Testifying with My Daughter Against Missouri SB597*
By David Tager
My pink-haired teen’s story quivers, thins to a plea, helpless.
Senators frost like glass, pick lint from suits, render words helpless.
Bored chins cede the mic: a matronly lawmaker probes my child
on bathrooms, asks about her genitals. We suck breath, helpless.
A gavel pounds out protest, insists my child is a threat other
daughters must not imagine. Meanwhile, she clenches pee, flees helpless.
When my turn comes, I lean into my physician gravity, release
a well-honed skein of facts that fly through the hall, then fall helpless.
No matter how you ask, disdain won’t dance. It either looks away
or stuffs into closets. Child, don your hoodie, don’t reel helpless.
Marsha, Sylvia, Miss Major defied hum and hammer of worse
weather. I vow pink hair, dance with you on the steps to ditch helpless.
*Notes: Marsha P Johnson, Sylva Rivera and Miss Major Griffin-Gracy were trans women of color who led the Stonewall Uprising and remained lifelong activists for LGBTQ+ rights. The death of Miss Major (10/13/25) was on my mind when I listened to the horrific recordings of Missouri senators questioning teens who testified against SB 597, the 2025 bathroom bill. The bill would have passed but never came to a vote because of other legislative business. In 2026, three bills (HB2075, HB1893, HB2536) that would restrict bathroom use to sex assigned at birth regardless of current gender expression/identity were put forward in Missouri. Local LGBTQ+ advocates decided not to invite live testimony due to the treatment of trans individuals who testified against SB597 in 2025. However, to date none of three new bills have house a hearing in the Missouri House of Representatives, and SB 597 died in committee.
David Tager’s poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction and translation have previously appeared in journals such as I-70 Review, The Kenyon Review, The Crescent Review, and Manoa: An International Journal.
Photo credit: Glendale United Methodist Church – Nashville, TN
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