I am responding to the June 26th letter to the editor written by Jennifer Armstrong and Gay Graham of the Family Resource Center in which they responded to a letter written by my husband, Matt Marinkovich. Their point of contention was when Matt wrote, “The reasons given for not supporting Nicolas was ‘he doesn’t belong here,’ ‘he’s not a qualified speaker,’ or ‘he’s too hot to handle.’” Matt used the word “or” but the FRC attributed “he doesn’t belong here” as a characterization by the FRC, which it was not. Members of our very inclusive pride community said he doesn’t belong here. Alternate views and voices are important: children in our community are at risk because community leaders refuse to stand up for them in alternate ways to the currently accepted norm which fully accepts transitioning but will not support questioning or regretting transition. We are standing up for children and families because others are afraid to do so. We initiated a conversation by offering Nicolas Blooms as a speaker for our community to talk about a very important subject. While it is true the FRC never offered comments about Nicolas’ character they did have the convenient excuse that he did not qualify as a speaker because he was not part of a grant. Our speaker broached an uncomfortable topic and it was more convenient for our leaders to avoid this than to stand up for vulnerable youth.

Maureen Marinkovich,

Friday Harbor