Category Archives: trans

Put More Boys on Girls’ Teams!

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Trans runners help girls win meet!

Well, yes, if you take a person who was a boy in September and change him to a girl in October, then put him on the girls’ cross country team, he, now she, just might help the girls win a meet. But who really wins in this case? Not the girls, in my humble opinion. Perhaps the girls should stop running and create a team of only trans girls? I know. Most schools don’t have enough trans athletes to pull this off. But something to think about.

This was a hot topic for about a day when Sophie Cunningham, who plays for the Indiana Fever stated her support for keeping trans athletes out of girls’ sports. College, Olympic, and professional, sports already limit women’s teams to biological females, but this is still a contentious issue in high schools. Cunningham answered reporters questions by admirably saying she is not anti-trans, but believes that biological males have advantages in sports. For me, this is a no-brainer, but I continue to be surprised when friends hold to the view that trans athletes should not be discriminated against.

After the ruckus over Cunningham’s statements in support of restricting girls’ sports to biological girls, two retiring NBA players stated that they planned to try out for the WNBA draft next spring. OK, they were being facetious, but if we can’t agree on what a woman is, why wouldn’t guys who didn’t make the cut for the NBA try out for the WNBA. Or why wouldn’t a boy who placed 72nd in a boys’ cross country meet, simply say he’s a girl and try to get on the girls’ team where he might come in 2nd instead of 72nd a month earlier?

Part of the problem, aside from not being able to define woman, or girl, is that some states (e.g. my state of Washington) have “Self-ID” laws. Self-ID means that if you say you are a man, then you’re a man. If you say you are a woman, you are a woman, essentially erasing the definition of “woman.” Women have fought too long and too hard for our rights to concede to this without a fight, again, in my humble opinion.

Oddly enough, it’s just as hard to define trans as it is to define woman in a Self-ID state. Let’s take the student who was a boy in September and a girl in October for example. Few details are available about this student, so I’m speculating here. But obviously “she” can’t be very far along in the process of transitioning to female. Had he/she been on puberty blockers? For how long? Had he begun taking estrogen? If so, when? If he was taking estrogen, why would he have been on the boys’ team in September? Surely he hadn’t had bottom surgery yet as that’s quite a process. Honestly, I just genuinely wonder how serious this kid is about being trans. Perhaps he/she just wants to be on the podium to get a ribbon.

With both children and adults, its hard to nail down who is trans and who isn’t because gender ideology is very inclusive about who’s trans, who’s queer, who’s 2Spirit, how many genders there are, whether or not people with differences of sexual development, aka intersex people, are trans (most are emphatically not trans and resent being included in the debate)? People claim trans identity if they have just started thinking about gender. In fact, that’s part of the process for some. People are often encouraged to “try out” a new gender identity before medicalizing. Schools encourage children to “socially transition” (i.e. a haircut, name change, and gender neutral clothing) before starting hormones or undergoing surgeries. Girls use breast binders at school (often provided by teachers or counselors) but say nothing to their parents who might not approve. School employees are sworn to secrecy if students are reluctant to tell their parents that they want to transition – thinking that their parents might want to dissuade them. Note: WA state can actually remove kids from their home in some cases if parents do not support transition. The whole thing is crazy, again, in my humble opinion.

If you’re feeling sorry for trans people because I’m not on board with all of their ideology, don’t. They have plenty of power to enforce cancelations. (Were you thinking WOKE was dead?) Here’s a current example that happened a block from my home: A restaurant was intimidated into canceling a reservation by a Republican group that meets there regularly because Brian Heywood was coming to their meeting. Brian Heywood, if you’re not up on things, is behind three initiatives on my ballot this fall, two of which relate to trans issues. It seems that trans activists have plenty of power in my town (Olympia). Do you doubt me? Please read, “Tolerance for Me, But Not for Thee” in which Alesha Perkins details the power of trans activists in Olympia.

And if that’s not enough to convince you that intolerance is serious business in Olympia, there’s my tiny story. I was blocked from using Reddit r/Olympia after responding to a post in which someone criticized a business for serving a person wearing a T-shirt saying, “Save Girls Sports.” I mused about how it might work if every business screened customers’ politics before admitting them to their store. That would be weird, I thought. “You’re blocked from this subreddit,” said the moderator of r/Olympia!

Folks, trans ideology is entrenched. Trans activists have way more power than they deserve. Most people are blissfully unaware of what’s going on in the debate over trans issues and want to stay that way. I don’t blame them because there are so many other issues to care about. But, please, don’t assume you have to support trans ideology because it would be unkind not to. There’s a term for that : Suicidal Empathy.


