"The reason kids think they are nonbinary, or that life is not worth living if people don’t respect their gender identity, could be because adults teach them that. Discovery might show Nichols is scapegoating Liam for a disruption that it created."
Hope they read this! Thank you for another incredibly informative analysis!!
It's actually fascinating how the trans propaganda machine so entirely captured much of America's institutions, and how deeply entrenched that agenda is today in so many liberal quarters. Trans ideology is as anti-reason and anti-science as anything on the right, even more so as it flies in the face of basic biology and even logic, but trans activists have somehow managed to make that a feature, not a bug of their movement. The Republican Party has been making hay with the issue assisted by the Dems desire to die on this hill -- and dying they are, as this last election demonstrated. It's heartening to see the movement challenged by grassroots groups, normal, everyday folks who see plainly this nonsense for what it is.
"A New England trait that drove me crazy when I lived there was regional chauvinism."
How timely! Just last week, I was dumbfounded by an example of New England chauvinism in a Substack comment thread about men in women-only sports. The discussion was about Rep. Seth Moulton's courageous defense of the rights of real girls and women. One commenter scoffed that Moulton's views were out of synch with those of Moulton's "highly educated" constituents. He suggested Moulton was better suited to less elite demographic in a different district. Argh!
On the subject of "no education without representation," I have been trying to raise awareness about the undemocratic way our institutions came to embrace and implement gender identity ideology.
The history of the trans capture of our institutions has yet to be written. Until there is an authoritative account of events, the best observers can do is draw reasonable inferences based on the information available to them.
With that caveat, the first problem is that gender identity ideology seems to have been forced on society in a top-down manner in disregard of democratic values and norms. It appears to have been the doing of trans activists and their highly placed allies in the public and private sector.
They used the levers of decision making within agencies, nonprofits and for-profit organizations to gain admittance through the back door. Radical ideas spawned equally radical policies and programs without effective prior notice to those affected by them.
There was never an opportunity for free and open debate between members of the pubic and proponents of initiatives such as teaching gender identity in K-12 or male participation in female sports, for example.
Trans activists never had to defend their plans against public criticism before they could be considered. Moreover, the people who would have to live with policies and programs that implemented gender ideology never had a chance to vote on them.
The second is that gender ideology arrived on the scene with a ready-made cast of heroes and villains. Their moral standing was not open to debate; the judgments had already been made.
The trans movement's heroes are fictional beings known everywhere as "trans kids." They're notable for their propensity to become suicidal the moment anyone anywhere questions any element of the gender identity canon. Trans allies and activists invoke trans kids as a conversation-ending device whenever sex realists appear to be approaching any of the trans movement's weak spots.
From the sex realist's point of view, the villains are more consequential than the heroes. That's because we are and have always been the villains, and trans activists have gone to great lengths to convince their cisgendered allies of that unassailable truth. We go by various names, the most common being "transphobe" and "TERF." That is why gender critical activists find it almost impossible to get a full and fair hearing anywhere in the gender affirming world. Trans activists have seen to it that our reputation as terrible people and haters precedes us.
It is impossible to challenge a point of gender ideology if the other side considers it anathema to do so. For those reasons, a progressive state legislator will be deaf to a constituent's objection to a bill that would allow minors age 15 or older to obtain gender affirming care without parental consent. If he responds at all, he'll parrot trans talking points about trans suicide and the infallibility of the "gold standard" of care observed by all providers of gender medicine. That's why this piece could never be published in the nation's newspapers of record. It is even why a judge will not allow the plaintiffs' lawyers in a trans athlete case to refer to the trans girls as the boys they are.
This state of affairs in which sex realists cannot seek redress for their grievances from most liberals and nearly all progressives cannot stand.
Yes it’s probably what you said - seemingly forced on society in a top-down manner. There is an interesting substack about the $$ in trans activism, mostly funded by trans billionaire Jennifer Pritzker and a couple other mega donors:
Brilliant post (I do love any mention of Tinker—hope it hasn’t been whittled down too much since the Dark Ages when I was in law school). In addition to your acute analytical abilities, your sense of humor is wicked-good. Along with the “recycling” gem mentioned in another comment, these were two of many almost-spit-out-my-coffee moments:
“Thompson is stretching to argue that the Constitution prefers dry, somber exegeses over funny memes. Did I mention New England is home of the puritans?”
“Maybe most yankees support the LGBTQ agenda. Just like they supported King George in the 1760s.”
