The left has certainly figured out the formula for success on controversial issues: pick something immaterial, drive the wedge, use the wedge to drive other wedges. Repeat ad nauseam.
Virginia seems to be ground zero for all sorts of wacky efforts lately, probably having nothing whatsoever to do with Terry McAuliffe being governor and an attorney general in Mark Herring that is perfectly willing to work against his own client (that being the Commonwealth of Virginia).
The whole idea of transsexual bathrooms for kids as young as 5 strikes most parents as baffling, and others as a pernicious form of child abuse in instances where “gender fluidity” is being discussed for one’s children. This having been said, the debate is more than likely a distraction from the real issue: moving discussions of gender identity and gender fluidity from sexual education (where parents can opt-out) to health classes where parents cannot opt-out. Ergo, you will be made to care.
Stafford County stood up strong against this wave with an outpouring of public opposition. Fairfax seems to be getting rolled, though parental outrage is palpable (even if certain supervisor candidates are simply too afraid to lead on this — a pity). Gloucester County, though, is proving to have more backbone and common sense than other parts of Virginia:
The Gloucester County School Board defended its policy this week in court papers arguing that a lawsuit filed by 16-year-old Gavin Grimm should be dismissed. A hearing is set for July 20 in U.S. District Court in Newport News on Grimm’s motion for a preliminary injunction barring enforcement of the policy.
Grimm was born female but identifies and lives as a male. According to his complaint, he has been diagnosed as having gender dysphoria, a medical condition characterized by distress stemming from conflict between a person’s general identity and the person’s assigned sex at birth. He has not had gender reassignment surgery but has been receiving hormone treatments to give him a more masculine appearance and voice.
Fantastic. But he though? She? Shouldn’t the editors of the Virginia Pilot be unshackling themselves from such gender normative pronouns?
One (better!) can only hope that we (see what I did there?) can arrive at some conclusion where common sense and physical realities override one’s wishes and desires. Bathrooms separated by sex aren’t crazy talk, and least of all discrimination.
What should concern parents and those who rightly raise concerns is the idea that a very tiny minority can impose their values and beliefs on the whole of society. Certainly, it’s not argument for a good turn deserving another, but it does strike most folks as particularly obtuse — both when the courts can be used as a weapon to impose, and where the vast majority of the public is too meek (and frankly, afraid) to speak up and say otherwise in defense of their convictions and conscience.
That, perhaps, is the true story here.
