In 2018 America, the science is settled… except when it comes to chromosomes! If you were born without a Y but insist it was implied, nobody is allowed to ask why, let alone how. You’re a gal if you say you’re a gal. Womanhood is such a precious gift that you’re allowed to become a lady just by declaring it so. Today you can be whoever you want to be, genetics be damned, as long as who you want to be isn’t a black person.
I think it’s largely nonsense, and I don’t see how enabling the delusions of damaged people is any way to help them. I believe in science, just not the Bill Nye kind. You can call yourself whatever you want, but you can’t force me to comply. I will not say something I know to be false, just to spare your feelings.*
That said, I also think you can believe in chromosomes without being a complete jackass to people who don’t care about them. Diana Stancy Correll, Washington Examiner:
Republican Jazmina Saavedra, who is running for a House seat in California, accused a transgender woman of invading her privacy as she live streamed herself challenging the woman in a public restroom in Los Angeles.
“I’m trying to use the ladies’ room and there is a man here claiming that he is a lady,” Saavedra said in the Facebook Live video, filming just outside the bathroom stall in a Denny’s restaurant.
Or, here’s another way of looking at it: “I’m trying to go to the bathroom and there’s a politician in here livestreaming me.”
Here’s Saavedra’s video, posted on Facebook:
This is a bad idea. You shouldn’t do this.
Liberals talk a lot about “tolerance,” but what they really mean is compliance. They believe their view of reality is the only correct one, and you’d better agree with them or else. Whereas I believe in actual tolerance, meaning I can tolerate other people’s views. I can accept that they sincerely believe the things they say they believe. That doesn’t mean I agree with them, or that I’ll be silenced into submission. I’ve just resigned myself to the reality that it takes all kinds. Hey, whaddaya gonna do, right?
That’s not what this is. This is actual intolerance. This is over the line.
I’m not a woman, and I’ll never be one no matter where my whims might take me. So I can’t say I know what it feels like to go into a women’s restroom and find a dude in there. I don’t doubt that Saavedra was genuinely upset. But putting it on the Internet is a much bigger violation of privacy than anything this confused young man did.
I don’t think it’s bigoted to want to keep men out of women’s restrooms. It’s not a hate crime for a woman to feel violated by it. But blasting out live video from a public restroom to the whole planet is not the way to react. It’s a stupid, heedless thing to do, even for a politician.
This guy isn’t a woman, no matter how hard he wishes, but he’s still a human being. And, if you’re running for public office, he’s a potential constituent. You don’t have to coddle his delusions, but you don’t have to humiliate him either. Have some basic dignity. Show some common sense. Think about what you’re doing with that phone before you do it.
All of which is another way of saying, in the gendered language that is no longer in fashion:
Don’t be a dick.
(Hat tip: Neontaster)
*Unless you’re asking me if those pants make you look fat.
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