Another brilliant banger by Glenna Goldis, goddess of gender woo lawfare. As someone with deep knowledge of the region’s history & with family there, your analysis really hits home.
I remind my students that American universities were founded as seminaries in New England. They’re officially secular now, but universities are still in the business of moral instruction. We’re still preaching, hectoring our students & others to greater moral virtue.
You can thank Deval Patrick for the beginnings of applying “gender” into MA law in 2011, and subsequently Obama’s 2014 federal gender proclamations. My uneasiness began in 2015. Watching the “gender identity” virus continuing unabated in its mission creep in the MA legislature, after 21 years of living on Cape Cod and 2 years in Boston, the legislature’s passage of Mass. General Laws c.127 § 32A in 2018 was enough of an impetus to make me plan for my exodus back home to the South.
As for, “It’s not just that most of these people are Democrats. It’s that there’s only one type of Democrat in New England: the kind who believes in recycling.”… truer words were never spoken. Unsure if my keyboard is going to survive the spit coffee.
Great post, as always. "Barron is essentially beaming a “protected class” analysis from the 14th Amendment into the First Amendment." - brilliant observation!
I learn and understand more from your posts about what's happening on the legal front than anywhere else; thank you. Re. "The reason kids think they are nonbinary, or that life is not worth living if people don’t respect their gender identity, could be because adults teach them that." Or peers, or other influential groups. No human thinks he or she is nonbinary -- a material impossibility -- without being indoctrinated into this preposterous ideology. Such a stark contrast to coming out as gay in the late '70s and early '80s, when we had to admit (secretly, shamefully, wishing it weren't so) what we were and then muster the courage to live honestly in a culture that did everything possible to discourage and stigmatize homosexuality. None of us would have survived had we required others to respect who we were -- and we were real.
But somehow the trans rights activists have twisted even that. According to them trans people were instrumental in our winning the fight for gay rights. If it weren’t for them we would all still be hiding in the closet. If it weren’t for the first brick thrown by a black trans woman (not true, recorded on Making Gay History podcast saying it) we would be in the dark ages beaten and cowed.
The also only talk about Stonewall and say the only way to win rights is to fight, fight, fight! No compromise! No discussion! When told that gay rights were won because people came out of the closet and people realized that had loved ones and friends that were gay and like them in every other way, resistance slowly melted. Essentially, we were likable. By contrast, their strategy is to bully, attack, threaten to rape when (choke on my girlcock is a fav), and alienate at least a sizable portion of every demographic. Women and lesbians in particular have positive polling numbers. The damage to women and female only spaces info has just started to roll out en masse to the general public. Nancy Mace is posting Reduxx stories once or twice a day. It is going to take her a long time to run out of news articles. Women honestly have not been paying attention thinking this is a fringe issue and that the conservatives were exaggerating. When they find out it worse than what the conservatives have been saying those poll numbers are going to drop like a stone.
It is inconceivable to me that this gender woo has taken over .How can anyone believe such trash? How can people deny biology ? Will they also deny gravity? It’s totally insane.Also, the gender ideology is as authoritarian as it gets! Too bad that this has to be decided in courts! It should be defeated for good!
Purity tests are so very applicable in all these cases. I find it deeply meaningful that almost all the churches in Minneapolis area seem to have added big “progress” flags. It used to be just the one big church in the heart of Uptown, the counter cultural gay neighborhood with rainbow flags and steps in the 1990’s. How can liberals not see they’ve made trans affirming into a religious test.
Hah - I live in Boston and lost my son to the transgender maelstrom going on in the schools. Thanks for the detailed reporting on how it’s being approached in courts around here.
"In November, MIT and Democrats for an Informed Approach to Gender hosted a talk on detransition in Cambridge. It had previously been planned but cancelled by the young speaker’s school, the nearby Berklee College of Music. About 30-40 people attended, including MIT students who objected to the message. Discussion ran for three hours."
For anyone interested in more detail about this story, see this recent Do No Harm episode with the student in question, a male detransitioner named Simon Amaya Price. There's a whole lot of backstory packed into the "planned but cancelled" part of that description that speaks to the current state of speech and the topic of gender.
"The reason kids think they are nonbinary, or that life is not worth living if people don’t respect their gender identity, could be because adults teach them that. Discovery might show Nichols is scapegoating Liam for a disruption that it created."
Hope they read this! Thank you for another incredibly informative analysis!!