Didn’t We Already Pass That?

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How’s your sense of deja vu? Do you remember voting for an initiative that had something to do with the rights of parents of public school students? Didn’t Washington voters already establish that schools needed to give parents access to student records and teaching materials, and give parents the right to opt their children out of certain lessons? Yes, we did. We passed I-2081, yet here we are being asked to vote on this again.

I usually do background research to help me decide how to vote on initiatives. I try to read the text of the initiative, I read what’s in voter pamphlets, I look at who’s speaking out on which side, I talk to friends to see if they have opinions. But sometimes, an issue is just too simple to justify all of that work, and that seems to be the case this year.

Conservative groups that I often disagree with are behind some initiatives that I support this year. I’m on board with IL26-001 which “would re-enact RCW 28A.605.005 as it was originally enacted in Initiative to the Legislature 2081.” It’s simple: A majority of citizens supported this initiative, yet the legislature took away the provisions that enhanced the rights of parents when dealing with school districts. Something is not obvious from the language of the initiative or the bill that gutted it. But a major concern of parents is that schools can hide from parents information about their child’s desire to change gender, a desire that can only be affirmed by Washington public school employees. 

Schools are asserting that only they have the best interest of the child at heart. Parents who don’t fully endorse gender ideology are, by virtue of that fact, abusive. No! That’s absurd. Laws already protect children from abusive parents. I know. I once sent a student to the office when he showed me the belt marks on his back after I’d called his home about missing assignments. “See what you did!” he exclaimed. He could not go home that day until after police had met with his parents. He later told me he’d never been hit after that. Parents who do not support the trans-activist agenda can absolutely have the best interests of the children at heart. If actual abuse is suspected, procedures are already in place to deal with it.

The other initiative I’m supporting is IL26-638, “Protecting Fairness in Girls’ Sports.” This matter has recently been considered by the US Supreme Court which ruled that states can legally maintain separate teams for males and females based on biology, not gender identity. The ruling did not require states to do this, and Washington has bought into the “gender identity” dogmatism for many years, i.e. the notion that claims* of a gender identity entitle a person to the rights guaranteed to a person of the opposite sex. The result has been that biological males who claim to be female are competing in women’s sports in Washington and many other states. 

The debate about keeping men out of women’s sports has gotten ugly. Somehow, people who support this are said to “deny the existence of trans people.” I’ve been accused of this, and I don’t even know what that would mean. People taking cross sex hormones or availing themselves of surgeries to alter their bodies exist. I don’t deny that. Yet, in my mind, humans are dimorphic, male and female, and separate sports teams for males and females makes sense to me. A handful of children without obvious male advantages might be prohibited from competing against girls, but better that than unimpeded entrance of male to female trans people into female sports. 

Back to my claim of simplicity regarding these ballot measures. Remember when Ketanji Brown Jackson, during hearings about her nomination to the Supreme Court, declined to answer, “What is a Woman?” She waffled and said she wasn’t a biology major, so she couldn’t define it. How about “Adult Human Female?” That works for me. No one is confused about men, just women, because men have “transed” themselves into women’s spaces, women’s prisons, and women’s sports. Women are not clamoring to get into mens’ prisons or mens’ sports, for obvious reasons. 

I wish Washington citizens didn’t have to put these issues before the voters, but our legislature has pushed far ahead of the public on the trans issue, so here we are. I’m supporting I26-001 and I26-638.

re: “claims of gender identity,” yes, Washington is a Self-ID state. Any person can simply claim to be the opposite sex and the state must accept it as true. No medical efforts to transition can be required.

The Liberal Patriot Bites the Dust

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When I say I’m no longer a Democrat, a few people ask why. The reasons are so numerous that I quickly get flustered trying to summarize them coherently. Fortunately, there is someone out there who can speak for me. Unfortunately, as articulate as he is, his project, The Liberal Patriot is closing down for lack of support.

When Yascha Monk saw the news, he immediately set up an interview with Ruy Teixeira to talk about the loss of TLP. I’m offering a link to their discussion because it covers a lot of the issues I have with current Democrats. Teixeira is worried that if the Ds don’t alter their stance on some key issues, they won’t be able to build a lasting majority. He cites several culture war issues, ones that Trump used effectively in his campaign against Kamala Harris.

As it stands, the Democrats are the party of college educated elites who support DEI over merit, equality of outcome over equality of opportunity, trans rights over women’s rights, assume disparities prove discrimination (except in pro football and basketball), and think only white Europeans ever enslaved anyone (forgetting that only white Europeans decided to end slavery).

