningit "puts higher education on a certain path to numerous litigation situations."

"The guidelines for competition standards and competitor allowances is best left to those respective athletic governing bodies to establish its own competitive environment that works for its student-athletes and communities," the joint testimony read.

Paceley, the KU professor, said even if the bill were to only affect five students in Kansas, those five students still matter, and the bill is sending a message that transgender children are somehow unwelcome or flawed.

As many as 1.8% of U.S. youth identify as transgender, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control's 2017 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, and those children face substantially higher risks for depression and suicidality, as well as victimization at school.

More: Topeka City Council to discuss banning discrimination against gay, transgender people

"Importantly, the impact of these proposed policies is harmful even before a policy is passed even if it is never passed," Paceley said. "Legislation and policies that aim to limit or restrict transgender youth from spaces and services that other youth have access to is related to increased mental health issues, including suicide attempts.

"Transgender youth in Kansas are already being harmed by this proposed legislation."

At a bare minimum, the state Legislature should treat transgender people as people, Paceley said. Rather than focusing on bills prohibiting them from participation in certain activities or spaces, she said the Legislature should create bills to promote inclusion and nondiscrimination, as well as support funding for transgender organizations.

Whitt, the Equality Kansas director, pointed to years of work in bullying prevention which he believeswould be undone with SB 208.

"We know that these kids are exposed and vulnerable," he said. "This kind of legislation, it just paints a target on their back."

At Emporia's Fremont Park on Saturday, Brooks took Ashley to watchand record trains, before a longer trip heading west on the railwayto Strong City to do the same.

In those trips and efforts, Brooks said she is hoping to encourage and support Ashley's future.

"I hope for what any parent hopes for (their kids' future)," Brooks said."She has, since she could talk and knew what trains were, talked about working for the railroad. She wants to be an engineer one day. I want her to be able to explore the same opportunities that every other kid in the world has."

It's for that same reason Brooks said she can't be quiet about what she sees as not only a deeply personal issue, but one about basic rights. In her role as the news and online editor of The Emporia Gazette, Brooks with her daughter'spermission posted a column as a contrast to anearlier columnby Gazette editor Ashley Walker, wife of publisher Chris Walker,questioning if allowing transgender girls in athletics would be "making our girls pay the price."

Brookssaid she is by no means yet an expert on transgender youths, and maybe she never will be.

But for her and other parents working to better understand their transgender children, it's been encouraging to see a recent wave in acceptance among the Kansas community, especially in receiving what Brooks called an "incredibly positive" reaction when Ashley first enlisted her journalist mother to share the news she was transgender.

"In a lot of ways, weve come a long way as a community, but stuff like (the Senate bill) showwe still have a long way to go," Brooks said. "We just have to let kids be who they are. Thats just my whole thing. Ashley just wants to be who she is. Trans kids have such a high rate of suicide, but that risk goes down when they have supportive adults in their world.

"Im not going to let my kid be a statistic, and if that means being as loud as possible, then thats what it will be."

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'I'm not going to let my kid be a statistic': Kansas bill on transgender girls in holding pattern - The Topeka Capital-Journal