It's actually fascinating how the trans propaganda machine so entirely captured much of America's institutions, and how deeply entrenched that agenda is today in so many liberal quarters. Trans ideology is as anti-reason and anti-science as anything on the right, even more so as it flies in the face of basic biology and even logic, but trans activists have somehow managed to make that a feature, not a bug of their movement. The Republican Party has been making hay with the issue assisted by the Dems desire to die on this hill -- and dying they are, as this last election demonstrated. It's heartening to see the movement challenged by grassroots groups, normal, everyday folks who see plainly this nonsense for what it is.
For"fascinating" I would substitute terrifying.
"A New England trait that drove me crazy when I lived there was regional chauvinism."
How timely! Just last week, I was dumbfounded by an example of New England chauvinism in a Substack comment thread about men in women-only sports. The discussion was about Rep. Seth Moulton's courageous defense of the rights of real girls and women. One commenter scoffed that Moulton's views were out of synch with those of Moulton's "highly educated" constituents. He suggested Moulton was better suited to less elite demographic in a different district. Argh!
On the subject of "no education without representation," I have been trying to raise awareness about the undemocratic way our institutions came to embrace and implement gender identity ideology.
The history of the trans capture of our institutions has yet to be written. Until there is an authoritative account of events, the best observers can do is draw reasonable inferences based on the information available to them.
With that caveat, the first problem is that gender identity ideology seems to have been forced on society in a top-down manner in disregard of democratic values and norms. It appears to have been the doing of trans activists and their highly placed allies in the public and private sector.
They used the levers of decision making within agencies, nonprofits and for-profit organizations to gain admittance through the back door. Radical ideas spawned equally radical policies and programs without effective prior notice to those affected by them.
There was never an opportunity for free and open debate between members of the pubic and proponents of initiatives such as teaching gender identity in K-12 or male participation in female sports, for example.
Trans activists never had to defend their plans against public criticism before they could be considered. Moreover, the people who would have to live with policies and programs that implemented gender ideology never had a chance to vote on them.
The second is that gender ideology arrived on the scene with a ready-made cast of heroes and villains. Their moral standing was not open to debate; the judgments had already been made.
The trans movement's heroes are fictional beings known everywhere as "trans kids." They're notable for their propensity to become suicidal the moment anyone anywhere questions any element of the gender identity canon. Trans allies and activists invoke trans kids as a conversation-ending device whenever sex realists appear to be approaching any of the trans movement's weak spots.
From the sex realist's point of view, the villains are more consequential than the heroes. That's because we are and have always been the villains, and trans activists have gone to great lengths to convince their cisgendered allies of that unassailable truth. We go by various names, the most common being "transphobe" and "TERF." That is why gender critical activists find it almost impossible to get a full and fair hearing anywhere in the gender affirming world. Trans activists have seen to it that our reputation as terrible people and haters precedes us.
It is impossible to challenge a point of gender ideology if the other side considers it anathema to do so. For those reasons, a progressive state legislator will be deaf to a constituent's objection to a bill that would allow minors age 15 or older to obtain gender affirming care without parental consent. If he responds at all, he'll parrot trans talking points about trans suicide and the infallibility of the "gold standard" of care observed by all providers of gender medicine. That's why this piece could never be published in the nation's newspapers of record. It is even why a judge will not allow the plaintiffs' lawyers in a trans athlete case to refer to the trans girls as the boys they are.
This state of affairs in which sex realists cannot seek redress for their grievances from most liberals and nearly all progressives cannot stand.
Yes it’s probably what you said - seemingly forced on society in a top-down manner. There is an interesting substack about the $$ in trans activism, mostly funded by trans billionaire Jennifer Pritzker and a couple other mega donors:
https://www.justthefacts.media/p/the-transgender-money-pipeline?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Brilliant post (I do love any mention of Tinker—hope it hasn’t been whittled down too much since the Dark Ages when I was in law school). In addition to your acute analytical abilities, your sense of humor is wicked-good. Along with the “recycling” gem mentioned in another comment, these were two of many almost-spit-out-my-coffee moments:
“Thompson is stretching to argue that the Constitution prefers dry, somber exegeses over funny memes. Did I mention New England is home of the puritans?”
“Maybe most yankees support the LGBTQ agenda. Just like they supported King George in the 1760s.”
Thank you for all you do, and with such panache!
Another brilliant banger by Glenna Goldis, goddess of gender woo lawfare. As someone with deep knowledge of the region’s history & with family there, your analysis really hits home.
I remind my students that American universities were founded as seminaries in New England. They’re officially secular now, but universities are still in the business of moral instruction. We’re still preaching, hectoring our students & others to greater moral virtue.
