Charles Gragg Jr. is no stranger to schoolyard bullying. Now, decades after his school years, he’s speaking out about his younger brother, Missouri Representative Jamie Gragg (R-Ozark), and the way he’s bullying Missouri teachers and trans students alike.
Gragg introduced a bill last week that would label teachers as sex offenders if they support transgender students by using the name and pronouns that align with their identity. Gragg’s brother — a retired, disabled Army veteran and “professional grandpa” — on Thursday spoke out against the bill to the media alongside PROMO, Missouri’s LGBTQ+ advocacy organization.
HB2885, filed on February 29, would make it a Class E felony for teachers or school counselors to aid the “social transition” of a child — meaning that a teacher "provides support, regardless of whether the support is material, information, or other resources to a child regarding social transition."
The bill defines "social transition" as: “The process by which an individual adopts the name, pronouns, and gender expression, such as clothing or haircuts, that match the individual's gender identity and not the gender assumed by the individual's sex at birth.”
Teachers found guilty of “supporting social transition” would be placed in the same sex offender registration category as Tier 1 sex offenders, which is Missouri’s lowest level but includes possession of child porn or attempting a sexual act. And since no Missouri sex offender is permitted to be within 500 feet of a school or daycare, the bill would effectively end the teacher’s career.
The Gragg family moved from Los Angeles, California, to Ozark, Missouri, when Gragg Jr. was in junior high, he says. This led to him being seen as an outsider and bullied relentlessly. His only comfort was that he was supported by his teachers.
Now that his brother plans to take that support away from other children who are going through what Gragg Jr. described as much more complicated issues, he felt compelled to speak out.
"It frightens and angers me to think if this legislation was around then, that with a stroke of a pen it could have ended their careers and destroyed their lives," he says. "It’s just hateful and malicious. This legislation will cost lives and recklessly destroy others just for the sin of being compassionate."
Gragg Jr. hasn’t paid too much attention to his brother’s political career, he said. When he heard from the family grapevine that his brother was on TV, he decided to look up the story. When he saw the bill and what it would do to teachers, he was shocked.
“It quite literally took my breath away,” he says. Within 30 minutes he was calling all the advocacy groups he could find and was put on the line with Robert Fischer, spokesperson for PROMO. “I truthfully and honestly can't even imagine what his motivations are,” Gragg Jr. says of his brother. “That's part of what's so shocking about it.”
“To say that we are very deeply disappointed in the introduction of this bill is an understatement. But we'd also be lying if we said that we were surprised by it,” Fischer says. “The Missouri General Assembly continues to attack LGBTQ+ people with a singular goal in mind, which is to erase LGBTQ+ identities from our state.”
When asked whether the bill was likely to pass, Fischer said it was too early to speculate but noted that PROMO was ready to mobilize against it.
The bill has gained two additional co-sponsors since RFT initially reported on it. These include Representative Jeff Farnan (R-Stanberry) and Representative Brian Seitz (R-Branson).
His brother’s proposal has nothing to do with the desire to protect children, Gragg says. It is just hatred.
“For something so small and insignificant as just showing compassion to a kid who is having issues […] for reaching out a hand or being a shoulder to cry on, you’re going to put people on a sex offender registry or charge them with a felony which removes their ability to vote and would cost them their careers,” Gragg Jr. says.
With a stroke of a pen, this bill would destroy teacher’s lives, he says.
“Part of the desire here for the people behind this is not only can we punish people who disagree with our stance, but we can remove them from future conversations,” Gragg Jr. says. “It is just malicious and to call it ‘protecting children’ is just white wash for hatred.”
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