The once hyped trickle down economy never really trickled down much. Sadly, the same can’t be said for the hate spread by grandstanding politicians who use fear and cultural polarization to divide Americans in a cheap, transparent effort to get votes. That hate-driven exploitation, especially when it comes at the expense of the youngest of those who identify as LGBTQ, trickles through communities and school boards and all the way into living rooms across the country. These politicians aren’t just pandering, they’re actively fostering prejudice, fueling animosity, and propagating hostility, punching down at a small segment of the population because of who they choose to be or who they choose to love. Thankfully, some families are able to overcome the hate and see the fear-mongering for what it is. Here’s a story of one father who eventually saw through the nonsense to find his daughter; a change that required a transition of his own. “Before his transgender daughter was suspended after using the girls’ bathroom at her Missouri high school. Before the bullying and the suicide attempts. Before she dropped out. Before all that, Dusty Farr was — in his own words — ‘a full-on bigot.’ By which he meant that he was eager to steer clear of anyone LGBTQ.” AP: As his trans daughter struggles, a father pushes past his prejudice. “‘It’s almost like a transgender person,’ he says of his transformation. ‘There’s the dead me. And then there’s the new me.'”