You can thank Deval Patrick for the beginnings of applying “gender” into MA law in 2011, and subsequently Obama’s 2014 federal gender proclamations. My uneasiness began in 2015. Watching the “gender identity” virus continuing unabated in its mission creep in the MA legislature, after 21 years of living on Cape Cod and 2 years in Boston, the legislature’s passage of Mass. General Laws c.127 § 32A in 2018 was enough of an impetus to make me plan for my exodus back home to the South.
As for, “It’s not just that most of these people are Democrats. It’s that there’s only one type of Democrat in New England: the kind who believes in recycling.”… truer words were never spoken. Unsure if my keyboard is going to survive the spit coffee.
Great post, as always. "Barron is essentially beaming a “protected class” analysis from the 14th Amendment into the First Amendment." - brilliant observation!
I love this one! Excellent review of First Amendment Law and where these cases are. But you don’t think Boston has good weather? 🤔
I learn and understand more from your posts about what's happening on the legal front than anywhere else; thank you. Re. "The reason kids think they are nonbinary, or that life is not worth living if people don’t respect their gender identity, could be because adults teach them that." Or peers, or other influential groups. No human thinks he or she is nonbinary -- a material impossibility -- without being indoctrinated into this preposterous ideology. Such a stark contrast to coming out as gay in the late '70s and early '80s, when we had to admit (secretly, shamefully, wishing it weren't so) what we were and then muster the courage to live honestly in a culture that did everything possible to discourage and stigmatize homosexuality. None of us would have survived had we required others to respect who we were -- and we were real.
But somehow the trans rights activists have twisted even that. According to them trans people were instrumental in our winning the fight for gay rights. If it weren’t for them we would all still be hiding in the closet. If it weren’t for the first brick thrown by a black trans woman (not true, recorded on Making Gay History podcast saying it) we would be in the dark ages beaten and cowed.
The also only talk about Stonewall and say the only way to win rights is to fight, fight, fight! No compromise! No discussion! When told that gay rights were won because people came out of the closet and people realized that had loved ones and friends that were gay and like them in every other way, resistance slowly melted. Essentially, we were likable. By contrast, their strategy is to bully, attack, threaten to rape when (choke on my girlcock is a fav), and alienate at least a sizable portion of every demographic. Women and lesbians in particular have positive polling numbers. The damage to women and female only spaces info has just started to roll out en masse to the general public. Nancy Mace is posting Reduxx stories once or twice a day. It is going to take her a long time to run out of news articles. Women honestly have not been paying attention thinking this is a fringe issue and that the conservatives were exaggerating. When they find out it worse than what the conservatives have been saying those poll numbers are going to drop like a stone.
It is inconceivable to me that this gender woo has taken over .How can anyone believe such trash? How can people deny biology ? Will they also deny gravity? It’s totally insane.Also, the gender ideology is as authoritarian as it gets! Too bad that this has to be decided in courts! It should be defeated for good!
Purity tests are so very applicable in all these cases. I find it deeply meaningful that almost all the churches in Minneapolis area seem to have added big “progress” flags. It used to be just the one big church in the heart of Uptown, the counter cultural gay neighborhood with rainbow flags and steps in the 1990’s. How can liberals not see they’ve made trans affirming into a religious test.
Hah - I live in Boston and lost my son to the transgender maelstrom going on in the schools. Thanks for the detailed reporting on how it’s being approached in courts around here.
The moral preening is really obnoxious. I’m sorry about your son. May he return to himself very soon.
Speaking of Massachusetts, a terrific call for action has just gone out from MA 4 Women: https://open.substack.com/pub/ma4women/p/massdems-listening-tour-virtual?r=16541&utm_medium=ios Anyone who can, please amplify this and help get the message out so folks in MA who share our concerns sign up for these zoom town hall events.
"In November, MIT and Democrats for an Informed Approach to Gender hosted a talk on detransition in Cambridge. It had previously been planned but cancelled by the young speaker’s school, the nearby Berklee College of Music. About 30-40 people attended, including MIT students who objected to the message. Discussion ran for three hours."
For anyone interested in more detail about this story, see this recent Do No Harm episode with the student in question, a male detransitioner named Simon Amaya Price. There's a whole lot of backstory packed into the "planned but cancelled" part of that description that speaks to the current state of speech and the topic of gender.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/do-no-harm-s3-ep11-examining-gender-ideology-and-free/id1729655130?i=1000678428968
MA judges must attend annual DEI propaganda meetings. Many dread them but must comply.
Come see us out west!