Aaron Poe has been a wildlife biologist in Alaska since 1998. He is the father of a trans daughter in the Anchorage School District, and today we discuss that experience.

This episode is the first in a series on trans rights. The inspiration for these interviews is three bills currently moving through the Alaska State House: HB 183 which bans trans girls from playing girls sports; HB 105 which requires kids to get signed permission slips approving their preferred name and pronouns; and HB 338 which allows doctors to be sued up to 20 years after performing gender affirming procedures on trans youth.

Alaska has many big problems. The pressing need to increase the funding of our public school system and finding a solution for an imminent energy crisis, for example. But instead of working on these very real, very substantial problems, we are spending the last weeks of session debating whether trans youth exist and have rights. They do exist; they do have rights; and over the next few days we will be hearing from them and their families.

Aaron Poe recommends the following Ted Talk, "What it means to be intersex," by Susannah Temko. Click here to watch.