GOP Leader Should Welcome Transgender Men Who Breastfeed their Children

In a Facebook post last week, Colorado Republican Party Vice Chair Derrick Wilburn inadvertently sums up what Republicans have to do on social issues, if they expect to be a serious political force in Colorado in the future.

"You have to work even to understand this," wrote Wilburn in a comment on a photo of a transgender man breastfeeding his baby.

But Wilburn needs to work harder and more quickly to create an America that welcomes transgender family members, co-workers, friends, all people.

"I sincerely wonder, is this the future you desire for America?" asks Wilburn in the second part of his Facebook comment on the transgender man and his baby.

Asked to answer his own question, Wilburn told me he's trying to sort out these issues.

"It wasn't posted to be intentionally provocative," he said. "It was posted as a legitimate question. Republicans can't stick their heads in the sand and pretend these issues don't exist."

I give Wilburn credit for thinking about tansgender issues, for sure, but now it's time for him and his fellow Republicans to work harder to understand and embrace men like the one breastfeeding his child in the photo.