By Peter Burrows 11/5/19 - elburropete@gmail.com - silvercityburro.com
“When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less.’ - 'The question is,' said Alice, whether you can make words mean so many different things.’ - 'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master, that's all.” (From ‘Alice Through the Looking Glass’ by Lewis Carroll.)
In part Two, I wrote about the Humpy Dumpty world of gender identity, a surreal world of so many genders that an old guy like myself is reminded of tennis great John McEnroe, who would look at the line judge and scream, “You can not be serious!”
Five years ago, Facebook identified 58 different genders and somebody recently upped the number to 72. Gee, 70 more than I thought there were. Shows how “unwoke” I am. Furthermore, this nonsense is becoming a problem in the real world.
I had no idea how big a problem until I read an article from the Connecticut Mirror: “Transgender sports polarizes women’s advocates,” by Kathleen Megan, 7/22/19. It was about the controversy surrounding the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference’s policy that allows high school boys to compete in girls’ athletic events.
All the boys have to do is declare they are girls and they become transgenders, eligible to compete against real girls. (Tsk, tsk. How un-PC of me. KMA.) Adding to the surreal drama, one of the real girls, a high school junior who filed a complaint with the U.S. Dept. of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, thinks it is unfair that the athletic conference allows transgender girls who haven’t had hormone treatments to compete in girls’ sports.
Pardon me, young lady, but there is no scientific proof that hormone treatments eliminate the physical advantage post-pubescent boys have over girls. Reduce, maybe, but not eliminate. The hormone argument is really quite silly. Do you think, for example, that women who want to be men, “transgender men,” could undergo hormone treatments and then be able to dominate in men’s shotput, weightlifting, or pole vault events, to name just a few? Of course not.
Yet the NCAA and Olympic Committee try to pretend such domination won’t exist for men by requiring transgender women to receive hormone treatments for at least a year, and then be tested for testosterone levels, before they can compete at the college or international level against the ladies. Puts everybody on a level playing field, right? Right.
No matter, in Connecticut the boys can compete against the girls, sans hormones, with predictable results. A transgender girl has been “smashing state records” and won the Hartford Courant’s girls’ indoor track and field “athlete of the year” award in 2019. ‘She’, along with another transgender girl, also won the state’s sportswriters’ “courage award.”
“Courage award?” Courage for what? There should be a “Cowards’ Award” for all the fathers who stood by as their daughters were defeated by the make-believe girls. As long as I’m passing out awards, the Hartford Courant and the Connecticut sportswriters can share the 2019 “Stupidest PC” award. They should be proud of that one. LOTS of competition.
For example, in second place is the group of 16 Connecticut women’s rights/gender justice groups who signed a statement supporting “the full inclusion of transgender people in athletics.” That should incense every father with daughters, especially if their daughters are involved in sports. Have you ever seen a young lady cry because she came in second? I have, and my heart went out to her. If she had come in second to a young man, my reaction would not have been sympathy, but OUTRAGE!
The statement also said, “Transgender girls are girls and transgender women are women. They are not and should not be referred to as boys or men, biological or otherwise. We speak from experience when we say that nondiscrimination protections for transgender people, including women and girls who are transgender, advance women’s equality and well-being.”
That utterly absurd Humpty Dumpty statement should outrage everybody, especially feminists. Really ladies, how in Hell does getting your asses kicked in athletics by transgenders advance women’s equality?
Having said that, I have no objection to transgenders competing against OTHER TRANSGENDERS, including separate competitions for those with hormone treatment and those without. That’s only fair.
What isn’t fair is when special interest groups demand privileges that take away the rights of others. That’s the case with transgender girls in athletics, who take home the trophies that rightfully belong to the biological girls. This transgender PC bullshit will destroy women’s sports. I think the majority of feminists would agree with me, as well as the majority of transgender adults. I know damn well you men with daughters agree.
Finally, proof that Humpty was a Democrat came last June when the House of Representatives voted 243 to 183 to allow transgenders to serve openly in the military. Only nine Republicans voted with the majority, and only one Democrat with the minority. (Colin Peterson, MN. Unsurprisingly, a 75 –year-old army vet.) Since 2016 the military has spent $8 million treating 1,100 service members diagnosed with gender dysphoria, including 161 sex change operations. That’s with our money, folks.
Even though I would have voted with the minority, I’m OK with transgenders serving at the invitation of the military, e.g. where special skills are needed. For transgenders to serve at their discretion? Absolutely not. Military service is an obligation, not a right. I would make the same argument for homosexuals.
It’s time to stop this madness. It’s time to tell Humpty who is ‘master’ and push him off the wall.