On Wednesday we went to visit the ACLU to hand-deliver our letters to Gavin Grimm. After hearing stories and more from several staff members, including Gavin’s lawyer, as well as a video that Gavin Grimm made just for us (watch it above!), we decided another round of letters were in order! Here are some thoughts of gratitude for our new heroes at the ACLU.     Dear Chris, Jake, and all the other ACLU members and staff, Thank you for letting us come in and talk to you about the Gavin Grimm case. I think that the ACLU is really cool. It helps people that need someone to talk to. It helps people that are having problems in their community based on their gender, identity, and who they are married to (and many many many many many more things but I’m pretty sure it would be too long to list). It’s great that you knew so much about the Gavin Grimm case. Our class has been studying it for quite a while by now, and we were REALLY interested. How did he pull through this sad (and probably pretty uncomfortable) experience? One of our teachers is transgender. I was the person who introduced the case in the first place. I watched a video on The Washington Post with my mom one morning and I got inspired and wanted to share this very interesting and tear-jerking video with my class. The video sparked a huge study about human rights (especially LGBTQ) and lots of dislike for Trump. I have one question: I know that you help people with their problems, but animals are Americans too! It is called the American Civil Liberties Union after all. Do you help animals as well as people? Sincerely, and happy helping, Ezra     Dear Jake and Chris (and whoever this letter gets sent to), Thank you for teaching us about the ACLU and what you guys do. Your explanations helped me (and others too, I’m sure) realize how the fight for LGBTQ rights is larger than just a few simple cases at court. Those cases and problems are serious! I think that there were some conversations that were interesting and made me think. One was when the lawyer said that the Supreme Court had denied Gavin Grimm’s case,  and they were being sent to the 4th Court or something like that. He also said that they were going in September and they had high hopes for this. It makes me think that in general, people should not give up. They should keep fighting for their rights. There was another person whose parents immigrated and his mom and a green card but his dad did not. He told us that his day would have to sneak out the back door of their house. I wondered why his dad did that. I realize he’s an illegal immigrant so if someone comes and checks him and they see he doesn’t have a green card, and they will send him back and split up the family. Thank you again for teaching us about the ACLU and what you do. We really learned a lot. Sincerely, Gia Garland     Dear Chris and Jake and everyone, Thank you for letting us come to the ACLU. I really enjoyed it. When you talked about Syrian refugees it reminded me of a student at my dad’s school who went home over the holidays and couldn’t come back. It also reminded me of how much we’ve learned about immigration. So many immigrants have done so many impacting things from our county. We are a nation of immigrants. It was really cool when that video came on that it basically addressed us. It makes me feel really good that Gavin is excited to get the letters we made. We support a bunch of causes, but very few causes know that one specific fourth grade class supports them, or sends a video to them saying thank you. Good luck in the case and I hope Gavin likes the letters. I’ve been saving money for charity or a good cause and I think I found my cause. I’ll be sending $100 or more bucks to you. Sincerely, Kieran     Dear Jake, Thank you so much for teaching us about ACLU and Gavin Grimm’s case. I really enjoyed it. It really made me think when you talked about Donald Trump and when he canceled the bathroom law. It made me really mad when he did that. It also made me think when we talked about how kids went up and spoke too. It really made me think I could change the world. My favorite part of the visit was when we saw the video of Gavin Grimm speaking to us. I liked this because it really showed that he is nice enough to take time out of his day to make it. Thanks again!                                From,                                         Alden  ]]>