The effects on actual children to these panics cannot be understated. I was a child when Anita Bryant started her campaign, which ended up infecting the church that I attended with my family.

I had already figured out I was different, but it took Bryant’s Save the Children campaign for me to attach the label gay to myself.

The realization struck me in church, during a Bryant-inspired homophobic sermon. I ended up in the men’s room losing my breakfast.

Something panic inducers seem rarely to think about is that actual vulnerable human beings are the targets of their messages. Bryant’s campaign hurt me profoundly in ways I’m probably still struggling to recover from.

I wonder if campaigners and legislators ever stop to consider the actual children they’re targeting in these anti-trans campaigns. I wonder if they ever stop to engage just the tiniest bit of empathy.

It seems unlikely.

That’s one of the reasons I really like how a 10-year-old trans girl forced the Texas Senate to stop, just for a few minutes last week, and listen to her.

They aren’t saving children. They’re hurting children, and they need to hear from the children they’re hurting.