Listen, or read the transcript. Let me know if any of the concerns that Teixeira cites shake up your thinking about anything.

The Liberal Patriot Bites the Dust

https://open.substack.com/pub/persuasion1/p/ruy-teixeira-3?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

Sadness, Confusion, Possibilities

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Too many stories, not enough time.

Sadness

Sadness is the only word I can come up with on this second anniversary of the pogrom that shocked us all on October 7, 2023. Horror is the only word that conveys my feelings about the celebration of that massacre that erupted that same day. Please, may the people who have been calling for a ceasefire recognize that Israel has accepted Trump’s proposal; Hamas has not. Hamas needs to release the remaining hostages and relinquish power.

Confusion

Congratulations to trans activists who have conflated gay conversion therapy with exploratory therapy that is not sanctioned as “gender affirming therapy.” These are not equivalent, but now the Supreme Court is being pulled into this quagmire. The result is likely to be the resurrection of gay conversion therapy – despite its proven harms – with exploratory therapy, which is what confused young people need in this era of trans madness. Perhaps states should stop trying to legislate solutions to LGB and TQ matters? I don’t know. I feel for gay people who have been harmed and confused young people who are being harmed. Sure, guarantee rights to housing, jobs, education. Then let medical professionals get their heads straight about treatments that are based on actual evidence rather than ideologies.

Possibilities

In the war between cancel culture and billionaires, the latest battle has the billionaires coming out on top, again. Remember when Musk bought Twitter and reinstated accounts that Jack Dorsey had cancelled? That was a good day for free speech. (No, I don’t love everything that Musk has done, but undoing censorship was a good deed.) The thread now is David Ellison… Skydance Media… CBS… The Free Press (aka Bari Weiss)… free speech?

I know that most of my friends paid little attention when Bari Weiss left her position as an opinion columnist at The New York Times in the summer of 2020. Wasting little time, Weiss began publishing “Common Sense” on the Substack platform in January of 2021. Common Sense rebranded as The Free Press in 2022. It now boasts 1.5 million paid subscribers who want a source of information that is neither far right not far left.

I’ve read/watched/listened to The Free Press since its Common Sense days. It has published voices that were shunned by the MSM (mainstream media), voices that I appreciated. Yes, there’s a pro-Israel bias (that mirrors my own), but otherwise, it offers viewpoints that I don’t find elsewhere. Actually, I don’t find pro-Israel voices elsewhere much either. Why is that?

Well, good news for the curious: The Free Press has dropped its paywall this week. Go to thefp.com. Spend some time there and see what you think. Then tune in to CBS News once Bari has had an opportunity to bring in some balanced coverage. Let’s pound cancel culture into dust!

Is Trump Right About Anything?

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Are you reeling from the blizzard of Executive Orders coming from the Oval Office since January 20? If so, you are not alone. If you are a fan of Donald Trump, you might wake up every day wondering what new gift is coming your way. If you are not a fan of Donald Trump, you might have trouble going to sleep each night as you worry about what new catastrophe is coming your way. 

According to a CNN tracker, as of 10:40 am EST on February 10, 2025, Trump has issued 89 Executive Orders. Clearly, he intends to make it into the Guinness list of world records – and to make it difficult for his opponents to react to all of them. If you look at the list, there are some that seem benign from the titles. Example: Career and Technical Education Month. OK, what harm could that do? 

From my perspective, the most ironic title of an EO is “Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government,” given that Trump is absolutely weaponizing the federal government, working to clear it of employees who are not on his side. If that’s not weaponization, what is? Yes, he gets to nominate cabinet picks who are to his liking, but career employees in all of the various agencies have expertise that might be valuable. They should not come and go with each administration because we need experience and expertise gained from that experience.

So, OK, some good, some bad executive orders. Among the more controversial ones are those relating to sex. The order titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” (January 20, 2025) states, “It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female.” Trans rights activists (TRAs) are wildly opposed to this. As for me, I wonder how we got the point that we need an executive order on this subject. Yes, of course, there are two sexes, male and female. People who quibble about this make a very big deal about people with DSDs (Differences of Sexual Development, or intersex conditions). But the fact is that lots of things can go wrong as an embryo develops, which is why people anxiously wait to find out if a baby is “healthy” once it’s born. 

