What does it feel like when the government attacks your family?
That was the premise of the toughest interview I've ever done
What would you do to defend your family?
That’s what I was thinking as I watched Rabbi Daniel Goldman testify before the Missouri legislature not long after I moved back to my home state a little over two years ago. During the 2023 legislative session the far right extremists and Christian Nationalists in the Missouri Republican Party introduced an astounding 31 bills targeting transgender Missourians ranging from banning them from sports to shutting down all medical care for them in the state.
One unique voice emerged from the anger, Rabbi Daniel Bogard, part of the rabbinic team at Central Reform Congregation in the city of St. Louis. His oldest son and a group of his friends wanted to speak out against the ban on transgender kids playing sports of their chosen gender. As he sat there Daniel decided to step the mic and for the first time tell the world his youngest son was trans and what these awful laws meant to them.
He’s been fighting the wave of attacks ever since. Putting his family in the crosshairs from threats to having Child Protective Services called to investigate them abusing their child by supporting his choice. He hasn’t won much and most shocking is that almost all of the other families he started the battle with have all fled the state.
Bug out plans
If you work for the State Department in an embassy in most any dangerous country or serve in a similar military headquarters you are taught to pack a ‘go-bag’ or ‘bug out bag.’ It’s a backpack or similar item with all of your sensitive documents, essential clothes, and supplies to support you if you have to suddenly flee to safety in the event of an emergency or attack on the site.
Imagine having to do that while living in the suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri with a mapped out and rehearsed route to get you across the state line into Illinois. That’s the life of the Bogard’s and many other trans families. I have heard from friends with a trans daughter in Seattle who has mapped out a similar plan to get to Canada in case things go awry.
This is America in 2024 after a relentless and coordinated assault on a vulnerable community. The same vulnerable community that was one of the initial targets of the Nazi’s in the 1920’s. But, this is the United States and it is being led by people who say they are driven by their Christian faith to discriminate and direct hate at innocent people just trying to live their lives.
Eight
There are a lot of heartbreaking and infuriating moments in my interview this week with Rabbi Daniel. One of the first ones is the number eight. That’s the total number of transgender student athletes in the state of Missouri among some 250,000 or more total junior high and senior high athletes. The Republican legislature spent almost the entire session last year crafting bills to target eight of those athletes.
If you don’t think that is purposeful, or is truly designed to “save girls sports,” you are buying right into their lies and propaganda. The shocking part is that it’s working. Polls show support for these extreme attacks on transgender healthcare and lifestyle are growing in popularity.
Normal Americans, including many Democrats, are buying into the hysteria that kids are being mutilated, pretending to be trans to use the girls bathroom, or faking to get better opportunities in sports.
It’s all lies and leveraging of one off anecdotes to spread hate. You need to hear directly what that means to those in the crosshairs. That’s why I asked Rabbi Daniel to be my guest this week and why it’s one of the most gutting and difficult conversations I’ve had on the show ever.
I urge you to watch or listen to this conversation. You must hear his story. This one matters.
The Show
Rabbi Daniel Bogard
Rabbi Daniel Bogard is proud native St. Louisan, parent of a trans child, and part of the rabbinic team at Central Reform Congregation in the city. He is one of the founders of Camp Indigo Point, a camp for trans, gender expansive, and LGBTQ+ kids that brings together 150+ campers from 30+ states for two life-changing weeks each summer. He is a Senior Rabbinic Fellow of the Shalom Hartman Institute and is adjunct faculty at Eden Theological Seminary.
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A year of ‘On Democracy’
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I can’t thank you all enough for your support and for joining me on this journey.
Fred
Mr. Wellman, if you weren’t on flight from Chicago to Sarasota today, then your identical twin brother was!
Vital interview Fred. This needs to be disseminated as far as possible. Bless this Rabbi and his family. I can’t imagine the fear he, his wife, their sweet boy and his siblings must be living with. But the critical message is don’t live in abject fear. Do something constructive to change the outcome. Connect with like-minded others and yes, keep on fighting and informing others with the truth. Someone will hear you.