Jessica Waddell-Lewinstein Kopp was raised amongst a vibrant queer community.
Her dad was gay Olympic athlete Dr. Tom Waddell, who also founded the Gay Games. Her mom was activist Sara Lewinstein. Waddell died from AIDS complications when Kopp was just three, and she spent her childhood raised by her mom and her girlfriend, as well as what she described in an essay for Huff Post as “a massive, loving extended family of godmothers, aunts, uncles, and other chosen people who all helped bring me up.”
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Now a straight, cis adult married to a straight, cis man, Kopp wants anti-LGBTQ+ parents to know that their fears of LGBTQ+ people “indoctrinating” their children “are entirely built on destructive myths.”
“I am living proof,” she said, adding that “Queerness does not simply ‘rub off,’ because if it did, I certainly would be queer.”
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Kopp was moved to write the essay after parents at her kids’ school protested the hiring of a trans teacher.
“When parents attack trans teachers under the guise of ‘protecting children,’ they aren’t protecting anyone,” she explained. “Instead, they are advancing their own bias, ignorance and fear. They’re projecting dark, imagined and completely unfounded dangers onto people who simply want to teach, mentor and live their lives authentically.”
“Having a trans teacher doesn’t hurt children,” she continued. “It teaches them that human beings come in lots of different forms — all of which are beautiful. It also shows them that if they ever discover they identify as anything other than cisgender, it’s OK.”
She praised her parents and loved ones for never pressuring her “to be anything specific.”
“Given how much adversity my parents faced, they simply wished for me to be able to be myself — whoever that is — and to not have to fight the same battles they fought every day of their lives. Rather than pushing an agenda on me, they taught me to respect people and embrace the diversity of ways of being that exist.”
She said she has witnessed far more harm inflicted on others from “heternormative adults” than from anyone else.
And as parents continue to worry about possible scenarios where their children suddenly turn gay or trans from knowing that gay and trans people exist, Kopp reminds readers she is “not a hypothetical.”
“I am a grown woman who was raised by the very community too many people in this country are demonizing — many of them without even knowing an LGBTQ+ person — and I turned out grounded, empathetic and clear on my values. I work hard, I love my family fiercely, and I stand up for my friends.”
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