Some anomalies are clear before birth, some at birth, and some become clear only months or years after birth. Differences of sexual development do, on occasion, make it difficult to tell if a newborn is male or female. Some have hormone anomalies that lead to confusing characteristics as a child matures. Some DSDs only become apparent when a child enters puberty, and some are not realized until a person tries to become a parent. But the fact is that these are anomalies; there are still only two sexes. There is no third or fourth sex. In fact, in all  creatures that are dimorphic (two different body types), there are only two sexes. People who have DSDs are not transgender. I’ve learned of some who consider themselves non-binary because they are, in some way, not fully female or fully male. If ever there was a situation when the term non-binary fits, it is with these individuals. But usually, they identify with one sex or the other and only disclose their status to family or close friends – because we “normies” have historically been rather cruel to anyone who’s different. Perhaps it’s time to get over that bad habit. 

Back to the EO: Sections 2 (f) and 2(g) wade into the morass of gender ideology and gender identity. Remember when Ketanji Jackson Brown was asked during a congressional hearing, “What is a woman?” and she said she couldn’t answer because she was not a biologist? Yes, well, I suspect that moment is what brought about this EO. Trump is enabling all of us with lived experience as humans to answer that question without having to get a degree in biology. “Adult human female” or “adult human male” should suffice to answer what is a woman or what is a man. 

Trump addresses the problem created by laws allowing self-identification, i.e. a provision that any person can simply declare that they are now the opposite sex of what they have been since birth. Henceforth, you and I and the state and all institutions must accept this as fact. Honestly, this is one of my frustrations with the Democrats: why couldn’t they grasp the threat that this policy poses to women? Men have taken advantage of women in many ways over many, many years. Why wouldn’t they see this law as an easy way to worm their way into women’s spaces? Yes, I know, “Not All Men!” But, seriously, “Yes Some Men!” 

Do you want to know how many male persons have transitioned to female after being incarcerated? Ha ha. You can’t find out because there are no records of numbers of prisoners identifying as the opposite sex. There are simply men and women. Once a person claims to be the opposite sex, that’s how they are counted. Are there two of them in federal prisons? Are there a thousand of them? Your guess is as good as mine. It’s not polite to identify a person as a trans man or trans woman. But I bet there are not even two who transition to male to get into a male prison.

Another Executive Order addresses radical ideologies in K-12 schools. I am not a fan of Donald Trump, but I support the elements of this EO. To varying degrees, schools have really gone off the deep end in content about race and gender that is presented to kids. I believe kids should learn the good and the bad of American history as is appropriate for their age. And the oppressor/oppressed meme needs to stay out of the classroom. Kids do not need to be putting themselves and their classmates into those categories. Just my humble opinion. Furthermore, schools should support all kids who are struggling, but there’s no need to tell little kids that they might have been born in the wrong body. I surely didn’t like my body as I hit my teen years, but I wasn’t alone. Tough it out, kids. 

Yet another EO, titled “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation.” Yikes. Yes, although I would not have phrased it this way, I generally support this order, too. But, as with all the various state laws that either promote or prohibit what is euphemistically termed “gender affirming care” for people under 18 (or 19, in the case of the EO), I really, truly wish the medical community had assumed responsibility for sorting out what’s appropriate for kids and what isn’t. Too many kids have followed the “gender affirming” path with too little counseling to sort out other issues that might be affecting them. 

In this EO, Trump claims that “countless children soon regret that they have been mutilated…” Sadly, we don’t really know how many people of any age regret transitioning. We have so little data because an unhappy patient may simply not return to their doctor to discuss their concerns. Clinics generally do not follow their patients to know how they are adjusting over time. Twenty years ago, there might have been very few desisters (those who don’t follow through with transition) or detransitioners (those who have transitioned, then changed their minds). But today, as transitioning has become much more common, and as detransitioners have been willing to share their stories publicly, we know that some number of people who pursue transition do regret the choice. Rather than assume that this number is near zero, we would do well to do more follow-up and get some real numbers and a better understanding of who’s happy and who isn’t. 

The issues addressed in this bunch of Executive Orders generally fall under the umbrella of “wokeness.” I’m just sad that Democrats could not manage to tame the beast of wokeness before the 2024 election. I actually believe that there may have been enough voters put off by these issues to change the election results. Dems don’t want to believe it, but the price of eggs and immigration were not the only concerns of voters last fall. I personally know many people who have been committed Democrats but now feel politically homeless, as I do, in large part because of the woke agenda. 

All of these orders will be challenged in court, so we shall see what is left standing in the end. I’m sorry for trans people who feel brutally attacked, but I can tell you for certain that trans activists pushed their agenda too hard, e.g. by insisting that we all buy into the assertion that “trans women are women” when, in fact they are simply trans women. I willingly refer to trans women who make an effort to appear female as “she.” But I, along with many trans women, don’t buy that they have actually changed their sex.

It shouldn’t have come to this, but here we are my friends.