Why did I move to Colorado from California in 2021? So my children could go to school.

People always say to me: "But Colorado is just like California!" No it isn't. Not yet.

I moved to Colorado in February 2021 so that my then 6-year-old could go to kindergarten in person, and not miss his entire first year of school.

I tweeted about it a few days before we left for Denver. I didn’t have many followers, so the shares and likes amounted to “going viral” for me at the time. And Jake Tapper shared it and it got some media attention from there.

I ended up being invited to appear on Laura Ingraham’s show "The Ingraham Angle” a few days after the Tweet. “The Lefty gone rogue” story was red meat!

Ingraham was one of the first major media personalities to speak out against lockdowns, to my recollection. She deserves props for that.

I consulted with my open schools moms on whether or not I should do it. I knew that doing so would have me demonized as an alt-right lunatic (more than I already was). But it is one of the biggest shows on Fox — the most watched news network — and routinely gets over 3 million viewers per show. How is this “alt” anything?

I just wanted the message out in the ether — public schools needed to open. Normal moms like me were pushing for it. Schools had been closed for a full year at this point and blue cities like San Francisco were showing no sign of opening. Meanwhile the private schools were open and the fake liberal parents sending their kids to $60k/year institutions remained quiet on their children’s less fortunate peers having that same opportunity. Liberals, my ass. I don’t care what your yard sign says about what you believe “in this house.” These parents took what they thought they deserved for their kids and left everyone else’s kids to suffer.

My OG covid moms and I had tried to break through into the “mainstream.” We wrote journalists at The New York Times. They even engaged us in email exchanges from time to time, but then never followed up. We begged and pleaded with CNN to cover the “other side” — that kids were suffering, that closed schools did not “slow the spread” as they loved to say over and over again.

No luck. They’d rather platform Dr. Leana Wen who wanted the rights of the unvaccinated to be completely obliterated. Wen said it was too easy to go unvaccinated. Make it hard, damnit! She said rights must be earned.

So Fox and Laura Ingraham it would be.

That was the match that ignited my cancellation.

I was so careful in that interview. Cautious. I wish I’d let it rip. I wish I hadn’t said the schools needed to ventilate and then open. The schools didn’t need to do anything but open the doors. And I knew it then. But I was still in self-preservation mode. I still had something to preserve.

You can watch it here.

I wasn’t wrong to be cautious. To try to seem nice. Because after that appearance, I repeatedly heard from white collar professionals and fellow San Franciscans that there wasn’t anything wrong with what I’d said, it was who I’d said it to that was “problematic” (their favorite word). They said I’d shown poor judgement for deigning to talk to her and had proven myself to be unfit for leadership. Why didn’t I go on CNN, instead? (Fuck off, on that one! Ask CNN not me!) People I’d known for over a decade said that I must be a closeted racist and homophobe and really shouldn’t be permitted to hold any position of influence.

(A side note: one kinda sorta friend who used to still talk to me, told me on the phone that spring that she didn’t really see what was wrong with my open schools stance. “I mean, it’s not like you don’t think trans girls should be able to play girls’ sports,” she said. My jaw dropped, my ears perked up, my nearly popped out of my head and I thought, but didn’t say: well of course they shouldn’t. I was in enough trouble already. But damn if she didn’t make it clear that that would be a bridge too far!)

---

We decided on Denver for a few reasons, first and foremost that the elementary schools were open. It was only a one hour time difference from my workplace (virtual) so I wouldn’t be up at all hours. I could get to SF and back in a day if I needed to for in person meetings, which happened on occasion. I wanted a city. I wasn’t ready to give up my urban life.

So we enrolled our son in a Spanish language charter school in Denver. My husband called on a Thursday and they said “He can start Monday!” So we found an Airbnb rental, got on a plane with our carry-ons and he started the morning after we arrived.

Was it perfect? No. He had to wear a mask. That was dumb and enraging. We sent him in with it on his chin, hoping he might get away with it staying there.

They sent us email updates constantly that a student had tested positive — a remote student. I didn’t care about any student testing positive but a remote student who my kid had never met? What the fuck.

But there were no missed days, no temporary closures, he made friends and ended up having a positive first year of school experience (crammed into a few months), despite the idiotic masks.

Now, I used to get all the time (and still do): “Why did you move to Colorado, it’s just like California!”

No. It isn’t. Is it getting woker and weirder? Yes. But here’s the difference:

1. My kid could go to school in 2021.

2. No one has taken a dump on my doorstep.

3. I’ve never had to call 911 on my way to the playground because a drug addict was unconscious with his needles and drug kit by his side. (I did this three times in my last few months in SF, on the way to the playground with my 3-year-old daughter.)

4. There are no tent cities in my neighborhood.

5. My car has never been broken into. (Before I left SF, my rear window was broken 4 times in 3 months.)

6. There was a homeless person’s tent once, in the grassy parkway near my house. The tent and the guy were gone within 24 hours.

7. There is a libertarian streak here. A live and let live quality. Guns, weed and abortions are readily available everywhere. Make of that what you will.

8. We had two Trump signs on our lawn leading up to the election. No one vandalized our house. Two people left dog poop on our lawn, but that’s it. Kind of mild. Also, two people approached my husband to tell him that they were going to put theirs out now too. That would not happen, ever, in San Francisco. For starters, neighbors don’t talk to each other.

9. I wear my XX-XY Athletics gear to every one of my kids’ soccer games. Hundreds of times. I’ve only been challenged once in a year. In deep blue Denver. If people comment at all, it’s to ask where to get one.

10. I have neighbors who disagree with my position on men in women’s sports and they are still friendly to me. My neighbors in San Francisco chased me down the street cursing and spitting at me because I wanted public schools open. So this is better.

Is this too low of a bar? Maybe.

Is it perfect? No.

Is it California? Most definitely, no.

We like our new home. We’re to stay.